Women who cook regularly are worried. Not just about the sky-rocketing cost of dal, but also about family nutrition being affected.
“It may be a joke on the social media, but I am seriously considering gifting people tur dal for Deepavali, and call it yellow gold,” says N. Apoorva. She is reacting to the quantum leap in price of the dal.
Mani who works as domestic help in several homes says she can’t remember when she last ate any paruppu .
“I only consume what I get in the ration shops. If I am lucky and I can get time off from my employers, I stand all day in the queue at the ration shop to get it. But that tastes awful and I can tell you that of 1kg of dal only 750 gm is edible. The rest is rubbish.” Mani says she gets dal every alternate month from the ration shop.
For Soumya who runs an all-vegetarian household, this is a cause of great concern.
“Tur dal is our staple. Be it rasam or sambar, my cooker is never without this dal,” she says.
“And what is going to happen to the idly/dosai tiffin I prepare on most days,” she asks.
This ridiculous rise has thrown my monthly budget completely askew. And I have to think hard about what I am going to substitute the tur/urad dals with, nothing comes to mind,” she says.
Lalitha M. is distressed too. “Less dal means less protein and even the vegetables are expensive. And there is so much of paneer and soya we will eat. But my heart goes out to those who don’t have these options. I have decided to raise the salary of my domestic help enough to at least enable her to buy 1 kg of dal a month if nothing else.”
