Of samosas, sins and the spiral of shame

Where there's pleasure, there's guilt - and the tantalising matter of guilty pleasures. So, in a grand mai-baap effort to rescue the Indian conscience from its own stomach, a new government directive is in the works that will ensure that samosas and jalebis - those golden, oily icons of joy - come branded with health warnings. The strategy is to guilt out the imbiber of the two greatest desi snacks - at least so that she or he at least goes easy on them. But by informing us of guilt, will the guilty pleasure now become more pleasurable?

With every warning with a samosa, will we be nudged back into the comforting embrace of shame eating? Like Victorian England's obsession with corsets and celery sticks, we are now expected to nibble our sin-snacks with penitent faces, a gulp of guilt for every crunchy bite. The logic is simple: if smoking can be seen by smokers as 'cool' despite a warning, why not samosas? Nothing will say 'I'm a rebel' like a woman tearing into a jalebi. Soon, street vendors might shout 'Dilli-style, high cholesterol guaranteed!' to entice the hipster crowd, while aunties debate whether homemade ghee makes shame less commercial. Next up: warning labels on laddoos, followed by therapists offering post-snack guilt counselling. India, it seems, is finally eating its feelings - responsibly.