Everybody loves piping hot and spicy brinjal ‘palya’

The Brinjal Mela organised at the Lalbagh Botanical Garden turned out to be a huge success, with people of all ages enjoying the event for various reasons.

“It is better than reading my history book,” said 12-year-old Deepan Thiruppathy, as he added colour to the “pure brinjal lawn”. He was one among the many participating in a drawing competition at the brinjal fest held in Lalbagh on Sunday.

Vaguely aware of the Bt brinjal (read genetically engineered or GE brinjal), he said, “There are two types of brinjals, one is pure and the other is injected with some bacteria. The bacteria one is not good for health.” When told that both the brinjals look similar, he immediately piped up saying the government shouldn’t allow Bt brinjal to be sold in the market. “I think I will add a few protestors in my drawing, protesting against the Bt Brinjal,” he said, looking thrilled.

Another kid was busy giving finishing touches to a football field where Team Brinjal and Team Carrot were playing against each other, Team Brinjal in a clear lead with a score of 3-0.

Ten-year-old Pooja had a neat basket of purple, green and yellow brinjals etched on her peach of drawing sheet. When asked if she liked the veggie, she nodded mentioning that her favourite dish, as brinjal palya.

But not all present at the venue were brinjal lovers. Six-year-old Jahnavi Prakash was one among them, but while walking from table to table looking at some 30-odd varieties of brinjals, she pointed at a cluster of berry-sized brinjals and said, “I like this. Can I eat it raw?”

While many youth and elders were glued to the information posters, children were having a field day, what with the drawing sessions and capturing the ‘See-ma-I-ate-raw-brinjal’ poses.

But there was one interesting sight. A seven-year-old was standing in a corner near the posters and was busy taking notes. When questioned, he said, “I have never seen so many different brinjals. I want to remember their names.”

“I am a foodie, but after I watched the film (Poison on the platter), it killed my appetite,” said Sakshi Ahuja. Her worry is that there is no way to check whether the food that she is already eating is genetically modified or not. But she sure was impressed with the rich bio-diversity on display, throwing her into two minds: “On one hand, here’s a display of a variety of nutritious veggies, and then you watch the film and realise that this could be lost if GM foods are introduced.”

Her concern was widely shared by many parents, “We may buy the best products, but if we buy GM foods unknowingly, then we are jeopardising our child’s health,” said a parent.   

Sangita Sharma, a self-taught farmer, who has started the ‘My right to safe food’ campaign said, “The bio-diversity displayed to the consumer may all be lost once the GM genie is released into the environment. It will affect all of us.”

She added, “If a farm using GM seeds is situated even 100 metres away from an organic farm, the GM seeds can be transferred to the natural or organic farms by natural pollinators. GM seeds start growing in the natural farms and in  course of time, all the natural plants will also get genetically modified. This will pose a greater risk to human health,” she said with concern. She added that people believe that GM farming will help end the hunger problem in the world. But this is only going to affect human life. She said that instead of putting human health to risk, more farmer-friendly policies must be introduced.

Shireesha, an engineering student, said, “I like the festival. We should have more such awareness programes.” She felt that awareness will help the future earthling make the right choice.