A sweetshop in Kolkata wants its customers to eat and digest their virus scare. The 70-year-old confectionery shop, Hindusthan Sweets, in the city's Jadavpur outlet has created a "sandesh" in the likeness of the most popular ultrastructure image of the COVID-19 virus. "People are calling it corona sandesh, but please know that this anti-corona," says R. K. Paul, one of the owners of the sweetshop.
"People are just so scared looking at news of all the people dying in Italy, US and Spain. That's why I had this idea of creating an anti-corona 'mishti'. We are at war with the disease. And we are not scared. We will eat it out and digest it," says Paul who has created slogans and posters to go with his brand new confection which he gives out for free. 'Nai Nai Bhoi/ Hobe Hobe Joy/ Coronar hobey parojoy' (There is no fear/victory is near/corona will be defeated) reads a flier pasted across a glass display in the sweetshop, which is located close to the main campus of Jadavpur University.
Last month, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee permitted sweetshops to function with minimum staff during lockdown, even though sweets do not fall under the list of essential items. While the ostensible reason given is a Bengali person's penchant for his 'mishti', the move is intended to check the wastage of thousands of litres of milk lying unused with no delivery and transportation staff. The sweetshops are meant to remain open strictly between 12 to 4pm in the afternoon, a siesta time in the city when footfall is likely to be less. "People don't ask for these sweets. We just give it in packets for free. I don't think anyone eats it. It looks grotesque, anyway. But who would have thought the sweets would become a virus of its own," chuckles Paul who is happy to entertain TV reporters, newspapers and local journalists doing live broadcasts of his anti-corona sandesh. He gloats about how he got calls from media houses in the US as well.
This isn't the first time Paul's topical confections have gone viral, he says. Most recently, when India's first ever day-night Test match was played with the pink ball at Eden Gardens, Paul had 'pink ball sandesh' to mark the historic moment. But Paul is more happy to recall his line of "herbal sweets" made of Arjun, Brahmi, Tulsi and the like. "I was the first one to invent carrot rasogolla in 2003," he says, beaming with pride. Journals in Paris and the United States wrote about it, he says.
Paul thinks of himself as a Newton who is bonked with apples under a tree when inspiration strikes. He doesn't want to create any further spinoffs of corona confection, neither is he worried about other sweetmakers following in his footsteps. "Rabindranath Tagore got a Nobel only once. I have got my Nobel. Who wants another one? Even coronavirus will only happen once," says Paul, adding how he has been robbed of his sleep after creating his anti-corona sandesh.
