In steaming hot curry
Steaming hot curry. Mouth watering. Hot and spicy. It gives your tongue that tingling feeling. The British conquered India, but curry conquered the British empire. Now it is being patented in Japan. What will the Japanese do with curry?
The very idea of trying to fight the patent is laughable. Of what practical use can it be to the Japanese? All they can do with curry is eat it. The two Japanese inventors, Hirayama Makoto and Ohashi Sachiyo, who have filed for the patent may hit the emotional interests of Indians but it is unlikely that they will be able to hit commercial interests. Almost every housewife in India, depending on the state she is from has a process of her own for cooking curry. A process she has probably inherited from her grandmother and modified to suit her requirements. The time and labour taken to produce curry varies from city to city. The larger the city, the less the time. Even the end product is different.
However, one needs to insure that business and commercial interests should be more protected when such patenting takes place. Therefore, instead of sitting back and burping over their rice and curry lunches, the babus of Indian industry should realise that they should take the initiative to protect Indian products which are of vital importance to them. The cosmetics industry should ensure that the herbs it uses are not patented abroad. It should pay for fighting the patent as well as protecting and cultivating the herb. Just imagine what would happen to the halwais and restaurant owners of India, if sweetmeats and namkeens were patented abroad and India ultimately signed an agreement which made it illegal to cook kheer in your own house.
Housewives could go to jail, businesspersons would have to pay huge sums of money as royalty which would eat into their profits. In fact it would be the end of the world for Indians. Probably, Hyderabadi biryani would come in little tins packaged in the us . A luxury which only the very rich would be able to afford.
We would definitely then be in steaming hot curry.