Lalu Prasad turned agriculture expert on Friday, leaving medics at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in splits with his talking style.
The RJD chief had gone to the institution to inaugurate its three-day cultural-cum sports programme, Cerebrexia, with son and health minister Tej Pratap Yadav.
Lalu used a mix of Bhojpuri and Hindi to talk to the medical students and doctors about the extensive use of pesticides in vegetables.
" Pahle jab phulgobi ke tarkari banta tha, pura gaon ghar mahakta tha aise ke sab samjhe ekra ghar mein phulgobi banal hai (earlier when cauliflower curry used to be prepared at a house, the aroma used to spread to the entire village, letting everyone know that cauliflower curry was being prepared)," curry expert Lalu told the gathering. "Har sabji etna achha lagta tha ki aur cheej dal ul rahe ki na rahe, sabji ke jhol aadmi apna lapet ke kha le. Ab to koi taste nahi hai. Bilkul khad khad chidkao chidkao (Every curry used to taste so good that one could enjoy an entire meal with that even if there were no pulses or anything else. But today we cannot find such taste in the curries because of the extensive use of chemical fertilisers in growing vegetables)."
He also advised the audience on what they should look at while buying vegetables - only asymmetrical-shaped bottle gourds.
"Don't buy bottle gourds that are long and straight because it is believed they have been bombarded with chemicals," said Lalu.
Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences' youth wing has organised the annual three-day programme and among the events would be sketch-drawing, face-painting, T-shirt painting, stand-up comedy and recreation of movie scene on stage.
Principal secretary, health, R.K. Mahajan, the institute director N.R. Biswas, medical superintendent Prabhat Kumar Sinha, and additional medical superintendent Manish Mandal attended the inauguration.
Lalu had words to share about director Biswas as well.
After a clash among the medics recently, Biswas had communicated to the health department his inability to continue on the job because of the growing violence on campus. "We thought we had almost lost Biswasji but somehow we made him believe that everything on the campus would be taken care of and only after our assurance, he changed his mind about leaving the institute," said Lalu.
Speaking on Cerebrexia, Mandal, who is also the cultural secretary of the institution, said: "We had a medical parliament on 'National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) vs the Medical Council of India'. Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary donned the role of the Speaker. Another mock parliament on 'human rights vs doctors' was also held on Friday."
"We have a Bollywood night scheduled for Saturday," Mandal added.
