Ah, the classic debate: the egg or the chicken? In Maharashtra, it has taken a peculiar turn — the grand saga of whether to include eggs in school children’s mid-day meals. After elaborate pondering, they settled for the revolutionary idea of one egg per child per week — boiled or sneakily tucked into a vegetable dish. But hold your frying pan, as the heavens trembled when two organisations, acting as meal gatekeepers, brandished red or saffron flags. Vegetarian fundamentalists, you see, can't even fathom the idea of touching eggs — not even with a ladle. Adding to the chaos, some parents chimed in, fearing their little ones might develop a taste for the forbidden non-vegetarian realm, leading to potential culinary catastrophes in sacred towns like Haridwar, Kurukshetra, and now Ayodhya, where non-veg is taboo.
Enter the genius solution from the education department mandarins: eggs only in schools where a cool 40% of students demand it. Oh, but there's a catch — they need parental permission via a requisition form. Fall short of the magical 40%, and sorry, kiddos, you're stuck with a banana or a guava slice — a riveting twist in this gastronomic saga. Now, imagine the teachers playing detective, armed with the knowledge of who's an eggetarian and who's a steadfast vegetarian.
Brace yourselves for the introduction of identity cards, proudly marked in red for the egg enthusiasts. Sure, someone might throw shade, comparing it to those special badges from the Third Reich, but hey, who asked why parents must be dragged into a religious and food-based divide when all that's at stake is an egg per child per week? Meanwhile, in the flavourful land of Tamil Nadu, kids are casually enjoying an egg with every meal — no theatrics, just simple satisfaction on their plates.
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