A tomato is a lot like salt. Add it in a dish in the right amount and you can have a Michelin worthy dish ready. That is all well and easily said for the critics and the chefs alike, but in reality terms more and less glamor, the fear is there may be no more dishes that can be saved by tomatoes.
The reason is inflation. Described as the very Devil for the discerning customer, it makes everything it touches very expensive, like a tragic parody of the Midas touch, based on the legendary king who could touch anything and make it gold. And while it is reasonable enough to expect that the prices of things go up over the years gradually, it still can give someone a serious shock when they hear that their beloved tomatoes are now selling for 259 rupees at the very moment this article is being typed.
The sudden heavy rains destroyed a lot of produce which in turn disrupted the flow of the legendary Azadpur Mandi, which has earned a veritable reputation over the years in the Asian continent. Where trucks would fight for a space to park, only six of them came up from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, bringing down the market by 15 percent already.
The Central Government in savior mode had intervened earlier for reducing prices but even they couldn’t come in between the low supply problem which pushed up prices further. Ashok Kaushik, President of the Azadpur Tomato Association has concurred with the above mentioned reasons mournfully although he has offered a hope, that if all goes well, the supply will be improved in the next 10 days and the customers will be able to nurse their wallets as well.
Talk about taking salt and tomatoes for granted eh?