RAJSHAHI, July 22: He is popularly known in the locality as 'Pepper Eater Mobarak' from his boyhood.
He eats green, red chilli or pepper like that of chocolates. He can chew and consume at least one kg or more green, red chilli or pepper voraciously in a day.
Mobarak Mollah, a resident of Halidagacchi village under Charghat upazila, can consume green, red chilli or pepper as he could until he is satisfied.
When he visits some one's house, he prefers green chilli as snacks rather than other food items.
By consuming green chilli, Mobarak, now at his 70s, looks young and smart.
He said taste of green or red (ripened not dried up) chilli seems like chocolate or candy to him. From his early boyhood he started consuming chilli.
Mobarak has wife, three daughters and one son--all of them are married and have their own children.
Vegetable trader Rais Uddin at Halidagacchi Bazar could not identify Mobarak at first but when asked 'the man who consumes green chilli', Rais answered with a smile, he is better known as 'chilli eater Mobarak' and every one of the locality knows him by that name.
Mobarak can eat one kg of green chilli without any break.
At his house, Mobarak Molla was given a dishful of green chilli to consume by his daughter- in- law Nasima Begum. In front of many of his neighbours, Mobarak consumed all chilli.
Mobarak said he does not feel uneasy in consuming even one kg of green chilli a day.
How did he start consuming the chilli? Mobarak informed, at his boyhood he had to work at a chilli field as a day labourer.
He plucked a green chilli and consumed it and it tastes like a toffee to him.
He informed about the taste to his friends working there. But, no one believed him. At this, Mobarak took it as a challenge and consumed several green chilli in front of them.
Later on, green chilli has become an essential item of his daily meal.
Mobarak said he had eaten up to 2.0 kgs of chilli a day. At first, he said, vegetables traders in various local markets and haats used to supply him green chilli to eat in front of them free of cost. But, now everyone knows the veracity of his eating of chilli and since the price is high, only a few traders dare to offer him to consume green chilli free of cost.
Mobarak's daughter Beli Begum said she used to watch his father from her childhood to consume green chilli. No one can refrain him from consuming the chilli.
A nutritionist Ansia Parvin Surovi in this connection said chilli tastes hot because of presence of a chemical known as Capsaicin. In human tongue, there are 4,000 to 5,000 taste-glands per millimeter of area, the more taste glands is present in a tongue, the more taste s/he feels.
But, in birds' tongue, the number of taste gland is only 400 to 500 in a millimetre of area. That is why birds can consume chilli without feeling any hot.
May be Mobarak has less taste glands in his tongue that is why he cannot feel any hot while consuming chilli or pepper.
