The Champs

3000 and counting!! This was the statistics when I made the last count in January of 1995. I had hoped to reach the 5000 mark by 2010, but now that just seems like a dream. I began counting in September of 1977 and to think in a matter of seventeen and a half years I had reached the first said number is I think a great achievement. I am sure most of you have no clue as to what I am counting. Well if you have lived in the Middle East at some point, you may have a slight inkling. The number is that of the chicken dressed and prepared by me during my life in the Middle East. 3000 as such seems a very large number, however when you make a break up of it, it works to about 15-20 birds a month.

Those who have lived in the Middle East will know how important a place this lowly bird occupies in the diet pattern of the inhabitants there. Occasion or not chicken is an integral part of the dining table. My first tryst with the bird was sometime in September of 1977. On my first visit to the super market I came across the poultry in the freezer section. They were so well packed and the leaders in the market was a brand from France called DOUX. Every housewife in the Middle East would have had her reckoning with the DOUX chicken. On bringing it home, I realized that it took a couple of hours before it could be thawed and ready to be cut to desired pieces. This needed some expertise of which I totally lacked. My husband did it for me and I was a keen learner, knowing fully well what was in store for me in the years to come. Although I was married at the age of 20years, I was not a novice as far as culinary talents went. Having just graduated with a Bachelors degree in Nutrition and Dietetics, I had done some cooking in college as well as at home. The raw meat for those endeavours were cut and in ready to use format. (The cutting having been done by some other poor soul) Here was a chicken that came with the skin, fat and all other paraphernalia and it was not before 4-6 months that I moved up from the apprentice stage.

Once the apprentice ship was over, graduating and reaching a PhD seemed child’s play. From preparing one chicken with great difficulty, I ended up making ten and twelve chicken for some of the get togethers. The Indian community like the other communities that live in the Middle East, is famous for its bon homie and parties and any such event warranted the lowly or shall I say the lovely chicken. Towards the end of my stay, I could say that there have been times when we have purchased crates of chicken for a single occasion. In the meantime, the chicken too seemed to have progressed. DOUX, the hard as rock brand started giving way to dressed refrigerated birds. With plenty of poultry farms coming up in these countries, emphasis was given to their own products. This resulted in us getting fresher products which were closer in taste to the ones we were used to in India. The latest I hear is that there are shops were one can go and buy a chicken just like how we do it here. Although the job is made easy, the thrill according to me is lost. There used to be a joke that some of the frozen birds could be older than the user!

Now that I am back in India, the counting has stopped and I have not been able to improve on my score. In all these fourteen years, I may have had to prepare only about 50-100 birds. My services are only required when we decide to have a BBQ, for which we prefer to get the whole cleaned bird and then cut it to our choice. As for my friends who are still in the Middle East, most of them having completed 30 years, and I am sure there score must have hit 6000 and above. These ladies will prove a true competition to some of the sportspeople who struggle so hard to reach such magical numbers. Long live these Champs!!!
JAI HO!!!!