Covid-19 Mandates Food Rationing

The country-wide lockdown which was clamped as a move to arrest the spread of COVID-19 has reiterated the important message left by the Father of the Nation years ago - “The world has enough for everyone's needs, but not everyone's greed".  And the best part is that this important lesson has been imbibed by all irrespective of the social strata they belong to!

The moment the lockdown was announced the first reaction from each and every household was to rush to grocery markets and store up in bulk every possible item…irrespective of its shelf life or also of its utility value. Hence you had families whose members were aged 50+ stocking up on instant noodles – something which they’d never even dream of eating! But that’s human nature.

A positive downside of the pandemic is that all of us picked up the practice of not letting food go waste. The reasons for this were multiple –

• Primarily sparse availability of provisions and even basic essentials like veggies and fruits (for a week) ensured that we conserved whatever commodities we had
• In the absence of cooks with the lady/gentleman of the house slaving over the stove any culinary effort going to the drains was something which no one would appreciate!
• With no servants and maids around to feed the extra leftovers … any excess food would be wasted
• In times when some community members are starving wasting food seems to be a cardinal sin

Thus many households innovatively reinvented the leftovers from lunch and used them for dinner.