The Power of Food: Traditions, Hunger, and Humanity

My parents were probably the most happily married couple I ever met. And, as all happily married couples tend to, they quarreled incessantly. The spirit of give and take, which they brought to bear on important issues, was strangely absent, when it came to trivia, a facet of their relationship which usually came to the fore during meals. My father would advise me to stop when stomach was full, even if it meant leaving something in the plate, saying “Better there than in your stomach.” My mother, on the other hand, would remind me that Vedic philosophy says, “Annam Parabrahma Swarupam”, meaning that food is an aspect of the Supreme Brahman, a gift from nature, and that food is also the Lord of Creation, who produces seeds from which beings are born. And insist that I eat every morsel of food served. I guess it was that remarkable harmony, between the rationale of science, and the strength of religious faith, which kept their partnership strong.

Not surprisingly, a similar spirit is advocated by Christianity and Islam. Before a meal. Christians offer grace, meaning an act of thanks to those whose untiring efforts brought the food to the table; people such as farmers, grocery store, staff, friends, or relatives, to remember that it is God, and not one’s means, that provided the meal.

Muslims chant ‘Bismillahi Awwallahu Wa Akhirahu’, in the name of Allah, before a meal, and at the end of it, a practice based on the Hadith of Prophet Mohammad.

An even greater virtue is the providing food to guests. The expression ‘Atidhi Devo Bhava’, an expression of Vedic tradition, says it all, granting exalted status to a guest. Some families, in fact, do not touch a meal until a guest happens to drop by. And the family is overjoyed when the guest says. “Anna Data Sukheebhava”, meaning, “Let the being who served the food stay happy.” A similar sentiment is also expressed by the stanza – “Mehman Jo hamara hota hai, Woh jaan se pyaara hota hai” – from the lyrics of the yesteryear, popular song, “Honton pe sachchai rehti hai…..”, from the movie, ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai’, by the immortal Raj Kapoor, meaning that a guest is dearer than one’s life,

Most of us take for granted what many others are denied. Millions go hungry, even in these times, day after day. Little wonder, then, that Mahatma Gandhi said: “There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread”. What hunger can do was also touchingly depicted by the song, “Dil ka haal sune dilwala….”, in another great blockbuster of that era, Raj Kapoor’s ‘Sri 420’, a stanza in which goes as follows, “….aandhion me jali jivan bati, bhook ne hai bade pyaar se paala…”, saying that, as a child, he was brought up by hunger and with great love.

Hunger can drive one even to the humiliating extent of begging, as depicted by a song in the film, ‘Sansar’, of 1951 vintage. Two children beg for food singing, a song, a stanza in which goes:

“Amma roti de, baba roti de

Amma roti de, baba roti de

Bhala kare bhagwan tumhara

Khali jholi bharna mere”

Meaning that God will bless those who fill the beggars’ empty bags with food.

As a child actor, in the early 1950s, I once enacted a touching scene. I, as a child unable to bear hunger, am forced to beg. The child’s father, played by the legendary L V Prasad, enraged by finding his son begging, takes him home and slaps him. Quite unintentionally, Prasad hurt me, and I refused to return to shoot, until Prasad presented me with the popular game of ‘Trade’! While hunger, bordering on starvation, continues to stalk millions in this world, one also finds, side by side, vulgar display of opulence. Take, for example, the manner in which the well-to-do celebrate weddings. The money spent, on decorations, the clothes worn, the gifts exchanged, the drinks and food served, in one single event in a marriage, is often enough to feed hundreds of persons for a whole year. Those who indulge themselves can hardly be faulted. It is, after all, for no fault of theirs, that many others go hungry. A practice common among the relatively well-to-do families in Andhra Pradesh is to undertake to provide meals to a poor student on a fixed day every week. The student would pursue his studies while having his meals every week day in a different household.

The United Nations Organistion, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Food Program and many other international and bilateral organistions have accorded top priority to the cause of eliminating hunger and malnutrition. In addition, many countries have formulated programmes to suit their special needs. It is heartening to note, in that context, that several farsighted, and extremely effective, interventions have been taken, both at the national and state levels in the country, over the last several decades. One of the most farsighted, and important, interventions that the Government of Tamil Nadu took up, as early as in 1951, was the introduction of the midday meal program for schoolchildren with a view to improving the nutritional status of schoolchildren in the state.

The Rs 2 per kg rice scheme, started by NTR, in Andhra Pradesh in 1983, and at the national level, the ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana’, have had a very salutary impact by way of enhancing access to adequate, and nutritious, food by the poorer sections of people. Another notable intervention was the introduction of the ‘NTR Anna Canteens’, in 2018 in Andhra Pradesh state to provide ready food at subsidised prices to the urban poor. Another welcome intervention, undertaken by the Government of India, is the ‘national food for work’ programme that provides a supplementary wage to poor people working on creation of assets, such as laying of roads, desilting of tanks, etc. At the national level, the ‘National Program of Nutritional Support to Primary Education’ (NP-NSPE) was launched as a centrally sponsored scheme in 1995, for enhancement of enrolment, retention, improvement of attendance and quality of education and improving of nutritional levels among children. The scheme was renamed as the ‘PM-POSHAN Scheme’ in 2001.

`The war being waged against hunger, just as the efforts to overcome other challenges facing humanity, is such as can never be adequately handled by governments alone. Substantial and significant roles are played by non-government organisations, and community based organisations, such as ISKCON, the Ramakrishna Mission and service organisations such as the Lions and Rotary clubs, apart from places of worship such as temples, churches and mosques. On a regular basis, and especially in the wake of the occurrence of natural disasters, all these organisations have played, and continue to play, a stellar role in meeting the food and nutritional needs of poor people and those in distress.

South Indian hotels are generally quite generous, with the quality and quantity of the food they serve. It is the usual practice to serve puris as an entré to the main meal and there is no limit on the number. And that was the case in the very famous Woodlands Hotel, in what was then known as Edward Elliot Road, and now called Radhkrishnan Salai, in Chennai, At least, it was until two of my cousin brothers decided to display their capacity one afternoon. After the finishing the puris, and turned their attention to the main meal, the management decided, with immediate effect, to limit the number of puris to 8 per head in the future! One night, at my aunt’s place, the same duo was displaying its prowess, while sampling the traditional after-meal cut mango slices. When they had finished, there were huge pyramid shaped mounds, of the remnants, of the mangoes in their plates!

(The writer was formerly Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)