The five rupee lunch houses created by the pro-people government of Odisha, has remained a non-event for me. They have a few such hunger mitigation joints in Odisha's capital city, Bhubaneswar which is also a Smart City. By now, I have only an outside view of one such centre that is on my way to the Petrol Pump in front of the Kalinga Ashoka Hotel. At times I have seen a silent, orderly line of people, about a score or two, inching towards an open door of a hall with a motor van parked quietly in front of the feeding-centre. My guess is such a centre would continue till our society was strong enough to sweep it away as an avoidable aberration.
Four days ago, however, I was involuntarily drawn towards the five rupee programme. My housekeeper handed me a piece of paper on which the grocer had written the items and price of goods purchased by him on credit. Besides items like detergent powder, a few cakes of soap, a packet of coriander seeds, the list contained details about Arhar Dal. On repeated questioning, the boy would not tell me how much was the price of the Arhar Dal. Apparently his job was only to carry the goods and the chit.
Two kilograms of Dal had been billed at Rs.324/- on the 7th of October. I found yet another chit which showed 2 kgs of Arhar Dal having been charged Rs 190/- on 24th February and yet another chit showed 2 kgs of Arhar Dal at Rs 230/- on the 7th August. Market being on fire, has by now stopped giving me burning pain. I keep the chits as coolly as they are presented to me by the housekeepers and at the end of the month, I smilingly write a cheque in front of the helpful grocer and hand it over to him, to let the housekeepers a fresh lease for marauding his shop and my finance. It has been a part of a friendly match in life. There is no rancor for losing; no throwing of bottles at the winning players or the pitch. Since governance has become indifferent to cursing, I have stopped saying one and defiling my persona. But for another reason, the other day, I felt drawn towards the feeding-centre.
Two persons I know had had their lunch in one of the centres on the 10th of this month. Both had been to the Hospital to help a sick person and had their food in a centre operating in the campus. Neither had been to such a centre in the past. One of the two is our Driver cum Housekeeper. I listened to him and he answered all my questions. The rice was not raw rice (Arua chawal) he is used to. It was par-boiled rice. It was not soft and he could not take more than two portions of the ladel which meant he was used to taking much more rice at home when the rice is Arua and is cooked soft.
I was more on Dalma, the Elixir. "Was it made of Arhar Dal"? I asked. He kept mum. I repeated my question. "Maybe, I am not sure", he said. "What were the vegetables used"? I asked. He could not see any, he said. The vegetables had been mixed well in the lentil, he explained. "Was it tasting great? I asked. He was not sure. He, however, looked a bit sad.
I thought of the unemployed youths who thronged the smart city and after the food at the feeding-centre would again walk a few miles before returning home, still without a job.
Dalma is no substitute for a job. My government is yet to realise this. With Arhar Dal costing Rs162/- per kg, Dalma has already lost.
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12th October, 2015
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