Today is April 26^th 2020. Coronavirus, Covid-19, has created havoc across the world. We are locked in our own houses since more than a month now and we are not alone. A large part of humanity is together in this situation. Under these circumstances a dear friend called me today from another country. He wanted to discuss the problem of another friend of ours. I confess I have no clear solution on how should he respond to the problem. At best I can think of some possible steps that he can take.   I therefore decided to share the issue with a larger audience. Who knows which other friend finds himself in a similar situation.

Let me give a background of all of us. We are three childhood friends. Myself Sanju, who joined the corporate world in India. Problem child Raju, who was son of a wealthy landlord and now is involved in multiple businesses in India. He continues to live in a town which is not too big.  Veeru, who called me today, went abroad and is highly regarded for his technical expertise.  

Raju was born in a wealthy family and had all the possible comforts of the day with him. But India being what it was then, cooking was the exclusive domain of the family members. Generally the ladies of the household used to cook and sometimes his father too, who loved to cook. There was no dearth of servants in the household who were always there to do almost all other chores and lend a helping hand even in the kitchen while cooking. Life was perfect, joyous, harmonious with lot of emphasis on travel, visit to pilgrimages and temples, community events etc.

Times never remain the same. They change. Raju got married, slightly earlier than rest of the gang. His wife came from a bigger city, was well educated herself, her father was a doctor with decent income and she had led a comfortable life. She hadn’t seen her mother or father cooking in their house. So a change happened in the household of Raju. Cooking went out of the syllabus of family members to the servants, or to be fair, in the hands of a good cook. After all a family with adequate means should not be involved in manual work, was the new thinking. Focus moved to value added and sophisticated work like arts and crafts, charity events and obviously having fun and enjoying life. Initially it was difficult for Raju to see his wife enjoying occasional tipple, but soon it became a norm and the family moved to fun times, merry making, high society life and businesses moved from agrarian to manufacturing of various artefacts.

But times are forever changing. Children had now grown up. Since they were from a prominent family of the town, they were admired and followed by many. They were in fact the trend setters. Their family was of considerable clout and were heading many managing committees of the town. Life continued to be picture perfect with some more changes. Children started enjoying the food from best restaurants of the town. More often than not all their meals started coming from outside. Parents too were enjoying the same food. Raju, my friend, thought why he should keep expensive cooks. They were more productive in is businesses where they were giving him profits too. Kitchen at home became a pale shadow of itself. The place, where at one time, head of the family also cooked was in disuse, to be used only to prepare tea and coffee. But there were no regrets. Everyone was happy, right from my friend to his wife, children, cooks and of course the restaurant owners. It was quite profitable too for my friend as well as restaurant owners. A silent revolution was happening outside the house, in the town also. There were many small restaurants which had spawned since most of the children and families in the town also started ordering from outside. A new kind of economy had emerged where most of the families stopped cooking and busy in pleasure pursuits or value added, white collared work. There were many eateries that had their own specialities. But the biggest of them all was a restaurant by the name ‘King of Food’. It was not only the largest, it prepared many types of food, owned and captured many supply chains of the ingredients, made exclusive arrangements with farmers, gave easy credit to farmers in distress and then if they were unable to pay occupied their land and in some cases even started sending its cooks to the households of the wealthy who now wanted customised food made in their own kitchens. Other small restaurants and eateries were finding it difficult to stay in competition and in any case all of them put together catered to less than 40% of the market, with the balance being catered to by King of Food. But life was still going on smooth.

Raju, our friend was now getting older and wiser. Since last couple of years he was feeling uneasy about the complete market dominance by King of Food. It was showing signs of having gone rogue. It dominated the entire food chain, its prices, quality and even who should be given food and at what time. No one had the courage to stand up to him. Competition was virtually finished since they couldn’t compete on prices with the King of Food. He held complete sway on the supply chain. Town was in the stranglehold of the ‘King’. To make matters worse, now the households didn’t have kitchens in their houses. Not only this, no one knew how to cook and there were very less cooks available. Those who were available were very expensive. Raju had been discussing his concerns with his well-wishers but no solution was in sight. Some feeble attempts were made to prop up a strong competition to the King of Foods, but every such effort failed.

Then one fine morning hell broke loose. For some strange reason many cooks with the King of Food started falling ill. Before anyone could realise, everybody who ordered food from the restaurant also faced the same fate. It spread like a wild fire. Raju’s worst fears had come true. He was cursing himself for allowing situation to reach this stage. After all this change was started by him. Then suddenly another catastrophe happened. While the town was grappling with the new situation, everybody at the ‘King’ was on their feet. Their competition was crippled, residents had lost their ability to think rationally and were busy saving themselves while losing their strength to fight the situation and they no longer had anybody to cook for them except King of Food. They were clearly making lots of money. Business was never so good for them. Raju, my dear friend, still a wealthy and influential person in the town, was on his knees for the first time in his life.

It was in this situation Veeru asked my opinion on the predicament of Raju and possible solutions’. I was stunned to hear all this and couldn’t believe my ears. Raju was not only the wealthiest in all the friends, he was most intelligent, brave and had an amazing networking with other wealthy people who we didn’t even know. It was sad to see the plight of my dear friend.

I had no ready solution to offer Veeru or through him to Raju. I knew Raju was intelligent and capable and will come up with a solution on his own once he was pushed to the wall. My mind also said that a problem which has been created over decades and generations cannot be wished away in matter of days. Raju today had no option but to save himself, his family and other residents of the town since they were on many governing committees and bore some responsibility. Raju and other residents had no option but to keep ordering food from the ‘King’. At this moment there was only one priority – save as many lives as possible. I knew it was long and arduous trudge for my Raju and his people. At some stage they will have to rebuild their kitchens, relearn cooking, build alternative supply sources and ensure that there is no overdependence on one and only one, the ‘King’.

It was no longer a question of having fun, not standing by the fire to cook, not doing manual work, getting things cheapest etc. Now was the choice between Life and Death. I had no courage to tell Veeru to communicate this to Raju. I had faith in the wisdom of my friend Raju, who was woken up from his sleep by this rude shock. He had learnt valuable lessons of his life of self-dependence, not depending on one person alone for anything, allowing competition to flourish and above all not making fun and wealth the primary focus areas of his life. May God bless Raju and residents of his town. Inner voice in me says that Raju will emerge stronger after this trial by fire.