ULTA-PULTA
Bitter chocolate
Jaspal Bhatti

YESTERDAY I went to the confectionary and asked him for two bars of Cadbury’s chocolate. He asked me, "You want to eat it?" I asked him what else I could do with it. He said that these days most of the people were buying chocolates to carry out research on insects and worms. I assured him that I was neither a research scholar nor an inspector in the Health Department. I just wanted the chocolates for my children. The guy standing next to me in the shop warned me, "Didn‘t you hear the news that some kind of worms have been found in the chocolates?" I told him my children already had worms in the stomachs, and cavities in their teeth. "The worms in the chocolate cannot do any further harm to my children."

First there was an attack by the authorities and media on mineral water. Then we found sulphur content in soft drinks and now there is news of insects in chocolates. There seems to be some ‘domestic hand’ behind the maligning of these foreign products. I am sure some gur dealers, lassi makers and burfiwallahs are behind these sinister attacks on foreign products.

We are used to adulterated food. Every food item in India is manufactured or stored in unhygienic conditions. The only thing is that if the expose involves multi-national giants like Coke, Pepsi or Cadbury the debate is nationwide and at a much higher platform. But if the panipuri seller serves the papdi chaat with unclean hands and germs infested khatta meetha pani, we enjoy and console ourselves, "yaar, this much impurity is needed for the immunisation of our body."

The conclusion is that the health authorities should either enforce the hygiene protocol strictly or the consumer should make his stomach strong enough to digest all the garbage.

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