EPISODE 12: The Hunger Pandemic: Ash-filled Stoves and Empty Stomachs in Rural Uttar Pradesh

  Around the world, social media feeds have become feasts for the eyes and spurs to the appetite, flooded with photos posted by people working from home and cooking for themselves. While professional and amateur chefs serve up lockdown recipes, writers churn out think pieces about quarantine cooking. In India too, the privileged urban classes are venturing boldly forth into unknown corners of their pantry cupboards, sighing about meat shortages and liquor store closures, while keeping a nervous ear cocked for the call of the sabziwalla.  Cognitive dissonance is baked into our lives. As the country juddered into lockdown on March 24 like a train with bad brakes and loose couplings, we alternated between comforting images of home-cooked meals on