Of people with sweet tooth and guilt
LIFE HAS BEEN DRAINED OF ALL TASTE AND FLAVOUR; ICECREAMS, ‘RASGULLAS’, ‘GULAB JAMUNS’, CHOCOLATES, BUTTER AND CHEESE — ALL COME WITH A GNAWING SENSE OF GUILT
O nce upon a time, not being slim was a sign of good health and also of belonging to a well-to-do family. Nobody had then heard of calories except science students. Nobody was aware of the presence of sweets proudly announcing their oxymoronic “sugar free” status as they do today at most confectionaries. The relish of a bit of jaggery after a sumptuous ghee-laden ‘sarson da saag’ to help digest it was like getting as close as one could to being in heaven. No feeling of guilt or anxiety attended such gustatory indulgences then.
How times change! In comes medical science armed with the knowledge of internal environment of our bodies. We are enlightened about what to eat, how much to eat, when to eat, and how to burn what we eat! Even the likes of me, who never were gluttons in the first place, now rush to the ubiquitous ‘Google baba’ to find out the calorific value of a savoury delicacy before even touching it. All recipes appearing in the newspapers and TV serials are a strict no-go because of their potential to add a few inches to the waistline. And every time you open the Yahoo or Google, alarming notices such as “Seven foods you should avoid at all costs”, “Ten foods which increase bad cholesterol”, “Eight foods which are cancer causing”, “Ten foods which cause heart attacks” and so on and so forth make a sinner out of a saint that you are since all your dainty delights figure in the lists of forbidden foods!
It seems as if life has been drained of all taste and flavour. Ice-creams, ‘rasgullas’, ‘gulab jamuns’, chocolates, butter and cheese; all come accompanied by a gnawing sense of guilt. The silently killing diabetes may not damage us as much as does the guilt trip we embark upon after consuming an ounce of ‘rabri’. Even the tangy Bikaneri namkeen, which used to be a must with tea, is now a taboo because of its high sodium content which allegedly increases blood pressure.
But what does a physician or a dietician know about the drooping mood of the teadrinker who has been denied his favourite namkeen? How does it matter to a doctor that without a ladleful of desi ghee, every native dish tastes utterly foreign? The sacred wholesomeness of the Guru’s ‘karah parsad’ at the gurdwara, too, seems to have come under cloud as I have often seen most people of my age request the Gurudwara ‘bhai ji’ for only one fourth helping of what once used to be sufficient quantity to drip out of the cupped hands and to sate hunger, which obviously is spiritual while being physical at the same time. This belief of the devout like me that the Guru’s ‘parsad’ works as panacea for all our ailments, physical, moral and spiritual, does not seem to matter now!
Tricked out of our blissful ignorance about how various foods affect us, I have no hope that we will ever rediscover a child’s delight in foods that tickle our taste buds. Owing to self-loathing at our occasional propensity to give in to small indulgences here and there, those of us who are blessed with a sweet tooth are doomed to lead half a life. Our predicament is summed up by none other than Ghalib in these immortal lines:
Hazaron khwahishein aisi ke har khwahish pe dam niklay, Bahut niklay meray armaan lekin phir bhi kam niklay.