Food For Thought

I went to this posh resto in Delhi, about 30 minutes away from our house in Defence Colony. The place is in Greater Kalash II, next to a couple of posh bistros and resto. The place has been mentioned in a lot of travel books and food magazines, so it merited a visit from us. Though parking was a bit of a problem, the restaurant offered what others have not - ambiance. The food was amazingly good and amazingly expensive as well. Being poor volunteers, we ordered salad as starters, and most of the team had fillet mignon while I had the Himalayan trout. We ended the dinner with a cup of espresso and a serving of creme broulee. Looking around, I noticed that it was also a very posh crowd. I wondered where Victoria Beckham was.... The bill was enough to support a family of 8 from a small country in Africa for two months.

Dinner conversation rotated around food and nice restos in some distant country. I interjected my Bihar experience - trying to be funny. But then my joke backfired! Nobody seemed to have noticed but I immediately stopped short in my statement and just shied away from the conversation. I swear I stopped eating my salad (for a brief moment).

The main reason is that, people are starving in Bihar. Just after the flood, tens of thousands of men, women and children left their homes to move into camps. These people carried what little they had and lived in these camps around the main towns, hoping for at least 1 square meal everyday. Some had to walk for miles to have lunch or dinner then walk back home in the evening. Others would be starving because they came from other districts, and because they have no political affiliations (most food camps are ran by politicians). The same in Ethiopia where people would travel to Abdurafi to look for work so they could have money during the hunger gap. Most of them don't come back because they either have Kala Azar, Malaria or die from starvation.

Probably this situation is the same all over the world.

Anyways, enough of dampening the spirit. I really did enjoy that dinner. One of my friends noticed my uneasiness and unusual silence; and he asked if I was okay. I told him what I thought and he started to laugh. " Escape your world for a brief moment," he said.

" The world will still be the same tomorrow."

With that said and probably a split second thinking --why not?

We then fought for the last bit of creme broulee on the bowl.