Food for thought
Walking down to office about 15 minutes back, was glad to see a new organic-only store along the way – Thottam Organics.
Popped in and found a real good variety of organic food and groceries, including stuff from Akshayakalpa Organic whose organic set curd has become my staple breakfast.
Popped out, with a whistle on my lips, and feeling quite sanguine that the world had at last started moving in the right direction, and what do I see right opposite?
A Zepto kiosk.
Zepto and its ilk make me uncomfortable every time I hear about them. In my opinion, they commoditize and trivialize food.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 10 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘪𝘥 𝘚𝘖𝘚.
On one side, you have folks like Akshayakalpa who try to inculcate the spirit of Annadata Sukhi Bhava, an expression of gratitude for all those involved in getting you the food – essentially, a request to spend a few seconds thinking about the food you eat, thanking those who got it for you (farmers, not the Zepto delivery boy) and treat the food as a treasure, which is what it is.
And on the other, and appropriately right opposite, you have super fast food folks whose noble motto seems to be, “Click it. Gulp it. Forget it.”
Who will win, I don’t know.
Who should, I do for sure.
See my LinkedIn post on this topic