Saturday, February 9, 2008

Chic(k) Fever



The following is a post I wrote around 3 yrs back on a different blog (That this was the ONLY post in that blog is another story!) The context of the post is relevant today, yet certain aspects are not. Yet I have kept it completely unchanged!

Avian Influenza, more fondly referred to as Bird Flu is the latest thing to hit the headlines. Each time me and my ‘pure’ non-vegetarian fellow beings heave a sigh of relief at its eradication, its back with more gusto. It has made it impossible for chicken -hearted chicken lovers to eat anything at all. One can’t even gulp down a glass of cold coffee with cream, in peace. Why, cream can have eggs too. So does delightful to look at, heavenly to eat chocolate cakes. And if one chooses to binge on some safer varieties of non-vegetarian, a concerned friend warns us about the unlikely chance of chicken being mixed with it. Here, we are not exactly questioning the sanity of the chefs, but accidents do happen!


At this point in time, I lose hope and turn to God Almighty. I ask him, “God, why do you always put us non vegetarian patrons to test? Us, who cant do with out it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, sometimes brunch, and don’t really mind snacking on their different varieties through out the day. Why doesn’t any one hear about deadly diseases that catch vegetables, which when consumed can churn out human intestines? ” Iam still awaiting an answer from above.


Post- tsunami was a dreaded phase for all the fish lovers of the world. People with faint hearts (and stomachs) had to think twice before devouring those thorny delicacies. Then there was Anthrax, which caught the cows and the pigs. I wondered why God dint give these four-legged creatures a chance to die a more noble death – by satiating some incurable non-vegetarian’s craving!!! Now who is responsible if they go to hell? And the latest to join the bandwagon is the chic fever.



I call it chic fever for very specific reasons, because anything to do with this deadly disease has become fashionable. This time the trendsetter was the Ministry Of Health and Welfare itself. In an all out attempt to win the foodies back, the Ministry indulged in a daily dose of very explicit ‘Go For It’ ads. For the benefit of the uninitiated, the chic fever did serious damage to the poultry business. So the national newspapers, obviously under the ministry’s demand, carried pictures of mouth-watering Tandoori chicken full and boiled eggs, with a copy convincing us that it is perfectly safe to consume chicken and shying away from digging into it is nothing short of stupidity. Next day we hear the news of another thousands of hens being culled!!! At this juncture, Iam deeply moved by the caring concern of the Ministry. They definitely felt that dying was a better option than holding back one’s urges. Or they probably believed that all of us had to die one day, so why not eat to one’s heart’s content and die a peaceful death.


The ministry’s ‘eat-chicken’ campaign was in the lines of ‘winning confidence back’ ad campaigns that Pepsi and Cadbury’s ran – Pepsi, when accused of containing pesticides and Cadbury’s to defend the presence of worms in their chocolates. Iam forced to think that Ministry lacks credible ideas. An ad featuring ‘Punjab da Puttar’ Virender Sehwag digging into Tandoori Murg and then hitting a sixer (If the Ambanis can, so can they) or better still, two nubile nymphets fighting over a piece of chicken, all the while ignoring the hot dude beside them, would have appealed to the audience.



It took an interesting or rather enlightening conversation with my maid to make a cynic like me probe beyond the obvious. She was understandably excited because for her, the chic fever is a blessing in disguise. She and her family, her three kids included, are thrilled because chicken is now available at affordable prices, sometimes even free. Then I think about many such people, who would prefer eating chicken, risking death to starving themselves to death. So like everything else, this chic fever too is a two-sided affair. Only I was a little late to realize. We might not always know how, but God definitely has a plan. Amen.

14 comments:

Vik Rajagopalan said...

Oh well to be scientifically correct, if the chicken is cooked at 70 deg C, the virus would be rendered harmless. So here you go the mantra to get your non veggies on the plater. And with regards to the Veggie virus, there was this E-Coli thing in the Spinach and they almost plucked the entire Spinach fauna from whereever they grew and shelved all of them from the stores. Reason, it seems that this E-Coli is bad for the human intestine! Interesting I was able to match your answer. Perhaps I am the god sent to answer your question :-]

However, you have to remember one thing that being this world is not a safe place AT all. Chinese add excessive lead in all the toys which we passionately shove it in kids mouth making the rest think we are all that much nice to kids. Ironically, that has the impact to derange the kids thinking big time, Cadbury had some worm content in UK and they destroyed several 100 millions of the bars,Obviously Coke/Pepsi = Toilet cleanser and the list goes on...

Besides, the diseases have all existed before as well. Just when man started to use animals for wrong reasons - like sex LOL, things went haywire and it broke the equilibrium.

God sure has a plan but man has some thing better all the time :-)

Shruti said...

wow.. you've covered everything here! Lol @ praying to the almighty about considering infecting vegetables instead :P

Shruti said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
--xh-- said...

hm.. chick flue, tsunami or whatever - i never stopped eating chicken or fish. I love them so, i take them. the bactiriums wil die if coocked at 70C, so, I assuem well coocked meat si harmless. teh best part of teh chick flue was, KFC did a price cut on chicken bucket. man, i feasetd on the Chicken bucket at that time :-D

ani said...

read ur post and the only reaction was this jingle in my head.. 'all in the game..!' (dnt remember the ad! jus the jingle!)

Anush said...

ya tats either god or its evolution [:)]

Gunjan Aylawadi said...

i wud still not eat it outta fear!

Macabreday said...

lol..the last time the chicken flu happened few years ago, i remember i went and got chicken by the loads. then it was priced at just Rs 15 a kg. i knew that if cooked well, it as harmless. clever or foolish, i dont know. but im still alive :)

dame's diary said...

PB,
lol....

Nothing is safe to eat anymore!!

Nothing!!

cm chap said...

That's a nice read... I liked the way u presented it...

Anonymous said...

I couldn't care less!

I love chicken and continue to eat it :D :D :D

Zee said...

don't be chicken and eat chicken......at least that's what i tell myself when i hide in the corner from my mom and gobble up the chicken!

Anonymous said...

I've read several just right stuff here. Certainly worth bookmarking for revisiting. I wonder how much effort you place to create this sort of excellent informative web site.

Also visit my homepage - pirater Un compte facebook

Anonymous said...

I'm gone to tell my little brother, that he should also pay a quick visit this website on regular basis to get updated from most up-to-date reports.

Here is my weblog Dragon City Cheat Engine