'What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease'

My mom has got a great sense of humor (sometimes!). We were watching the ads that come in between of serials. There was some health drink ad that was coming up which promised to make children healthier and stronger. My mom was not impressed with all their promises. She cited that they had grown up on tapioca during their childhood years. She didn't find anything wrong in her physique. It's a good musing. From when did India get so obsessed with cereals for breakfast, health supplements and skimmed milk,I wonder! I remember that even during our childhood days, we ate healthy and home cooked food. It didn't necessarily have to come from packaged bottles and tins. I remember eating okra for a whole week since I had the audacity to complain to my mother that it tasted yucks! LOL! That was mom's way of teaching us to eat all that's given. She sometimes also wore that halo on her head while she went into her favourite preaching about the kids on the street who were dying to eat food that we take for granted. That was also another preaching that was related to non wastage of food. My sister berates me even today as I tend to waste food at hotels. I can't resist ordering for multiple items. But when it's in front of me, I do at times, lose my appetite. As a backup plan, I have started requesting the hotel folks to pack the leftovers and it's eaten by me on the next day. My American friend who observed this practise stated that there would be animals growing on the leftovers since I mentioned that I had carried it forward for another day. I informed her that my Indian stomach could digest them as well:) Oh well..she always thought i was nuts!  I should have told her that I have eaten the local fare from a roadside vendor despite the fact that he had conjunctivitis and a watery eye. Yikes! She wouldn't have been able to digest her food if I did that. So never mind that one! LOL! How can one resist the vada pavs and sev puris on the streets of Mumbai? I am a typical Mumbaikar. We don't think of the consequences of eating unhygienic food. All that comes later! There's no city other than Mumbai for variety in junk food. Yeah yeah! The health freaks can stay away! Be happy with your salad leaves. Sometimes I muse about god's strange ways. He gives loads of money to those who don't want to eat even their daily meals in the name of fashion and some of the poor people in his kingdom struggle throughout their lifetime, just so that they can eat 3 decent meals a day. It's an ironic fact of life!

Coming back to ads...Have you seen the one where the woman's mission in life is to kill mosquitoes? Or the one where the wife's mission in life is to feed her husband with oats so that he can continue his hectic life? Of course, he has to live longer. How would the diamonds come home otherwise!!! LOL!  Hmm..maybe the one where the children play in the heat during summer because they have gulped a glass of glucose. I should encourage my niece to drink that often so that she stays out of the house and not inside as she irritates the hell out of me with her umpteen questions. The shampoo ads are fascinating with their unique qualities. All talk about shiny, clean and beautiful hair. I wonder as to which shampoo is used by our house help. She's around 50 and has shiny black hair.. I am assuming that it's due to the shampoo that's being advertised on T.V which promises to keep greyness under control. For years, my cousin kept rubbing the wonder oil which claimed to grow new hair. Sadly, he doesn't seem to have any left now. Wonder what went wrong with that one!  The cooker ad shows the wife making carrot halwa in 10 minutes for all the friends that her husband had got home without informing her in advance. How loving! Mine (if i have any in the future) would have to order the food as I don't think I'd be so generous to toil away in the kitchen!!! He should be made to eat the raw carrots along with his friends!!! It's healthier :) But there are some which do make you laugh as their story lines don't gel with the product. How can eating gutkha make you confident, I wonder. It stinks!!! Using a sanitary napkin serves it's ahem..purpose! But nowadays, it seems like it can make you dance, climb trees and what not!

Of course...am not against Ads. If all the products are shown in either black or white, then a decision can't be made on which needs to be chosen, especially since each have their own USP. But well..There are many ads which do make me laugh. No offence to any of the makers though..They are just funny when you see them, I guess.

Me thinks that we can go back to our traditional healthy Indian breakfast items if we cannot afford expensive cereals like Kellogg's and others. There's no harm if our kids eat poha and upma for breakfast. It's healthy. We don't need to conform to those standards which were not really ours to begin with.  I shouldn't be the one writing this though. Yesterday, I ate away a nice spicy chicken burger from McDonalds. Mmmm..what the heck do they do to make the 'junk' taste so good, I wonder:) . Currently I am obssessed with Meusli from Bagrry's. It tastes oh so yum!!! Ahem..a bit expensive. But it's an indulgence which i carry as snack to work. Add some bananas and apple to it. Tastes heavenly!!!

Well...my silly musings will go on...until next!!!