Jilevi & Politics
In Mahabharata, Devabrata, the son of King Santanu, took a vision (tremendous, and not of a visionary) pledge not to marry in his life to enable his father to re-marry. He also pledged to save the throne of Hastinapur. In Ramayana, Rama had to leave for forest-living to respect his father's pledge to one of his wives, Kaikayi. Now in Kaalyug, there is another person like Mahabharata's Bhisma—he is Gambhir (serious). With all seriousness he has declared today the 18th November, to leave taking his most favoured food, jilevi, in case that leads to lessening the extent of air pollution in the capital city of India. What a great pledge!

India that is Bharat is full of such episodes like having and leaving including Gautam Buddha, Chaitanya and other great persons. Nothing new about it. What is new now is leaving so precious a food as Jilavi. Those who do not live in cities like Allahabad/Prayagraj will fail to understand the pain of leaving Jilevi. In Allahabad, morning of people starts with consuming Dahi-Jilevi and ends with Jilevi-Samosa.

Coming back to Gambhir—the serious pledge. One, eating Jilevi leads to increasing pollution; two, non-eating jilevi leads to reducing pollution. It is like, in statistics: error of commission and error of omission. Each one is confined to Delhi. Suppose, pollution in Delhi is exported to the neighbouring regions—then the worth of the pledge is gone. In absence of such export possibilities, relevance of jilevi remains. One has to take care of Delhi—after all, it is the capital city that determines the fate of the whole nation.

The pledge emanated from public discourse on eating jilevi by Gambhir at a public place with much exhibition, that too on a day he was fixed to attend a gambhir (serious) meeting on pollution in Delhi. When Gautam (Buddha who left his newly married wife and a new born babe) becomes Gambhir, no one can afford to ignore the episode. Had he consumed jilevi in a hidden location, nothing wrong (sic) propaganda would have been bestowed on him. But alas! What he took is with much fanfare—like Rama in the great Epic was always accompanied by Lakshman!

Eating jilevi in winter is a welcome proposition—it is November 2019. Jilevi also may .ignite brain for the imminent winter session of the Parliament that started today the 18th November, 2019. Jileve and politics go together. It seems the pleasure was tried to be destroyed by a recently rewarded journalist who circulated the circle shape food being consumed by the Bhisma of Kaalyuga.

By assets, Gambhir, of course because of his capacity, is well endowed. It may be painful if he leaves jilevi for ever for a silly question raised by the Journalist. After all, Journalists enjoy such privileges.
Bhaskar Majumdar, Allahabad

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Frontier
Vol. 52, No. 26, Dec 29 - Jan 4, 2020