Slippery palms, oily fingers

A debate is sautéing at our dinner tables. Spats over spices are overshadowed by a tussle that is deep-fried and appears motivated, steeped as it is in palm oil

- RAJEEV NARAYAN

"Family fights bring out the ugly in everyone. And as they say, beauty is only skin-deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone." --Cynthia Goedde

In her quote above, Lady Cynthia couldn't be more correct. Thus, it is she, not me, who has started off your Monday-week with the philosophy below. Till the going is good, everyone is. It is only when the chips are down that the little ugly ducklings in our character, carefully tucked away in dark recesses, start quacking.

Our internal parts are calibrated in a manner that when the clutch and gearbox start twanging, the whole damned SUV starts clanging. That's today's unwholesome truth many parts of India are clanging in a rude cacophony.

Amid all the obdurate clanging is one being witnessed at dinner tables, a squabble involving slippery palms and oily fingers.

The decibel level is catching on too, overshadowing the spat over Indian spices and their alleged carcinogenic effects. The latest tussle appears to be deepfried and, therefore suspicious, steeped as it is in palm oil. That we have then are some businesscalibrators insisting that food cooked in palm oil is not good for our internals.

With a few bright sparks going to the extent of unsheathing daggers to take the squabble to sudden death, one is forced to wonder what is going on here, especially since the Indian Council for Medical Research and the National Institute of Nutrition say palm oil offers a spectrum of health benefits and have listed out a slew of scientific sludge to support this finding. Clearly, there are forces at play with counter-intuitive agendas. I cannot think of any other reason why Indians, in the midst of highly-churlish General Elections, are suddenly so enamoured of an issue not many have really cared a hoot about earlier

- "Oye, tere wafers mein tel kaun sa hai?" (Hey, what is the oil in your potato chips?). It's time to unearth the truth, for the chips are down on this one.