When Rosgolla dials Diabetes; A day when two 'enemies' greet each other

As irony would have it, we observe both 'World Rasgulla day' and 'World Diabetes day' today. And definitely, we are not against you having mouth watering Bengali Rosgalla. You can have one or many as you deem proper after reading this.

Kolkata: Geometry says that two parallel lines only meet in infinity but November 14 is a day when the cause and the effect– Rosgolla and Diabetes- the two apparent enemies– share the space in the single block of the calendar. This is a day to observe ‘World Rasgulla day’ and ‘World Diabetes Day’ together.

Though there is a popular belief that Rasgulla is a strict 'No-No' for the diabetic patients but recently doctors are of the opinion that diabetic patients can take the liberty of taking sweets provided they keep their glucose calorie balance right. If a person is diabetic it will stay all through his life and so it is a punishment asking him not to have sweets all through his or her life. The only thing the person should keep in mind is that he or she will have to keep the balance between glucose and calories right.

Doctor Amitabh Sur said, "Having your sugar level ticking high once means you will have it for the rest of your life. So telling someone not to eat sweets for a lifetime is punishing. It has no meaning. Overall, glucose and calorie balance should be kept right. Moreover, many people may not know that having rosogolla is better than having other sweets for diabetes. Or better than eating other sweets. It is better to eat the chick part except the rasgulla juice," diabetic expert Amitabha Sur said.

"If you have sweets at any time of the day, then you have to take your meals carefully. As any sweet carries huge calories you will have to control your meals and should have less food. Moreover, you will have to do physical exercise regularly. There is no reason to believe that one will have to leave sweets after getting detected with diabetes," well known doctor Protyush Ghosh said.

The doctors might have their own words of caution but it goes without saying that one can take a Bengali out of Bengal but one cannot take rasgulla out of a Bengali. Despite thousands of warnings, the white round sugary ball melting in the mouth has been a perpetual temptation for the Bengalis.

"Now type 2 diabetes is cured. And there is no such warning that eating sweets lead to diabetes. Taking sweets after a full meal is a worldwide practice. I don’t feel that if we take little sweets – a day – it will increase our sugar level. There can be many reasons for that," said Sudip Mullick- the owner of Balaram Mullick, one of the most famous sweets shops in Kolkata.

With this in mind - "Play football and don't give up, have rasgulla every now and then"- a private hospital in Kolkata organised a football match where starting from doctors and health workers of the hospital and celebrities played football together. “We wanted to give the message that there is no need to leave rasgulla even if you are a diabetic. You need to play football,” one of the organisers said.

Debates will continue but what is obvious is that neither it will be eradicated nor can one stop people from having the aesthetic taste of this paradisiacal honeyed ball. Director Rituparna Ghosh once said, “Everyone's birthday in his family was a special day in his childhood. Then all of them went to the land of no return. They all became dates”. The famous Bengali director also has become a date now and we all will become one day. So let’s forget the date and make November 14 perpetual – let’s have ‘Rasgolla’.