Friday 5 June 2015

Life without #Maggi



Life without Maggi




When the news first broke a couple of weeks back that it’s not safe to have Maggi as the masala contains lead -- and some news even said it contains monosodium glutamate -- we had just one packet of our favourite snack left. We immediately had that before getting any further news. My seven-year-old is a Maggi fan and it’s a custom for him to have Maggi every Sunday as we had told him it is not advisable to have it every day as it is junk food. But of course, we gave him the healthy wheat noodles instead of the maida one. He is very conscious as they are taught in school only to have healthy food. He even says ‘No’ to pizza and burger but when it comes to Maggi, he loves to argue that it’s not junk.

I still remember when we heard about the name for the first time in school in the ’80s and Maggi packets were distributed free for promotion. At that time my mother was not at home, so my father served us boiled Maggi. I didn’t like the taste then.

But after marriage, Maggi became a good option as an evening snack and after much experimentation with onion, egg and even chicken, I got the perfect taste and I joined the bandwagon of Maggi fans.

When I conceived, I used to have Maggi almost daily as a ritual; maybe my son developed the taste from the womb. Whoever heard about it scolded me, but my son was born fit and fine.

My office colleagues liked the way I made Maggi, and I often got requests to bring Maggi for lunch. So Saturday I generally took Maggi, as I was dead tired after five days of office and didn’t have the energy to make anything else. So Maggi was such a relief and saving grace.

One of my friends even made a future plan with me to open a Maggi stall at Delhi University campus and she would say it would definitely sell like hot cakes. And she would join me as a cashier. What a plan!

Last year when we visited Goa, my husband made a plan that when we would grow old and our son would fly from our nest, we would open a shack in Goa and a Maggi stall, in case our restaurant idea didn’t work.

But today morning when I read the news ‘Delhi bans Maggi’, all our plans remained a dream forever. Leave aside the ‘grand plans’, now we can’t even have Maggi at the comfort of our homes.

And how can we forget the Maggie ad “Mummy bhuk lagi hai….do minute”.

Sad the 2-minute wonder is past now and another chapter of our life has been closed with nostalgic Maggi moments.

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