Modern day fad - vegetables cut and packaged, ready to cook

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention and, therefore, it has come to pass that today we can get vegetables cut, packed and ready to cook. These are available off the shelf and have come as a boon to those who do not want to be bothered about the dull routine of peeling and cutting the vegetables for cooking.
I first saw it in a number of shopping outlets in Bangalore – the packets were nicely stacked on air-conditioned shelves and the customers were young couples, most of them being from the IT industry. They had just started getting used to a family life and, probably, were not that confident about the process of getting the veggies into proper shape. Moreover, such peeling and cutting required necessary cutting equipment apart from some sort of expertise.

Well – if these were readily available off the shelf, why should worry about cutting equipment and expertise. As to the cooking, there are any number of websites that can provide step by step guidance on preparing the most typical of mouthwatering dishes.
Later, I saw such ready-made packets of cut vegetables in shopping outlets in Nashik as well as in Pune – obviously, the fad has caught on.
When I last visited Kolkata, I found such cut vegetables sold in the markets. In some shops, the shopkeeper will peel and cut the vegetable that you have purchased. As they do for the fish – they descale and cut the fish because the modern day nuclear families do not have any elder women in the house to undertake such dull, boring chores like those of yore who used to be entrusted with these activities.
And, in Nashik, I have seen fruits being sold cut and packaged during festivals like Ganesh Puja and Divali. It is customary to offer at least five different types of fruits to the Gods. But, due to the high cost, a solution has been found. Packets containing one piece of each fruit is sold. For those who cannot afford full fruits, the solution is to offer cut pieces like one pod of an orange, one slice of guava, one grape etcetera – the cost is much less!! (to be continued …)
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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