“On my way back from College, there it was, surrounded by a massive crowd, I couldn’t just turn away and move. There was something that drove me towards it, something attractive and something I just couldn’t go home without..” What are you?….The answer is the Alu Muri stand
The boiled potatoes that blend well with muri (puffed rice), red hot chilies, coupled with drops of oil and half tea spoon full of salt and finally a dash of unclean water similar to the water from the Umkhrah River and the mixture of all the ingredients finally gives a fine cuisine.
Now the question that arises is, “Is the mixture fine, healthy, clean and safe”. Well the answer that most medical practitioners and parents would give is “NO”.
The undying crave for junk food by young people is about to take a different toll once they know about ‘the stories’ behind the preparation of Alu Muri.
The stories came to the forefront with the photos uploaded in the social networking website-Facebook recently.
The picture showed the pathetic civic sense on part of the people involved in the Alu Muri business. The picture depicted that water, one of the most important ingredient of Alu Muri is taken from the most disgusting potholes, drains etc. “When I saw the picture, I started thinking that all this while I was eating nothing but dirt”, a young college student said adding that the juicy junk food with its mouth watering flavour is perhaps the main culprit behind all the stomach ailments and lesser crave for healthy food.
They say that not all Alu Muri wallas are unclean. There are some who use clean utensils and clean water.
There was a point of time when the Home Science department of St Mary’s College, Shillong initiated a move by providing an apron, a cap and all the healthy tips to the Alu Muri wallas for preparing a clean mixture of all the ingredients.
However, trends of the imparted tips have faded with time as none of the above tips were followed while preparing the so called ‘cuisine’.
It is said that a picture speaks a thousand words but one can also claim that there is less truth in this picture as the same was not acquired from a reliable source but picked up from a website and there are possibilities that it was manipulated in many ways.
Manipulated or not, the end results will definitely give a rough time to people to cope with obesity, stomach ache and constant sickness.
(By Iban Mawrie)