Sprouts

Salads and sprouts. Salads and sprouts. Salads and sprouts. All you are going to get is salad and sprouts. The words kept ringing in Tina’s ears like an unwanted song on the loop. 

Ugh! Tina was fed up of everything green – broccoli, cabbage, spinach, methi… Just the thought of ‘healthy food’ made her want to throw up. For the last three months her diet had been mainly veggies and other greens. Akash, to whom she had become recently engaged, even introduced her to kale the other day; she hated the bitter aftertaste that the curly, ruffled-edged leaves left in her mouth. ‘They contain Vitamins A and C, and a host of antioxidants,’ Akash never failed to remind her whenever they were out on a date.

Tina was careful with what she ate but she loved fast food – burgers, fries, pizza and spaghetti, she could have them any time of the day. Nobody had ever stopped her from eating what she liked. In fact, Mom often cooked her favourite chana batura, batata vada, and gobhi parathas dripping with pure ghee. If anyone objected, Mom always rose to her defence, ‘Let her eat, kahaate-peete ghar ki bachchi hai.’

But recently Mom had also changed. All because Tina was set to be married soon. The boy’s side liked her, she worked in a multinational company. The pay was good, of course they wanted that. ‘Thoda weight kum karle toh… ,’ the boy’s mother had said, not hesitating for a moment to think that her son, the apple of her eye, was no skinny-minnie himself. How unfair, Tina thought unhappily. Whenever she looked at herself in the mirror, the reflection pleased her: curvaceous? yes, overweight? definitely no. Did they want a size-zero stick for a bahu? Tina was happy the way she looked and wanted to stay that way.

 But the proposal was too good to be ignored. The boy was ‘foreign-returned’ and well-travelled. ‘There are many proposals for my son, but we like your daughter,’ the boy’s mother had said patronizingly. And so, the restrictions had started. Tina’s life now revolved around exercise and ‘healthy’ eating. What this meant was sprouts and salads and greens and all awful things in between. She missed her batata vada and pizza.

After their engagement, at first Tina had been excited to go out on a date with Akash. She looked forward to some romance, but the conversation always revolved around food and how she needed to eat smaller portions of healthy food instead of fried and starchy stuff. Whenever they went out for a meal, Aakash always ordered a salad for her. ‘And, not too much dressing, please,’ he would invariably add. She was taking important decisions at work but she could not order her own food. Akash always made sure she kept away from fried stuff while he often ordered French fries and pakodas for himself. Why did only women have to look a certain way?

Tina had had enough. An idea had been germinating in her mind for some days. This evening when the waiter came to their table to take the order, Tina was ready. Before Akash could open his mouth, ‘Chana batura for me,’ she said with a straight face. ‘Salad for the gentleman,’ she turned to Akash who appeared dumbstruck and dazed. ‘This is not the person I was engaged to,’ his expression seemed to say. 

It was the last lunch Tina and Akash had together, but as far as Tina was concerned she had had a most delicious day.

END