So I go to the juice shop next door early morning. It has
been a practice for years. The sweet mango shake and spicy samosa- an odd
combination with morning collection of newspapers. But today there seemed to be
no samosa. I waited for sometime to see if it is going to arrive.
In the end I asked him, ‘Where’s the samosa , chetta?’
“ We can’t no longer afford it’. The same old story of
cooking gas cylinder. My heart sank. Ever since the Indian government found out
that the mango man is eating too much of cooked food local delicacies are
disappearing from the shelves. No one can any longer afford them, it seems.
Still, we get to see all those junk stuff wrapped in
attractive colours adorning the shelves. Not so long ago, say 12-13 years ago,
we never considered biscuits as a snack.
It was an insult to serve the guests with biscuits. But today you get so
many varieties of biscuits that are so attractive and delicious. Call it
development? I don’t know.
Similarly we have been taught to believe that bottled soda
water is safer than wayside lemon juice shop. Over the years, they have
disappeared of the shelves. At the height of thirst you’re forced to drink the
colored soda water at horrible prices.
Just the other day i was reading on how our food habits have
changed dramatically. A food culture started off, glorifying local cuisines and
posh hotels. Movies are made based on food. Cookery shows top the chart in TV
shows. The result is we have more and more fancy , crowded eat-outs. The
cooking habit totally disappeared. A few years ago it indicated serious
dysfunctionality when you went out for a family dinner.
I remember grumbling about not having tasted ‘hamburger’.
Over the years I did taste many hamburger, noodles, hot-dogs. But given a
choice I would prefer a simple home cooked meal.
