Green Revolution!!

The Bird/Avian Flu scare in India has prompted this chicken (& chick ;-) ) lover for the past 24 odd years to turn green – not with envy – but with desperation to eat something reasonable. It has been around 10-12 days since I laid my hands on a chicken tangdi – the very thought of which makes me sad for a while. Fish, Mutton or shrimp/prawn don’t really make up for the absence of chicken in my life – the agony of waiting this long (I don’t even know HOW long) has forced me to look into other culinary delights.

Yesterday when I went shopping for vegetables with one of my friends – I felt good – real good to see various shades of green on the veg mart. For the people who dislike monochrome – let me assure you that the red, purple, yellow, orange hues in the tomatoes, brinjals (eggplant), lemon, melons, etc. made the canvas in my eyes as proud as the ones in front of Pablo Picasso in his heydays! Unfortunately it was my friend who needed to shop – and not me. I made up my mind to stock the refrigerator back in my apartment with mint fresh veggies in the forthcoming weekend – and grabbed a few fresh looking capsicums in the bargain.

This morning when I was about to leave for office, our cook (Aurobinda) asked me what to prepare for lunch and dinner. I instructed him to make any curry from the vegetables we have. To my dismay he uttered the same set of vegetables he prepares on a daily basis (or so I feel)….and I yelled at him for not bringing other vegetables. He claimed that there aren’t many vegetables on offer at this time of the year (wasn’t this his excuse some 4 months back as well?). I stormed off the house in disgust and placed a bet with him – next time we go to the veg mart; if we get any additional vegetable in the market which was not in his usual list – I shall deduct 100 bucks from his monthly salary – if not I won’t grumble again. Not so fair deal I guess – he ought to be rewarded if he won – but then, I know I will win – for I have seen them all in the mart already. This is Renaissance revisited – a chick(en) lover turns into an agitated activist – a Green revolutionary at that!