What did you eat today?

Like the saying no man is an island, our life is a complex web of influences from all that is around us. In the midst of all this I find it rather irritating when I come across people who think their culture and ways of life is the ideal path and that everyone else different from them are inferior. I believe that what we are is a result of numerous inputs over the ages and hence there is no independent identity.

My earliest recollection of when I started recognizing such attitude was at home as a teenager. We had neighbors who were from a southern part of Kerala and they had an infant son who like regular children his age would babble short sentences and reply to totally ridiculous questions that elders often ask children, like “Where is your nose?”. The problem is that he spoke a different version of Malayalam. On a few occasions I found my mom talk about this to other Palghat Malayalee women and laugh about it. All this ridicule happened because the child was growing up learning his native dialect. I forced my mom from correcting him and over the years she has given up this behavior. Incidentally as I grew older and reached college I realized that the Malayalam spoken by people in Palghat is far worse with its mixture of Tamil words and a completely off-key accent as opposed to the majority.

Let’s face it, no one is unique and people who respect this are ones I now appreciate. In this regard, the one area I see people extremely touchy about is in the area of food habits. I know people who pack precooked, ready to eat Indian dishes on journeys abroad because they just can’t adjust to anything else but their ethnic cuisine. This mindset often stems from the belief that all other dishes are paper mash in comparison to their own. I had a tough time in Malaysia the last two and a half months while shooting for a film because I refused to join in with others in our group who took great pleasure in criticizing the local fare. Hell I enjoyed every bit of Malay, Chinese and the Indian fusion Mamek food that Malaysia offered.

I had read an article in the Hindu many years ago regarding the evolution of Indian cuisine, and thanks to the net I was able to locate them. (I have provided links to the same at the end of this blog). The articles are with references to the books written by the late Dr. K. Thammu Achaya once a leading food and nutrition expert. I wouldn’t want to repeat what is written there, but he goes on to clarify how things we think are unique and Indian are not Indian at all. Here is a teaser for you – Did you know IDLY is not Indian? Rajma Chawal? Rajma is not Indian, hell rice is believed to have been brought in from Southeast Asia. Aloo Gobi? Neither vegetable are Indian. Gajar Halwa? Mirchi Ka Salan? Tomato Baath? The list is endless.

I love travelling. I love travelling to places that are not on the radars of regular tourists and so last September I travelled to the land of horses in Central Asia – Kazakhstan. I intend writing a blog on my awesome experiences there but for now here is something new that I found out. From the time I was a little kid I always associated the Samosa with North India and loved eating them at Chat houses with the channa gravy but I was in for a shock. One morning on my way to an archaeological site in Atyrau, Kazakhstan I stopped by to pick up breakfast at a local fast food joint. See the video below to know what I experienced.

Samosa is not Indian. So the next time you see someone who boasts about his Indian inheritance try taking time off to burst his bubble for today in the global village that we live in, he could prove to be an embarrassment.

Link to the Origins of Samosa

Hindu Article 1

Hindu Article 2