M. Saleemuddin

Our ancestors may have been eating eggs of wild birds long before they turned Homo sapiens and routine egg consumption may date back to the Neolithic age. According to Egyptian and Chinese records, fowls were kept in homes for their eggs by around 1400 BC. Currently more than 20 billion chickens live and share the planet with us, spread all over the world except in the Vatican City and in the continent of Antarctica.

Eggs are among the favorite foods all over the world and their consumption continues to increase globally, although reservations exist among some sections of the population. Vegans and people of some faiths are against egg consumption because of their animal origin. 

There are numerous controversies surrounding hen’s eggs also in fiction. Those who have read Jonathan Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ are familiar with the fight between the “big endian” and “small endians” of the kingdom of Blefuscu. The point of contention was the style of cracking of boiled eggs. The king ordered that everyone in the kingdom break boiled egg from the small end while rebels insisted on cracking them from the big end. There were six rebellions leading to the death of eleven thousand people. One emperor lost his throne while another his life…read more on NOPR