Thursday, January 03, 2013

Of Kings, Queens, Mistresses & 456 million paupers

Mr. Prime Minister, congratulations! We, the 456 million paupers (living below the miserable poverty line, for information), feel delighted that 62 years after Independence, India has you as our Prime Minister, for a second term...

“Eat well Mr. Prime Minister, every morning, afternoon and night. At your age, you could perhaps choose to eat a healthy diet; with a good mix of fibres, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates and proteins too. Hope you don’t have trouble planning a good diet. We, the 456 million poverty stricken vagrants (or should we use ‘paupers’, which surely sounds better) prefer to stick to the calorie method of eating that you very kindly introduced to us some decades back. It’s safe, simple to remember and doesn’t get into the stupidities of deciding a diet control plan. Well, someone from your ilk had once told us that to be considered paupers, we should be eating less than 2,100 calories per day if we live in urban areas; and less than 2,400 calories per day if we live in rural areas.

Brilliant, we should say. Firstly, there are days when some of us permanently homeless scallywags temporarily drift above the poverty line having had our quota of calories; at least it gives us a good feeling on those days that we’re not ‘below the poverty line’. Secondly, we’ve heard that eating less keeps one healthy, slim, away from the headaches of following a GM diet, and if research is to be believed (TIME magazine, nothing less), life expectancy of rodents and monkeys has been increased by dramatically restricting the amount of calories taken every day; the same effect can be replicated in humans too. Don’t worry dear Mr. Prime Minister, we’re well acquainted with rodents and monkeys; some of us live with them, some of us live like them, and some fortunate ones of us live only as long as them...”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPMMalay Chaudhuri
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