The Song of Food

Abstract

“The Song of Food” brings to light a relationship that exists between the soundscape and the foodscape of a geographical location. The research studies the rhymes or songs that are sung by food-selling hawkers in North Indian markets. The article establishes that the relevance of these songs is definitely beyond the transaction of buying, selling, and consuming food, and discovers the socio-economic and socio-cultural dimension that reflects from these songs. The findings reveal that how nativity, geography, and economic status are inherently adopted while composing these songs. Oblivious to the fact that how they have added another sense to food, beyond taste, vision and smell, the sense of sound, these hawkers have introduced social intimacy to a simple buying and selling process. The article talks about few such food products and their selling calls from Hindi- and Punjabi-speaking regions of North India.