Upper cut for the Under Cut!

I have written retirement tributes to the likes of Sachin, Dravid & Ganguly in this blog and requiems to the great comedian Nagesh and one for even Maggi noodles when they were recalled from the shelves. In fact I even wrote a tribute to Mr. Bata the legend who adorned my feet in my growing years. Hence not writing a tribute or a requiem for the beef would be sacrilege.

This is purely written in jest and is not based on researched facts with regards to the legalities of prevention of cruelty to animals or Anti Slaughter laws and their effects on the beef ban. Since the whole world was debating about it, I have also jumped into the beef ban bandwagon. I know very little about the benefits of cow urine or the celibacy habits of peacocks.

Though born a Syrian Christian in the grasslands of Central Travancore where kids are taught to call a grazing cow or a bull as beef, I spent most of my childhood at my Iyer neighbour’s and developed a liking for good Iyer food, the likes of Thayir saadam, Vatha kuzhambu, Pavaka Pittalai, Narthangai etc. I eventually shunned meat at home and was branded a pariah by my own clan as I refused to eat beef. In fact, I was one of the earliest proponents of the beef ban at a home. The best part of my childhood was that I was never indoctrinated by my neighbours to stay away from the food habits to which I culturally belonged. Looks like the world has come a long way since, food habits transcend religion and taste buds should be left out of politics.

Beef is an integral part of the Kerala kitchen and rightly they were the first ones to be up in arms against the ban. Though the augmented consumption of the same along with its better half the parrotta has brought about an increase in lifestyle diseases among its citizens, you cannot wean a Malayalee away from the beef or the beef from the Malayalee.  Ironically, I developed the love for beef not in Kerala but in an Ikka’s cafeteria on the other side of the Arabian ocean during my bachelor days in Dubai. Ikka even served me what was called an Ammachi (Grandma’s) Beef curry.  Hence the beef played an instrumental part in helping me connect during my days away from home.

Later during my travels to Germany I came to know beef was not all about beef fry or Olathiyadhu they could also be devoured as steaks that are rare, medium or well done. Coming from a middle class background I always thought Medium is what I should order.  It took me some time to learn the correct pronunciation of steak or to order for well-done ones which came close to tasting my mom’s beef within 5 Minutes of it being on the stove.

I firmly believe that food habits are a cultural preference and taste buds are apolitical. So if one wants a bite of a flank, shank, chuck, plate, brisket or any of the loins, so be it. Food habits at the end of the day are as personal as religion. Let’s not mix them up to create a cultural farrago (Thanks to Mr. Shashi Tharoor)

We should be more worried about the other cruelties doing the rounds around the country like poverty, sanitation, water conservation, or security of the women folk in general.