Vijay Garg
Be it someone’s birthday, marriage ceremony or any other occasion, today the presence of ‘fast food’ has become mandatory in every kind of celebration. In our times, Halwa Puri and mint chutney are now out of trend and are considered to be a food of ‘backward’ taste. Now no one even wants to mention them. Pizza and burgers have reached not only towns but every village. Therefore, now people living in villages do not have to run to the city for pastries and pasta. professionally prepared food home. Some of the delivery companies are so sophisticated and proficient in technology that they have left their mark in a very short time. Here too the tastes of children are coming to change.
Today, the names of more than twenty-four thousand villages in India are registered with five fast food delivery companies. Further preparations are also going on. Perhaps the aim is to spread awareness among other villages by organizing programs in the village. Parents’ names, types of pasta and sandwiches are now remembered by many five-year-olds going to school. About five years old children even recognize Manchurian. Today, in the Indian society, these sweet and salty fast foods have made a deep place on the taste buds of children as much as the desi dishes like Navratna chutney, ghee flour pudding, laddus, coconut kheer, pakodas, spicy potatoes etc. could not create. These old things are now being forgotten.
Every day new experiments are being done in the business of instant food or fast food. Their shape, type of chemicals, taste, aroma, colour, variety and convenience in eating are the main reasons for the popularity of fast food. It is not without reason that the space for traditional food and food styles is now shrinking rapidly. People’s tastes are changing. Such attraction has arisen towards it that some people have started believing that it awakens suppressed hunger. As soon as the name of pizza or burger is mentioned, a tasty image starts forming in the mind of some people. An addiction-like interest needs to be studied to find out why it happens if it happens. What is used in this that makes people think like this? Today the situation is such that a piece of burger is in the mouth. If a person eats paratha with pleasure, keeping his eyes closed, he may feel disinterested. Whereas the qualities of Paratha are many times more than that of Pizza. But people probably don’t even think about this now.
Till two-three decades ago, the quality of food was taken into consideration. It was also seen that it was fresh. Now there is no use of fresh or stale. Stale sandwiches can be made hot and fresh in just a few seconds in the ‘oven’. According to one figure, at least two million ‘fast food’ boxes or parcels were supplied to the capital alone. It takes place in Delhi. These especially include sandwiches, pizza, burgers etc. This may be surprising, but the figures of sales of cold drinks may be even more surprising. Dive into the world of tastes and flavors and forget about health, this is the aim of the fast food business. Opening the parcel and taking out hot food from it and then sitting comfortably and biting each mouthful of it with your teeth, making it juicy with your tongue, is a kind of happiness and getting lost in it.
Some time ago a western singer was promoting a fast food. It was being eaten with relish. One of his indications was that why should one bother worrying about food? People seeing him like this would also be forgetting dal, rice, roti, saag, raita, papad and chutney and would be indulging in the same food. Seeing an attractive advertisement, even a strong mind starts moving along with it. Be it children or teenagers, youth or adults, they get trapped in the trap of fast food, which is considered a measure of status, as if a snake is confused with a rope. The irony is that such ignorance persists despite sufferings. Even if there is constipation, diarrhoea, sore throat, body starts aching due to food containing chemicals, hair starts falling, teeth get damaged, ears start hurting. But people like to remain immersed in the same hypnosis again and again to satisfy their next hunger.
Nowadays, small children are becoming fond of this type of food and are harming their health under the illusion of its being half imaginary, half familiar, half true. One must be concerned about their future. The purpose of eating this kind of food is neither to improve one’s health, nor to provide good medicinal value to anyone through food. DDiarrhea is completely cured by eating raita and rice in our traditional food. If delicious moong dal cheela is eaten with mint chutney, it also cures stomach problems, i.e. indigestion and constipation. If coconut chutney and gram roti or stuffed bitter gourd are eaten with pleasure, stomach worms die. Eating onion salad prevents heatstroke. Fenugreek chapatti or pakoda relieves body pain. The question is, how much does eating instant food from the market, which is spread everywhere, improve health? If only the taste and If you get immersed in attraction, you will not only lose your money but your health will also be at stake.
(The author is retired principal, educational columnist and can be reached at [email protected])
