The King is Naked!

Meidan Baazar, Tbilisi

The imposing sculpture of Mother of Georgians towers above the Sololaki Hills. Tourists ride the rope-way car to come here for a panoramic view of the city, and for photo-clicks.

Meidan Bazar at the foothills is full of Souvenir shops, and busy eateries. Subway and Dunkin Donuts, capitalist cousins in a curious competitive and collaborative duet, share an outlet packed with happy, noisy diners. Both doing brisk biz. Outside on the pavement sits a visually-challenged old lady softly clattering the coin-bowl in hand, the faint jangle drowned in the din of the touristy bazaar.

Two different mothers, they could belong to different species! Mother of proud Georgians - Mother Sculpture on the Hill with a sword in one hand, and a wine-bowl in the other; the old lady on the pavement with a coin-bowl in hand.

The transparent glass-door of the restaurant, mopped periodically by the hour-rated part-time worker to remove the smudges; separates the perpetually-hungry and the rarely-hungry.

Marriott Baku Boulevard

Guests have paid for a Bed-n-Breakfast room, and happily begin their day with a leisurely, sumptuous breakfast selecting their favourite dishes from yards and yards of enticing food – breads, waffles, pastries, cornflakes, salads, nuts, fruits – cut and whole, a selection of cheeses, olives, fresh juices, cokes, scrambled eggs (you may order for omelettes with cheese and mushroom from the ‘hot’ counter), sausages; for the large group of Indian tourists -  chole-bhature, parathas, pickles, suji ka halwa; and for the Asian tourists – fish, sauteed and stewed vegetables, mushrooms in hot garlic sauce, rice, and noodles; a lavish spread that would satisfy the taste-buds of the most demanding guests.

A tourist couple came down for breakfast a bit late and found all the seats in the restaurant taken, not unusual at the peak hour. A helpful waiter suggested they could enjoy their breakfast in the garden overlooking the boulevard which garlanded the beautiful Caspian Sea. Most pleasant weather to sit outside, he assured.

The smoking area which doubled up as additional dining space was indeed beautiful. The air was salubrious except when a gust of wind from the lake doused with smell of oil hit the nose.

The curse of plenty. Azerbaijan is an oil-rich country. Caspian Sea Boulevard at Baku is stunningly beautiful from a little distance, or in a photo; but if you get too near the water, you can see blue-green oil patches floating. No wonder, the water birds have gone elsewhere.

The couple finished their breakfast, and a few friends brought their coffee out to chat with them.

Let’s click a few photos, said the gentleman. A friend offered to click the photo.

‘No, Hamid will do it,’ he said, and beckoned the lone waiter, possibly an intern not yet experienced enough to wait upon the customers inside the restaurant, but good enough for the few smokers and laggard diners.

About 18, less than five feet tall, and with a charming smile; he was happy to click the guests.

How do you know his name, the friend asked?

‘When we sat down for breakfast, I saw this boy clearing the plates of the other table at a distance, and when he reached the garbage bin, before dumping the stuff, he picked up something from the plate and quickly put it into his mouth.

To avoid embarrassing him, I called him after a while, asked for his name, and discreetly pushed a five-Manat currency note (INR 250) into his palm which he accepted with a little bow and a grateful smile. He is from the rural area, and is studying to be a dentist.’

Inside the restaurant, yards and yards of food; in the manicured garden, hunger stalks unseen; a little glass-door separates the over-fed and the under-fed.

Times Square, New York

The dazzling centre of the City that Never Sleeps; where enthusiastic crowds cheer while the spectacular Ball descends at 12:00 hrs on 31 December to herald the New Year.

Most people are on the move, not for a leisurely stroll, but to reach somewhere-else real-quick. Coffee in hand, a fag on lips, but in a tearing hurry.

The middle-aged executive in a dark business suit, bites into his footlong, regrets his choice of sauce, and dumps it in the garbage can, in a fluid movement as though flicking a speck of ash from his cuff. Before he is past the bend, another man passes by the can, deftly picks up the still-warm packet, and gets on his way.

United States- per capita GDP: $78,422

Rome, July 2023

The UN Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment took place in Rome, Italy, from 24 to 26 July 2023. The event aimed to review progress since the 2021 Food Systems Summit and address ongoing challenges in transforming global food systems.

Over 2,000 participants from 180 countries attended, including more than 20 Heads of State and Government and 125 Ministers.

How much food and beverages did the delegates consume? How much was spent on this Summit? How many malnourished children could have been supported with these funds?

An unbridgeable gap between the hungry, and those discussing hunger!

A Lavish Banquet

A mega-wedding was celebrated in July 2023 with the Who’s Who of the world gracing the occasion. Several of these celebrities flew in their own personal jets.

How could these honoured guests not be looked after well in the country where a Guest is God: Atithi Devo Bhava?

How much did it cost to feed these over-fed people? Could it have fed the hungry instead?

A yawning gap between the overfed and the undernourished!

At Traffic-light

A traffic light at a busy crossing in a metro-city. Peak-hour wait – 90 seconds. A gleaming black Mercedes waits impatiently. A hungry kid taps the window on the driver’s side patiently – once, twice, thrice.

Why do they breed like rabbits if they can’t even feed the kids? Why are people still hungry when the sarkar spends thousands of crores on food subsidy? Ma’am, getting a little late for her kitty-lunch, mutters under her breath.

The chauffeur is reminded of Dushyant Kumar’s unforgettable couplet:

यहाँ तक आते आते सूख जाती है कई नदियाँ

मुझे मालूम है पानी कहाँ ठहरा हुआ होगा

He knows Ma’am no longer handles cash, swiftly lowers the window pane, and gives the kid a five-rupee coin.

A sheet of transparent, toughened glass separates the always-hungry, and the never-hungry.

The king is naked!

Capitalism dons a resplendent magic dress and marches proudly all over the globe, but there is no child to tell, ‘Look, the king is naked!’

Hunger Facts

·      In our world of about 8 billion people, 700 million people go hungry every day.

·      Hunger remains serious or alarming in 43 countries. Little progress is evident vis-à-vis the situation in 2015. (Global Hunger Index Report 2023)

·      Food insecurity is a significant issue even in affluent countries. Here are some estimates for the number of food-insecure people in some of the world’s wealthiest nations: US- 34 mn, Canada – 5.8 mn, Germany – 6.5 mn, France – 5.5 mn, Australia – 4 mn, Japan – 7.5 mn.

·      An estimated 23% of American college students (about 3.8 million) experienced food insecurity in 2020.

·      As per recent reports, over 33 lakh children in India are malnourished, with more than half of them being severely malnourished. India runs the largest nutrition-support programme in the world, but malnourishment of children remains a significant challenge.

***