Some Biryani Politics

Biryani is a favourite food of mine. The reason is simple. It’s easy to order. There’s no need to search in the a la carte menu and waste time waiting for the different dishes to arrive. “Chicken biryani,” tell the waiter. Simple. It arrives soon enough. There’s veg biryani if you are a nationalist in contemporary India. My home state, Kerala, offers a rich diversity of biryanis to suit everyone’s palate. You can have mutton biryani, beef biryani, veg biryani, egg biryani, paneer biryani, and tapioca biryani. This last one, tapioca biryani, is a queer recipe. It has no rice in it. Only tapioca and some bones and fat of an animal that was vegetarian until a few years ago. Now a Malayalam poem tells me that the animal has started swallowing certain people called Mohammed Akhlaq.

A friend drew my attention to this Malayalam poem titled ‘Biryani – a non-veg political poem’ by P N Gopikrishnan. It is about the food politics that has been devouring the country since 2014. Slogans started swallowing the country from that year. One Nation, One … became a pet slogan of the country. You can fill in the blank with almost anything – from religion to language to dress to headgear to fertiliser. Yeah, you heard it right. One Nation, One Fertilizer. Never mind, the type of soil you’re working with. If you are a patriot, you will use the fertiliser that your nation wants you to use.

You will eat the food ratified by the Lok Sabha. Wear the ratified dress. Speak the national language. Worship the sanctioned gods.

Biryani will soon be out, in short. That is my worry. Gods and all don’t bother me. Food does.

Will the holy veg animal swallow me alive?

Possible. Especially since Biryani was a Mughal royal food. They called it pilaf which became pulao later. The holy animal made pulao vegetarian and the non-veg version became biryani. You won’t get pulao easily in Kerala which is an incorrigible state. Biryani is as omnipresent as God here.

In spite of the freedoms here to eat what you like, wear what you like, and worship who you like, the youth of the state are leaving for other countries. There is mass emigration. Soon you won’t have youth left here. What I don’t understand is why all these youngsters are leaving a country that is reportedly becoming a superpower. Strange are the ways of the youth.

Or, are they intelligent enough to understand the fraudulence of our holy cow?

P N Gopikrishnan’s poem (mentioned above) has these lines. [Forgive my poor translation.]

Remember

The fruits and vegetables

manufactured in your corporate ovens

will become biryani

chewed

and chewed

by our memories.

We have the teeth for that.

Teeth.