The Daily Vegetables that have now become a Luxury

Winter is fast approaching and a whole lot of daily vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, peas are waiting on the farms to make an entry into the market. On the other hand, the summer vegetables are ready to bid goodbye to the market. Ladyfinger, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, brinjal are returning empty handed. The summers of 2020 has been a big disappointment. The Mandi witnessed very few visitors due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The daily vegetables union calls for a meeting

The president of the daily vegetable union calls for an urgent meeting to discuss an important issue at hand. Potato, the president of the union was concerned at the rising prices. Onion, the general secretary was equally disturbed by the turn of the events. Her price had shot through the roof. At Rs 70-80 per kilo it was nearly 4 times the average price. The tomato was red-faced and unable to face its fans. At Rs 60-70 kilo, people were using less of it in cooking. The concern was genuine as the rising prices may lead to humans consuming more meat products.

The vegetable combos like Aloo-Gobhi, Aloo-Matar, Aloo-Shimla Mirch, Aloo-Lauki are missing potato like anything. At Rs 70 a kilo people have stopped using potato in combination with other vegetables. The vegetable gravies had become dry in absence of onion and tomato. As a result, many Indian households had started consuming gravy-less vegetables or dal (lentils).

Vegetables risk losing the war to non-vegetarian items

The daily vegetables like peas were selling at Rs 150-200 kilo. Cauliflower that was just warming up to make a grand entry to the market was priced at Rs 70 a kilo. The vegetables realised that at this price people will shift to non-vegetarian items. And all their efforts to popularize vegan culture for increased vegetable consumption will go down the drain. The union decides to meet the Finance minister for a solution.

The daily vegetables meet the Finance Minister

The general secretary of the union onion reaches the North Block to meet up with the FM. Surprisingly, the FM Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman fails to recognise the onion. Onion is shocked as in a country like India it’s one of the vegetables that cuts across the different strata of society from the poor to the middle class to the upper class.

Garlic that was also there for the meeting tells the FM that onion is one of the most popular vegetables in India. The FM even fails to recognise Garlic asking him for his introduction. Onion is teary-eyed thinking that the FM is playing some kind of a game. Green Chilly accompanying Onion and Garlic tells them that FM comes from a place where people don’t consume onion and garlic. That is the reason she doesn’t recognises them.

Incidentally, the FM was very fond of green and red chilly. She used them a lot in her fiery speeches against members of opposition parties who dare attack the PM. The chilly requested the FM if she can just listen to them for once. The FM agreed. The daily vegetables briefed the FM that their prices have shot through the roof. As a result, people are consuming less of vegetables daily and soon a time will come when people will stop eating them altogether.

The daily vegetables think of joining the luxury chains

If things continue this way daily vegetables may soon disappear from the mandis and will be available only in big luxury chains.

Tomato informs that he was already in talks with Zara, a Spanish brand if they can create a separate shelf for tomatoes. After all, Spain is known for La Tomatina – the tomato throwing festival. The potato was also thinking on similar lines. He was exploring the option of joining the super-luxury house LVMH of France owned by Bernard Arnault. LVMH owns brands like Louis Vuitton, Dom Perignon Champagne, Moet and Chandon Champagne, Givenchy, Fendi, Bulgari, Christian Dior, and many more. LVMH was planning to soon launch a premium potato-based Vodka.

Onion too had an offer of joining the Ferrero Roche group of Italy. Famous for its chocolate brands like Kinder Garden and Nutella, the group had promised to launch a new Onion paste.

The FM briefs the daily vegetables on the new Farm bill

The FM tells them that the PM has recently introduced a farm bill in the parliament that will benefit both the farmers and the vegetables. Farmers can now sell directly to the end consumers without going through the mandatory mandi route. This will reduce the prices of vegetables drastically as the distribution channel will avoid middlemen.

The Vegetables are not convinced

The vegetables have been hearing this story from the government for so long that they refuse to believe the FM. But when the FM learned that all the daily vegetables had plans of joining luxury groups of Europe, she becomes slightly concerned. On one hand, the PM was promoting Make in India, and on the other, the vegetables were thinking of migrating to Europe as they had realised their luxury potential in India.

The FM calls the Finance secretary to come out with a resolution to make daily vegetables affordable for common people. The Finance secretary being a bureaucrat has his nefarious plans. He asks the vegetables to wait in a room and speaks to FM privately.

Let’s tax vegetables as sin produce

He tells her that the government can develop a new revenue stream. Now that the vegetables are so expensive with green chilly selling at Rs 130 a kilo and Coriander at the same rate, the government can label vegetables as sin produce and impose a GST of 28%. Sin products are goods that are classified as harmful to society and therefore taxed more like Alcohol, Tobacco, Soft drinks, fast foods, etc.

The FM questions him that vegetables are healthy for humans so how can they be classified as sin produce. Also, if people are discouraged from having vegetables then what will the population eat especially the vegetarian ones.

The Secretary says that we don’t need to think too much about the poor and the middle class. They can replace vegetables with dal (lentils) and most of the vegetarians will not miss the vegetables as for them paneer (Cottage cheese) is the most exotic dish. Go to any restaurant and you will find vegetarians ordering only kadhai paneer, shahi paneer, paneer bhurji, and different kind of dals. Nobody orders vegetables in a restaurant.

The housewives’ brighten the day for the daily vegetables

The vegetables sitting in the waiting room overheard the conversation and got scared. If the govt will tax them then people will stop buying them. They decide to let things cool down hoping that the situation will improve in 2-3 weeks as the winter supply of vegetables improve.

Meanwhile on their way back the vegetables meet a group of housewives  in the mandi and brief them about their meeting with the Finance Minister. The housewives tell the vegetables that for them the real FM is not Nirmala Sitharaman but the housewives themselves. And till the time they are running the show vegetables will always shine in every household.

You can enjoy reading more such posts on my blog. Click on the following link:

The Art of Making Tea: My cup of tea is different from yours

What’s on the menu today? A daily challenge for a housewife

You can read more about the nutrition value of vegetables by clicking on the following link:

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/vegetables-and-fruits/