Black 'MAGGI'c

Maggi’s brand building endeavors or magic masala flavors have never managed to woo my taste-buds as a much as a bowl of fish-curry rice or a platter of tapioca with ground onion & green chilli paste from my mother’s kitchen, but then.. that’s not what the whole concept of Maggi had been about.. to a huge population of the Maggi-loving, Maggi-trusting Indians over the past quarter of a century. 

Maggi was India’s first instant noodle brand, easy to cook and light on the pocket & became as instantly the preferred choice of a quick bite, and sometimes even a major meal of the day for millions of children and adults alike who took to Maggi like ants to cubes of sugar; the widely preferred choice of a safe and healthy snack; be it right at home or miles away from home.

I have memories of my mother, my aunts and my grandmother all tossing up that steamy bowl of Maggi with veggies & scrambled eggs, a loving welcome home meal after school or a game. This was and still is pretty much the routine in most homes across our sub-continent. 

It incensed every cell in my body to read about the shameful Nestle-Maggi MSG reports that have outraged the brand’s largest market this week. India’s most preferred comfort food has suddenly become the reason of discomfort and ‘surprise’ for brand Nestle and its spokesmen , who should be ashamed of themselves in having said “…Food regulators in India also do not specify any limit for the presence of MSG / Glutamate,". 

Would they have dared to mention such an absurdity before the European Food Safety Authority or the US Food & Drug Administration council if caught for such underhandedness? We know that Maggi will never be gone in 2-minutes, even though India’s Food Safety & Standards Authority have tested Maggi samples from Lucknow and have found added MSG (mono sodium glutamate)  and excessive lead content in them. Will the inquest and investigation by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) lead to the cancellation of Maggi's license in India? 

The fight is not just with Maggi or Nestle, but with a protean monster mutating into one guise or the other, always hovering around sapping the growing spirit out of the weak and the struggling, making mockery of trust and conviction.

Well, it's undoubtedly horrendous for a little child to realize that it has been the wicked witch under the hooded guise of a beloved fairy godmother all along, 

..and I’m horrified.

Pic Courtesy : Google