Chicken Tikka Masala: Food for Thought

Right before your tongue is flooded by the thought of a tantalizing aroma of a gravy, whose creamy consistency engulfs you in a warmth of seraphic delight, let me stop you. This isn't about how to make Chicken Tikka Masala. 

Its about things to think about while you eat your Tikka Masala, blended with a combination of Basmati Rice and Butter Naan. As you savor the tender silky strands of your chicken and take a mouthful of rice to gulp all that ecstasy down your throat, I would like to step into your cognitive spotlight and ask you this:

"Have you heard about the CNG Bike?"

On 5th of July, 2024, Bajaj launched the Freedom 125, a CNG bike that will start from around Rs. 95,000 and will give a total range of 330KM on a full tank. The company said it will cut the cost around 50 percent while reducing its carbon emissions by 26.7 percent compared to petrol, accompanied by an 85 percent reduction in non-methane hydrocarbons and a 43 percent decrease in nitrogen oxides.

Sounds cool, right?

Well, lets see if it makes a difference.

CNG is Compressed Natural Gas. Its compressed in order to make it occupy less space during its storage. Natural Gas is found in abundance near oil wells and other underground sources. Its fundamentally just methane. It produces just carbon dioxide and water when its burnt. It also produces unburned hydrocarbons (UHC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOX), sulfur oxides (SOx), and particulate matter (PM), but these are in trace amounts. So far more cleaner than burning petrol. 

Won't that give you one more reason to go on a ride and feel the wind blowing off your nostrils. Not your hair, because you'll have your helmet on. If your scalp yearns for some air, stop, take off your helmet and take a stroll. 

And on the way back you can grab a chicken tikka masala, garnished with a drizzle of cream and corriander, from the money you'll save using CNG.

The writer is a googling enthusiast, who has wasted thousands of hours googling about every basic thing he sees. This blog is his attempt to put all those superflous pursuits into something meaningful.