If you are a nibbler and don’t eat much, then this post is certainly not for you. Viewers/Readers Discretion is advised. And if you are big time foodie like me, then you and I are definitely going to curse the lucky people of Surat.
Recently I was going through some websites and stumbled upon this picture.
Now I didn’t know that we Indians were so smart to save money on ‘per plate’ for Indian Weddings where such a plate would easily serve 3-4 people.
When I read the description out of curiosity, I came to know about BAKASURA THALI, which is served in many parts of our country, mainly in Surat and Mangalore. The plate has Seven salads, 55 food items, over 12 items of sweets, 15 types of rotis, ice cream and butter milk which is priced at Rs 1,500.
Now I don’t really want to explain each and every bit of what is served under those 55 Food items and 12 items of sweet. That is upto you to go and check that out.
On my further google search, I found out that many restaurants used this image as a promotional tool for their own business and came out with their own versions of Bakasura Thali. This led to a viral hoax message among various social media websites and people were going nuts just to have a piece of it.
Now I don’t want to ruin your mood and those happy salivas, but for a second, reverse back in time and think for a minute. In a country of population 1.2 Billion people, where 38.4% of children under age of three are stunted, that is too short for their age and 46% are underweight that is too thin for their age, isn’t BAKASURA THALI too small for them ? What do you think ?
Now here are some simple stats which I want to put forward.
- 25% of all hungry people worldwide live in India
- 44% of children under the age of 5 are underweight.
- 72% of infants and 52% of married women have Anemia
From the above facts you can understand that how something like a BAKASURA Thali came into existence. Making up for a good deed ? Certainly NO ! !
Now you may call me a hypocrite, which I think is right. But sometimes, we need to look down at the reality and should ask ourselves that why the heck do we hype such things on social media when the fact remains the same that in India or for that matter anywhere in the world, people are indeed starving and are not even getting a one time meal for day.
Now I am not asking you to drop down the idea that you just made with your friends for trying this Thali, but its my sincere request to all my readers that if fortunately some food items are left in future, please try not to throw it away, instead donate it to someone who needs it more than your Instagram account.
And I am not even asking the makers of this Thali to drop this from their menu list. I am no one to give them command, but its my sincere request to them, to donate a small fraction of the revenue generated from that particular BAKASURA Thali to the needy ones.
To be honest, I had no intentions to end my article like this, but sometimes, we do need to act like a complete ‘arsehole’ just to show you the real picture outside our social media accounts. My Apologies ! !