Invisible eateries!

So much has changed. Especially our sense of need and the price we are willing to pay for its fulfillment. It's a dilemma that plagues some of us in their thirties, as we still have a remembrance of when it all started. The very first television advertisement of Pepsi that was aired and opened the floodgates for the symbols of economic liberalization as they started taking hold of our imagination and desire.

Thirst was redefined for the urban India by the fizzy drinks and two decades down the line, it is making inroads even in areas where potable water is a rarity.

This banal sense of introspection gripped me recently at the parking of Shankar Market, as I waited for my wife to pick up some stuff. From my air conditioned car I was forced to view a very small table serving as an eating joint for a range of people streaming to grab a bite. There was no menu, just one dish called chola kulcha.

In less than an hour about 25 clients were served with a single plate costing just five rupees! It was lunch time and some seemed to be regulars on this stale and spicy preparation.

I recalled my school days when we hardly had any opportunity and hence the need to garb fizzy drinks. The Indian ones were available. It was only in college that one became regular with it and that too more for the sense of emancipation with the image of youth that was being branded.

Anyways, the point is that in the price of a full size pizza, a family of three can have their food requirements for a week fulfilled. And with 70 percent of Indians still spending less than half-a-dollar-a-day, the reason for these invisible eateries is apparent. And no matter how many thousand Mac and Pizza Huts are opened, these snack-cum-lunch-dinner preparations will reach to the people on the move, busy trying to live the dream of approaching prosperity.

Next time try and pretend that your wallet has no money in it and you will suddenly see a whole new world materialize in front of you. Some of it can leave you with stomach upset, but mostly it will be a treat for the taste buds.