What's on Your Plate?

India, a land of spices and diversity, is now also a hub of adulterated food. Our bread, milk and paneer are peppered with greed and a dash of toxic chemicals

- RAJEEV NARAYAN

"The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful medicine, or the slowest form of poison." - Ann Wigmore

Clint Eastwood is famous for his repartee, and once said on BBC that every person knows when he is "on key or off key, as people scowl and grimace when you are having a bad day". The crisis in India, predominantly from the gastronomic perspective, is off-key every day now. People are unaware of the discord invading their bodies, and a billion increasingly quality-conscious people are pushing all manner of vile things down their gullet. If you disagree, explain why the rich are eating paint, licking bleach and talcum powder, and biting into shampoos and urea. It may be apt to end this opening with a telling quote by Eastwood: "What you put into life is what you get out of it." Touché.

We could call it 'The Culinary Horror Show', or nonchalantly pop an innocuous question: "What's in your glass and on your plate?" After all, be it a creamy glass of milk, a crisp apple, a spoonful of honey or a dollop of butter, our daily comfort food comes armed with secret appetizers and ingredients, if only to add extra zest and zing. There are paint and chalk powder in milk, detergent in cheese, a touch of urea in your fruit, and a fragrant shampoo in your paneer (cottage cheese). Bon appétit.

India, revered as the land of spices and diversity, is now also the 'hub of adulterated food'. While we continue to call our cuisine world-class, what lurks beneath the outer garnish is less Michelin-starred and more chemical-lab gone wrong. Your daily bread, milk and even honey are now seasoned with greed, and more than a dash of toxic chemicals for good measure.

India has truly evolved.