It was sometime in the early 1980s that I tried my first egg. I came from a traditional South Indian vegetarian joint family, where even onion and garlic were not consumed, let alone eggs or meat. Then one day, the revolutionary ‘Sunday ho ya Monday, roz khao ande’ jingle hit our television screens. It was nutritional advice at its best, and brilliantly tapped into the aspirations of the middle-class family, bringing along the promise of cognitive development – and the undying hope that I would turn into a genius at mathematics. The advertisement successfully brought about behaviour change in my father. To the amazement of several, and displeasure of some in the family, he decided that his daughter must not be deprived of the nutritious values of eggs.
In the old-fashioned household with a courtyard in the centre and over four families sharing a kitchen, the winds were changing, as nutrition was being given precedence over tradition. The memorable advertisement from the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) turned out to be my first lesson in the power of communication.