` 5 meal hunt draws a blank, and a few laughs
As jokes about ` 5 meal do the rounds, we try to find out what can you get for ` 5 around Jama Masjid, the most pocketfriendly area in the city
In the aftermath of recent comments by some senior politicians regarding the availability of a satisfying meal for ` 12 and ` 5, the jokes regarding the same have gone viral on Internet. There have also been some hypothetical food items invented online for such prices like a McBabbar costing just ` 12.
While ` 12 meal was claimed to be available in Mumbai by Congress spokesperson Raj Babbar, Rajya Sabha MP Rasheed Masood claimed one could get a meal for as low as ` 5 in our own Delhi.
While these politicians compete, claiming which city offers the cheapest meal in India, and others slam them for their insensitivity, it has been established without doubt that such meals are just hypothetical and far from reality.
Amidst all this, we try to figure out what exactly comes on a plate for ` 5 in Jama Masjid area that made the news for being the most affordable place for a full meal in Delhi, and maybe in the whole of India, after Rasheed Masood’s statement. What we found out was that Jama Masjid area might , arguably, be the most pocket - friendly area in terms of food, but every vendor laughs at you when you enquire about what you’ll get in ` 5. And that’s not just the small hotels and dhabas but even the hawkers who sell pakoras and chat in their small carts.
In today’s time, 5 can buy you little ` more than a single roti, without anything on the side BIRYANI VENDOR MAQSOOD HOTEL
“These politicians just like to make fun of poor people like us. Aaj kal paanch rupaye mein kya aata hai sahab ( What can you buy for five rupees these days). These rich people think that it’s easy being poor. The leader who said that ` 5 is enough to have a meal here might have never come to Jama Masjid area in a long time,” says Mehrajuddin who sells a plate of dahi bhalla for ` 20.
Though he doesn’t sell anything less than half a plate, after some persuasion, he dished out the fraction of the quantity of food that would cost ` 5 — it’s barely half a snack, and far from a full meal.
Moving on, we met Biren Kumar who sells pineapple chunks, ` 10 a plate. He doesn’t sell anything less than a full plate, and anybody wanting half a plate for ` 5 plate is firmly refused.
Asked where we can find the cheapest available meal in the area, he gives us the address of two hotels, adding, “Though I have never had food there since it costs at least ` 25. I never eat outside and if I am really hungry, I just buy a banana.”
Maqsood Hotel might,
The leader who said that 5 is enough to ` have a meal might have never come to Jama Masjid area in a long time MEHRAJUDDIN A STREET VENDOR
arguably, be one of the cheapest biryani places in the area selling a plate at ` 30. Like most others, he refused to sell us a smaller portion of biryani that’d cost ` 5, saying that for that amount one only buy little more than just a single roti.
“Ever since this neta made this statement about ` 5 meals, so many people have come here with a ` 5 coin asking for a meal. Mazak ban gaya hai hamare dhande ka toh ( Our livelihood has become a joke),” says the vendor.
Many other vendors just plainly refused to partake in the “` 5 joke”.