A couple of days ago, I wrote a very short note on one of the social media pages about a brilliant breakfast, superb cholle-bhature of the low-oil and more atta than maida sort, fluffy, light and masaledaar. With salty spicy buttermilk, plenty of onions and some pickle, nothing did it better it seems, by the number of likes, shares and comments. Far better than packaged processed or junk “fast” food and soft drinks was the overwhelming feedback.
But it was costlier than the other soft-drink accompanied “combos” of fast food available too. So that got me thinking – how and when did this happen, when did soft drinks, pizzas and burgers become cheaper than rotis with daal no longer free or cholle bhature/kulche and lassi? Across all kinds of eateries, there is this new revolution, it seems – junk food is now cheaper than a basic hot cooked meal.
That’s the price, globally, for development. Is it so at the base of C.K. Prahlad’s pyramid also, then?
So this morning, I went for a drive and then walkabout to see, what do the teeming millions out there, sleeping on the pavements or wherever they work, what do they eat? I mean, the man who works lives sleeps on his rented cycle-rickshaw, what does he eat, what is his food cycle?
Wasn’t the typical rural come to urban model one where groups of people from the same community, village, came to the big city, divided roles and duties as they shared accomodation, and lived out their lives working but also cooking and eating what they ate “back home”? It was cheaper, and the fringe benefit was, it was healthier. Sattu, for example, is a great example of simple basic healthy food.
It seems to have changed. He now eats junk food. Because it is much cheaper.
One option is, he stands in line with a whole sub-culture of people who appear to be in a permanent junkie going down mode, and eats from the charity of other people. I have even seen this sad but growing number of people hover around the fringes of where wealthy people distribute grains and biscuits for birds, and grab a little bit for themselves.
And the self-righteous middle class, so angry in her charity, says “hurr hurr” to these humans who dared join the party, as though scaring the crows away so that the pigeons can grab a nibble. While I am offered four bisuits and a cup of tea.
But the working class, typically they still have self-respect, so they don’t join this party. Eating from charity is not part of their dharma. Mostly. Remember – the value of self-respect.
But they have to exist. So what does he do, our man who makes the numbers in a city now but doesn’t have a roof over his head, and now increasingly not even with access to a public toilet – paid or free?
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