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I called my maid just now. She had not taken the rice I had kept for her, today. She said that she had taken the rice in a vessel which was kept on the kitchen counter. I told her that that was yesterday's rice and she had left today's rice here itself. Since she feeds the rice she takes from our house to her children in the evening at about 7 pm, I felt bad and asked her if the rice was OK. In our Chennai hot weather, the rice which is cooked in the morning becomes watery by night, if not, the next morning. We mix water with the remaining cooked rice at night and make curd rice out of it the next morning, sometimes. It is supposed to be good for health. The rice which was cooked yesterday morning is still good, she says. I am scared now! What are we eating nowadays? Just poison, I think. The situation is worsening day by day.
Last month the paalak bunches I had bought had chemical stench. It was so bad that nobody could eat. We threw away all the paalak paneer subji. Then the bhendi had the same stench. I complained to the vendor and he said that it happens sometimes! The vegetables come from the surrounding villages and sometimes the people who grow them, who are illiterate (!), spray more chemicals and it is not easy to check! He laughingly gave me another information. His father is a farmer. They have grown rice, this time, it seems. The agent who bought their rice asked the farmer to add one chemical to the fresh rice grains which will turn the look of the rice from new to old rice! He got Rs.250 per bag extra! 'Chemical illaama yeduvum illamma ippa', he says. 'Nothing is there now without chemicals'! I just don't go to that shop now. I don't know which shop is better now.
One security man who works in a famous vegetable vendor shop, to whom I tip every time I go there (he has got problem with his one foot, so I tip him) asked me not to buy watermelon which is bright red! 'Veluththa pazhama vaangunga' he said (buy a bit colourless melon!). They inject colour into the fruit, it seems.
I am scared to eat mango. Got once from an organic shop, that is all. Scared to eat mangoes now from normal vegetable and fruit shops. Most of them are ripened with calcium carbide. I get ulcers in my mouth if I eat them.
A few organic shops have opened in our area now and they keep limited vegetables, twice a week. Everybody seem to run there and buy them. It is over by 11.30 - 12 pm! I think people are becoming scared slowly.
How much can the govt. prevent this? People who do not have conscience are just after money. This is going to affect the coming generations too. The ground itself has become poisonous. I have started roof top gardening. But we get very limited vegetables. All of us should join together, I feel, to do something.
Milk also doesn't get spoiled even by 11 am even if it is not kept in the fridge.
Hmmm...what can we do?
P.S.: I have started buying organic pulses now. I keep the unopened packets in the fridge. After opening, I store the remaining pulses in Tupperware boxes. Still, I see worms and insects within a week (this shows they are really organic!). What to do? I remember keeping dried neem leaves in the rice boxes, before Tupperware came home. Should I start using that method now, for these pulses?
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I called my maid just now. She had not taken the rice I had kept for her, today. She said that she had taken the rice in a vessel which was kept on the kitchen counter. I told her that that was yesterday's rice and she had left today's rice here itself. Since she feeds the rice she takes from our house to her children in the evening at about 7 pm, I felt bad and asked her if the rice was OK. In our Chennai hot weather, the rice which is cooked in the morning becomes watery by night, if not, the next morning. We mix water with the remaining cooked rice at night and make curd rice out of it the next morning, sometimes. It is supposed to be good for health. The rice which was cooked yesterday morning is still good, she says. I am scared now! What are we eating nowadays? Just poison, I think. The situation is worsening day by day.
Last month the paalak bunches I had bought had chemical stench. It was so bad that nobody could eat. We threw away all the paalak paneer subji. Then the bhendi had the same stench. I complained to the vendor and he said that it happens sometimes! The vegetables come from the surrounding villages and sometimes the people who grow them, who are illiterate (!), spray more chemicals and it is not easy to check! He laughingly gave me another information. His father is a farmer. They have grown rice, this time, it seems. The agent who bought their rice asked the farmer to add one chemical to the fresh rice grains which will turn the look of the rice from new to old rice! He got Rs.250 per bag extra! 'Chemical illaama yeduvum illamma ippa', he says. 'Nothing is there now without chemicals'! I just don't go to that shop now. I don't know which shop is better now.
One security man who works in a famous vegetable vendor shop, to whom I tip every time I go there (he has got problem with his one foot, so I tip him) asked me not to buy watermelon which is bright red! 'Veluththa pazhama vaangunga' he said (buy a bit colourless melon!). They inject colour into the fruit, it seems.
I am scared to eat mango. Got once from an organic shop, that is all. Scared to eat mangoes now from normal vegetable and fruit shops. Most of them are ripened with calcium carbide. I get ulcers in my mouth if I eat them.
A few organic shops have opened in our area now and they keep limited vegetables, twice a week. Everybody seem to run there and buy them. It is over by 11.30 - 12 pm! I think people are becoming scared slowly.
How much can the govt. prevent this? People who do not have conscience are just after money. This is going to affect the coming generations too. The ground itself has become poisonous. I have started roof top gardening. But we get very limited vegetables. All of us should join together, I feel, to do something.
Milk also doesn't get spoiled even by 11 am even if it is not kept in the fridge.
Hmmm...what can we do?
P.S.: I have started buying organic pulses now. I keep the unopened packets in the fridge. After opening, I store the remaining pulses in Tupperware boxes. Still, I see worms and insects within a week (this shows they are really organic!). What to do? I remember keeping dried neem leaves in the rice boxes, before Tupperware came home. Should I start using that method now, for these pulses?
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