The older generation is catching up with gen X at least as far as the ‘diet’ fad is concerned.
I noticed this when I went to dine at a friend’s place and noticed her mother sprinkle something that looked like sawdust into her dal. “It’s rusk, you know”. No I don’t. Then it turns out that ‘rusk’ is nothing more than apna ‘toast’ that is so delightful when you dip it in chai. I asked her “Kaku, why do you eat this rusk? Poli aahey na? Or maybe you can leave the poli on the tava for a little bit longer and make it into a crisp khakra? "No I am trying to limit my carbs”, she answered. It made me feel rather like a villager who has his honest Bhakar goggling all the while at these people were indulging in culinary masturbation.
Shappat, I am not lying. This was the gist of the conversation and the 60year old mother of my friend used carbs instead of carbohydrates. I have no idea that eating rusk limits carb intake or even that rusk is not a carb or why should she limit her carb-intake in the first place. I take it since they are well-travelled (read have been to Yoo Ess of Ae) and are health freaks (go for long walks in ill-fitting Reebok shoes) they must be talking sense, yet something didn’t seem right. For a lady who grew up in the 60s, this seems kind of strange.
Another very dear friend of my mother’s has quit drinking tea and has taken up cocoa instead. I fail to see the benefit in abstaining from one and embracing the other. Her son apparently has quit rice. So it’s been a year since he has had waran, bhaat, tup and limbu. I was shaking my head ever so slightly (I hope I didn’t look like a mad woman) at her lofty and holier than thou statement.
I see all around me that people have quit the most fundamental parts of their staple diet like poli, bhaat or waran or skipping dinner for a bowl of soup with a lightly toasted sandwich and a salad. When I say salad, it does not mean koshimbir you illiterate person, it is a diced and tossed dish made of raw vegetables like salad leaves that have no nutritional value . Sometimes I might get very sage advice like “ketaki you should eat more sprouts”. Sprouts? You mean mode aleylyaa usali? But I have them as a part of my meals and I see no reason to suddenly have 'more sprouts’. It’s like saying Yoghurt is good for health when in fact we have been having dahi or curd every day without knowing it was good for health.
The other day when I came back from work, a friend of my mother’s had come over and I joined them for tea. At the first sip, however i almost choked when she made a grand statement that she is going to replace tea with smoothie. I had vaguely heard of smoothie and I thought it was just another word of milk shake. Its shake alright but without milk. It is made with curd. YUCK! Strawberry and curds? Orange and curds? Berries and curds? What sort of combinations are these?
I rest my case and would like to believe that travel and exposure to food styles and cuisine cultures completely diverse from their own has made them go mad for a while. To translate the hindi proverb, people who have lost their way in the morning will find a way back home at night. Kakas and Kakus, please don’t bid adieu to what you ate and the way you ate it. We need you to feed us the way we were fed when we were little, we need that rich vein of gastronomy more than ever now when we have decided to patronise empty foods that feed the stomach but starve the soul!
