Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Addiction

There is a phenomenon amongst us humans (when I refer to our species as humans, you can be sure I've been reading yet another book about vampires), where we crave certain things and need to fulfil that need before we proceed any further. It's called having an addiction.

Now, drugs and other such parafernalia I am not familiar with. My poison of choice is chocolate.

Chocolate has a very long history. It originates back from Latin America from the time of the Aztecs, who introduced it to the Europeans in the 16th century. Chocolate is associated with Xochiquetzal, the Aztec Goddess of fertility, and the word is derived from the Aztec words for bitter and water. So you can see now that the Swiss have a lot to be grateful for!! One of their chief industries would not exist had it not been for the New World and their quest for new territories!!

I don't know the statistics about how many people around the world too love chocolate. But I'm sure that it must be at least a billion. Being a psychoactive drug, chocolate is also said to be an antidepressant and to have a number of positive attributes such as being able to lower blood pressure and to be an antioxidant. Ofcourse it is also said to increases chances of obesity (a more fancy way of saying you'll get fat if you eat too much of it - which is true for everything in this world though).

There is a nice book called "Like Water for Chocolate" by Laura Esquivel. It tells the story of a young girl who doesn't get to marry the person she loves and is forced instead to watch his life from afar. The book is beautifully written, and the movie, like most movies, cannot begin to encapture the poetry of the book. The book is about food as well; and the emotions that go into food. One should read it if one gets the chance.

Now yesterday I was neither sad nor angry nor uncalm; but I had this sudden urge to have a Twix candy bar. I had gone to the store to buy some mosquito repellant (a must in this great country of ours), when my eyes spied the Twix candy bar behind the counter. As I was paying for the insecticide, I decided, what the hay - and I bought the chocolate as well.

What surprised me was the speed at which the bar was devoured. Two sticks were eaten in less than 3 minutes - no world record I agree and considering I had not had dinner yet - it was surely not too fast.

The moment I had consumed it though, the world seemed like a happier place.

If only all of us could eat more chocolate.

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