Cleaner, No more Cheaper?

Figure 1: Empty "Khao Gali" Bhubaneswar.

Every disaster carries the seeds of opportunity with it. So as the Coronavirus pandemic and the man made disaster has brought a lot of opportunities. The street food culture is probably the most prominent culture across the globe and has been the center of attraction to many youths. It has always been trending among all generations but this scenario of spending quality time with our special people has lost because of the pandemic. It was very surprising when the lockdown was imposed and gradually the lifestyles of people suddenly changed. But, now people have started imbibing the effects of Covid-19 and making it as their daily life.

I remember when we used to go out to the food street back in my home town with my friends, family, cousins etc. rather than going to a restaurant and follow the sit down culture. We used to run after the cheaper Dahi Bara Aloo Dum, and we used to crave for it in the lockdown. We used to travel 15 kms early in the morning to get authentic Dahi Bara Aloo Dum, but now we are in search of some hygienic and clean place, someone who looks clean, has got his sanitizer, and wears hand gloves.

Figure 2: Famous Dahi Bara Aloo Dum in Cuttack.

The way we used to crave for one single bite of authentic and cheap bali prawn, has now shifted to healthy and hygienic salads. When there were restrictions on the sit down culture in restaurants, people preferred ordering their special foods. One major change I could notice was the changing taste buds. The street foods are no more everyone’s priority, in fact the healthy salads in a hygienic restaurant is most people’s priority. The taste buds have changed may be because of two reasons; firstly, the availability of fruits, vegetables and spices during the lockdown period and secondly, health consciousness. Most people became health conscious during the lockdown so they prefer cleanliness over cheap street foods.

Figure 3: Preparation of Bali Prawn.

Figure 4: Cheap and local Bali Prawn in Khao Gali Bhubaneswar.

Now, when the second wave has started, people are no more scared of the pandemic. People are being careless about their safety because they are habituated with the effects of pandemic now. Recently, when I visited the street foods areas of Bhubaneswar, there wasn't any more crowd of people, but not even empty. The food trucks are still full with orders but the cooks are well dressed with caps and gloves with them. But, the small stalls who sell stick kebabs, shawarma, etc. which were once the most crowded places are now empty.

Figure 5: Empty Shawarma stalls.

Figure 6: Empty Kebab stalls in Khao Gali.

At the end I would just say that, like every coin has two sides, the pandemic also has got advantages as well as disadvantages. Somewhere it taught us how to be health conscious and on the other hand it has affected the street vendors badly. We now know how we should take care of our family as well as ourselves and we also now realize how badly the small scale businesses are affected.

Figure 7: Streets capturing crowds.