In an attempt to internationally popularize an Indian staple, 800kg of Khichdi will be prepared at the World Food Event in New Delhi today. This will be targeted at setting a global record. The prepared Khichdi will later distributed among the orphans and poor in the capital. Given the context of malnutrition, hunger and poverty in the country is the record not a hard hitting joke on the condition of the masses?
Kabir |The New Leam
Khichdi is a simple one pot meal made with rice and lentils. It is considered to be a dish that is not just very easy to make but also one that can be enjoyed by the poorest section of the society with meager resources. It is in that sense that a food item like Khichdi is contrary to Biryani which requires both access the several key ingredients including meat and high grade rice but also other extravagant condiments. Khichdi as opposed to Biryani is simple, accessible, humble and technically within the reach of the poorest of poor. Ironically, today the extent to which the food prices have gone up and lentils have become almost a luxury- even Khichdi as a democratic meal can be put under question.
However, what we must understand is that fact that today it is difficult for one even to collect the basic ingredients required to prepare Khichdi and this is not what we shall be proud of but extremely ashamed of as a nation-state whose primary task is towards the welfare of the masses. We are aware of the fact that several of the granaries in India face a situation where the crops/grains stored in them either rots away due to negligence and lack of proper care or is infected by rodents, insects or other microbes which leads to their wastage in large quantities. We must also remember that it is this very country where millions of people sleep hungry each day and suffer the brunt of malnutrition, diseases and physiological derailment due to inaccessibility of food or their proper and institutionalized allocation.
Given this socio-political and cultural milieu it seems absurd that a nation like India where every citizen does not even have the right to assured of two basic meals a day or at a time where despite food production and under complete neglect we allow grains to be endless damaged a record which requires about 800kg of Khichdi to be prepared for attempting a world record is simply obnoxious if not vulgar. In an effort to popularize Khichdi in international markets the well-known chef Sanjeev Kapoor is at the helm of affairs and he will try to set the record today at the World Food Event in New Delhi.For the purpose of this event, a giant kadhai or frying pan of 7-feet in diameter, with the capacity to hold 1,000 litres will be used.
It is planned that the Khichdi after being cooked will be distributed among 60,000 orphan kids and to other guests present at the occasion. It is also planned that the recipe and the cooked dish will also be served to the Heads of Foreign Missions in India who will then be encouraged to popularize it in their own nations. Attempts are also on towards assuring that from now on Khichdi is available in restaurants across the world.
The event will unfold amidt recent controversy over claims naming khichdi as the National food of India. Despite having clarified that khichdi will not be declared as a national dish of India, Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal argued that the dish is the ‘wonder staple food’ of the country. She said “Khichdi symbolises India’s great culture of unity in diversity at its best. Therefore, Khichdi has been selected the Brand India Food.”
We must problematize an event as absurd as this. We must ask whether making khichdi an internationally popular dish available across restaurants globally will actually make it so expensive that the ordinary people for whom Khichdi once used to be the staple that they could easily access will no longer be able to afford it.Will the glamour and extravaganza that we are trying to attach to the homely Khichdi will make it a distant dream meant only for the elite? Moreover, are we in the right kind of socio-economic condition to set records based on food when the large majority of the population is struggling to secure two meals a day?
When malnutrition and defunct growth among children and women stare us in the face? When for not being able to produce her Aadhar card a woman starves to death before a ration shop? Will symbolically feeding the poor orphans promise any long term change? Are our primary concerns at the moment only making Khichdi national and international foods? Are we really so deaf or have we become indifferent to the voices of pain, agony and anger among our poor?
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