The war and my stomach
K S S Pillai
The West Asian War has prolonged beyond everyone’s expectations. The price of fuel has been fluctuating for a long time, depending on the statement of one of the parties to the war. Most people are worried when there is a fuel shortage, a consequent price rise, and long queues at retail outlets. Cooking gas has been a major concern for people.
Recently, to face the situation created by the war, the Prime Minister advised citizens to change their lifestyle. He asked people not to buy gold and to reduce fuel consumption for transportation.
Some politicians in power used public transport the next day; a few came on bicycles, while others reduced the number of cars in their motorcades in front of cameras and amid considerable publicity. No one seemed to have come to their workplaces in bullock carts or on the back of animals like elephants, as on a similar occasion years ago.
Despite the authorities’ assurance that there is no shortage of petroleum products in the country, prices have risen several times, attracting criticism from the general public and opposition parties.
People living alone, away from their homes, are in trouble. There was no problem with food till now, as it was delivered to their homes by uniformed people on motorcycles, employed by international agencies, within a short time. They could also eat anything they liked from restaurants and roadside eateries at a moderate price. While filling their bellies with tasty food, they could also spend their time with their friends.
Modern technology is shrinking the whole world into a large village. Food items called ‘fast food’, which were available only in some foreign countries till a few years ago, are available at restaurants and roadside eateries.
I liked the taste and the theatrical acts of the cooks on the roadside, who dropped several items into the cooking vessels from different containers, and flipped the finished items into the waiting hands of another employee, who placed them before the customers with a flourish.
The protein-rich fatty food, which made many nutritionists shake their heads in disapproval. As I had become fat, and my doctor waved the red flag with a grim face when I told him about my food habits, I became a member of the local health club to exercise on different machines.
Such clubs had proliferated to cater to the large number of people of all ages coming to them. The club has a qualified physiotherapist and a dietician to advise them on the variety and quantity of food items. People throng to such places and sweat it out on different machines, with the hope of looking healthy.
As many of those eateries have put down their shutters due to the enormous increase in the cooking gas they use, those who used to depend on them are worried. One of the nations engaged in the war had stopped the free passage of ships through the strait in their area, while the other party blocked all ports of that country.
This has forced ships carrying cooking gas, other petroleum products, chemical fertilisers, plastics, and many other essential items to take longer routes, resulting in an enormous rise in transportation and insurance.
Switching to electric cooking should be easier because there is no shortage of electricity, and the cost of cooking equipment is modest. They save a significant amount of energy and do not contribute to indoor pollution. In a large country like ours, with sunlight, several perennial rivers, wind, and waves, harnessing power from non-polluting natural sources should be easy.
With the fuel problem worrying me, I often remember how the shortage of cooking gas never bothered housewives of my village in the past. Food was prepared in hearths in all houses, using wood, twigs, leaves, or coconut shells. People lived in houses thatched with woven coconut leaves, and when smoke snaked through the roof of a neighbour’s house, we were happy that the people inside that house would not be hungry that day.
(The author is a retired professor of English. He is a regular contributor to ‘The Kashmir Vision’. His articles and short stories have appeared in several national and international publications)
