In this excruciating Delhi heat, I found myself in the middle of a much delayed home renovation. To ensure that I complete all the kitchen work before the workers commence work for the day, I wake up earlier than usual and prepare light but wholesome meals and also get the concoction for the tea ready as we would all need multiple rounds of it through the day. In a pressure cooker there is arhar ki daal that is being boiled with turmeric and salt and in another kadhai the steamed rice is bubbling over.
In a small iron wok I prepare the tadka for the dal with a spoonful of ghee and some chopped garlic, onions and red chillies thrown in for good measure. Before adding the tadka to the dal, I add chopped raw mangoes to the dal, to just lift this rather simple a little notch higher.
As soon as the workers arrive, the house is filled with the screeching noise of the wood cutting machine, the continuous beating of the hammer, which after a point feels like a music concert that you’ve been forced to be a part of, but around noon the noisy machines and the constant thuds of the hammer give way to robust aromas of food as the workers take a break and settle underneath the speeding fan and lift the lids off their tiffin boxes. From a distance I spot that Shivam, the youngest one has got soft parathas with a simple aloo ki subzi and some onions and chillies, while Sadiq has egg bhurji with rotis and achaar.
Then, there is Rajesh who has got an interesting subzi which seemed like tinda in a robust gravy with some steamed rice. All of them later got out a chilled mango each from a bucket of water that they had dunked it in.
The men sit in a circle with the food in between and share with each other their tiffins—much like how we’d eat when in school with our group of friends. There is an appreciation for the meal and each morsel is savoured and not just consumed mindlessly. I offered to them some dal that I had made and although they hesitated earlier, later lapped it up happily. There is always a bottle of chilled water by their side—this merciless heat demands no less.
After their meal they usually go out for an hour to rest under the canopy of trees before resuming work for the day. It is at that time that I plate my lunch and savour it while watching some show. But, for a change, this week I decided that I will eat without consuming any content—the way we were once taught to as children. I found myself relishing my food more than usual because all my senses were focused only on the food that I had cooked and all the flavours were much more pronounced than usual. I could taste the inherent sweetness of the dal, the nuttiness of the rice and that chilled glass of masala chaas was just the cooler one could ask for after that summer meal.
From Shivam, Rajesh and Sadiq, I observed and learnt the value of a good meal—and no, a good meal has nothing to do with gourmet dishes, but all about the emotions that a food is cooked and savoured in. Some of us sit in a place of unacknowledged privilege in our air-conditioned rooms, which gives us the flexibility of five ways to a meal—while there are some who spend millions on pre-wedding functions alone. For the group of workers in front of me, they sweat it out for the most basic necessities—factors that we perhaps end up overlooking.
I recently chanced upon a video reel by Samdish Bhatia, a Delhi-based youtuber and citizen journalist, where he interviewed a young boy who fixes tyre punctures. The boy, ironically named ‘Deshpremi’, shared meekly about his struggle to get even one meal of the day and the lack of help from the authorities. We, the citizens who represent the urban population of the country, often tend to overlook the ground realities of this country even today—and our representatives seem deaf to their plight. We fail people like ‘Deshpremi’ day in and out.
In the interest of them, it is perhaps of utmost importance that we become more conscious of what we eat, how we eat and how we treat others around us, while eating.
Vernika Awal
is a food writer who is known for her research-based articles through her blog ‘Delectable Reveries’