heartstART

By heartstART

Cooking with gas

Many neighbourhoods of Delhi don't have gas pipelines laid into the ground. It is an old city, roads are crumbling, infrastructure is not set up for it and whole sections of the city would come to a standstill or alternate to chaos if the project to dig up streets and lay pipelines is ever undertaken.

What's common practice is applying for a monthly allocation of gas cylinders to use for cooking. These are home delivered by a government approved supplier.

Not so long ago there was a thriving black market trade in gas cylinders. People without an allocation would wait years or bribe their way into the list. Others would buy their friends' and neighbours' surplus cylinders if they were lucky. And if not, then on the black market for a much higher price and the cylinders would often not be filled to the standard approved weight of 30kg.

It's a 2 person job every time a cylinder is delivered to our place. We check the weight, remove the regulator from the old cylinder. Then we move the cooking range and disconnect the hose from the back. The new cylinder goes into place. The seal is broken, the regulator snaps on on top, the hose is connected to the cooker which is then moved back into place.

Having things 'on tap' is not to be taken for granted here.

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