Chicken in the Square

(Image taken from a website)

There was a news article in the papers yesterday. The local PETA chapter wants the civic authorities to install a statue of chicken in one of the city squares or 'chowks' as we call them.

The idea behind the installation is to honor the bird. All said and done its a bit funny. The article also featured people's reactions to the proposal. A lot of people felt such a statue would boost chicken sales tremendously. Even I feel the same way. Seeing something like that would only make people want to eat chicken more. Imagine, you are returning home from work, its dinner time and you are hungry. There is a traffic jam at the said chowk and you are left with nothing else to do except stare at the chicken statue. How would that feel?

I like chicken, I eat vegetarian food mostly but on average about 20 times a year I eat non-veg and that's mostly chicken as I don't like other types of meat. I have friends who eat, dream and sleep chicken, in short they are absolutely chicken-crazy. You cannot have a single conversation with them which does not lead to talk of mouth-watering chicken dishes such as butter chicken, chicken lababdar and chicken tandoori to name a few. I can't imagine what seeing a chicken chowk would do to them.

I believe the proposed chowk would turn into a chicken speciality market. All kinds of chicken dishes would be available there, not to forget egg dishes as well. There would be restaurants circling the chowks specializing in only chicken dishes. We would also have low prized fare being sold on stalls, such chicken tikka and kababs. People would throng the restaurants and stalls. Why..it might actually turn out to be one of the most popular destinations in the city.

Not to forget, a square like that would inspire similar squares modelled on other popular food items like desserts. It would have its repurcussions for sure, the fight against obesity would only get tougher when you have such irrestible visual stimuli cornering you at every signal.