The gift of the Maggi -O. Henry

   As an outgoing 20-something, I am doing everything that an individual of my age should be doing except for drinking, smoking and dating. I am adept at making both long term and short term plans which have a 70% probability of failing but I like to live in the uncertainty of that 30% because hey, I would prefer my future to be unpredictable. As I grew up, I was always haunted by the thought that once a girl learns to cook, she is ready for marriage. Hence I ended up not learning one of the most useful skills of adulthood when I should have. My mom wouldn’t cook Maggi for me as per my will, hence I learnt how to cook it for myself (as an afterthought I feel, my mom could have used this ingenious technique for making me cook a host of other dishes).

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*I trusted the internet to find an equivalent for the spiritual feeling that I have for Maggi.

  For those of you who don’t know (here, I am addressing my audience from the countries like China, Japan, South Bombay, Bandra who live on a diet of Wai Wai noodles) Maggi, is a brand of instant noodles which takes a little more than 2 minutes to cook. I don’t remember the exact moment when my taste glands were smitten by its very presence, but I guess it was around the time when I didn’t know how to spell or pronounce ‘Maggi’. Since the last few years, Maggi has been my constant companion for lonely nights and crowded evenings.

   Just like every popular person has their set of haters, every silver lining has a cloud and every sugar cube has ants swarming around it, even Maggi had its set of controversies. They condemned Maggi by stating that it has lead content in it which is harmful for health. I have consumed so much Maggi over the years that ideally the iron content in my blood should have been replaced by lead by now. Had that been the case then my fingers would have done the writing and I won’t have to use a pencil anymore! But that didn’t deter me and other loyal consumers of Maggi from consuming it.

   I am the kind of person who when is introduced to something new, over uses it so much that I stop using it altogether (that’s the case with dishes, music, people and  the list goes on). Maggi, I fail to understand how you have managed to keep me hooked to you since ages. You amaze my taste buds and mind. I aspire to be a writer, lover, individual like you- addictive and irreplaceable.