Cliches, at times, they contain more water than a cloudburst may do. One such cliche, “out of the frying pan and into the fire” comes to my mind every now and then when I find my way through Delhi’s serpentine lanes and bylanes. Photo:Sushil Kumar Verma
In the good old Shahjahanabad, time stands still. We could as well have been in the 19th Century. Every afternoon, huge cauldrons appear out of nowhere in Chandni Chowk, Ballimaran, Sui Walan and lo, within minutes young boys — many not even 14 — start pouring oil into cauldrons, lighting kerosene stoves and frying fritters! Photo:Sushil Kumar Verma
That passers-by could be as close as a foot or two away maters little. No thoughts of safety, no thought of any possible fire which might leave the whole area singed in a matter of minutes. Photo: Meeta Ahlawat
Step beyond Old Delhi, hop on to a vehicle, go to Karol Bagh, Lajpat Nagar, east Delhi, even the little food carts nears All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The story is repeated: food prepared under an open sky, at times maybe under a tarpaulin sheet, not infrequently near a garbage dump. And almost always by the roadside! Photo: Meeta Ahlawat
Talking of roadside, it seems, we do everything conceivable by the roadside: there are food vendors, yes, there are garment sellers, book-sellers. Then there are those who use the streets and the sidewalls to attend to nature’s call, not to forget those unfortunate ones who sleep in the open or try to find a resting place under a tree. Photo: Meeta Ahlawat
Sad as that it, these men and women are no danger to the society. Something one cannot say about vendors cooking by the roadside. The recent incident of a kid meeting death after falling into a cauldron of hot oil is one such terrible example. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar.
For all the recent talks on the need to reign in e-rickshaws, one of which coming from the wrong side hit the child’s mother leading to its death,little attention seems to have been paid to how cooking by the roadside can hazard the safety of their consumers and passers-by.Time to think about it too? Photo: Meeta Ahlawat