I am currently on vacation in the mountains in upstate New York so I'm trying to spend less time with the electronics and more time with nature and family, but I just had to put my two cents on here before snoozing on a hammock.
We drove up here from DC and it took us a good 6 hours to reach this giant house in the middle of nowhere. And since the closest grocery store is 20 miles away, we figured it would be a good idea to take a few food items for the first 2 days and buy the rest there. Apparently that translated into taking half our kitchen. So the morning of our departure, we are faced with 4 bags of clothes, 2 backpacks, my sister's guitar and 6 bags of food.
I don't know if this applies to all ethnic groups but any Indian event, holiday or gathering is focused around the food. I think it's the funniest thing in the world.
A close family friend of ours once told us a story that captures this concept perfectly. She and her family were at the beach when she saw an Indian family come by. It was a large crowd of people who all came with food, laid it out on the sand, ate and chatted. Then after they finished eating, they all got up, packed and left. Now maybe that's normal for many of you but the way she said it was so funny, "they didn't even get in the water or spend any actual time on the beach except for eating!" I will never forget this story. I just think it's so funny because it's so true. At the time, I laughed at them for being so ridiculous but I realize my family does it all the time.
Whenever I call my family in India they first ask if I've eaten and if so, what I've eaten. And if not, why haven't I eaten yet and what will be eating? We laugh about it all the time but during my 9 months in India, my mom always asked me if I ate and what I ate and most importantly - if I was getting any fatter.
Both my grandmas took care of that though. I always seem to look like a famine victim to them but I really don't. I do like eating but just not like a pig. Actually, it wasn't just my grandmas but anyone I met in India.
They insisted I eat in their house and this was especially difficult during the festival season when everyone makes sweets and fatty food that are "good for your soul" but not for your hips.
In October, there's a festival called Ganesh Chaturthi* where Hindus worship the god Ganesha. Everyone makes mountains of sweet and savory food in his honor and decorates an idol in their houses. It is customary to visit a few houses to look at the idols and eat as many sweets as possible. We don't really celebrate it in my house because who has the time to make dozens and dozens of sweets? So I wasn't used to consuming large amounts of sweets (and this is not like chocolate and candy kind of sweets, it's like doused in butter and fat and syrupy sugar kind of sweets).
I went with a friend, who lives in Bangalore, to some of the houses in her neighborhood. After I visited 3 or 4 houses, I just wanted to pass out on any flat surface that would take my weight. At every house the women would sadly look at me and tell me how underfed I am while they gave me a plate full of snacks and sweets. And if I put the plate down because I was full they'd tell me "It's okay, eat" like I purposely wanted to starve myself. The rule is to help yourself to as many as you can - even if you can't eat anymore, just keep going anyway. After all that effort, they'll ask if you want to take it home. No, thank you. I think I'm fine for the next 5 years.
When I told my mom about this concept, she was laughing. But then a few days ago when I told her I'd miss home food and Indian food while I was in college, she told me she'd freeze it and send it in the mail.
"All you have to do is buy and cook rice," she said. "Do you get Indian rice there? Because any other kind of rice will not work with this. That would be horrible! If you want, I can send rice too".
You're the best, mom. But no, I don't need rice. <3 I guess food is a metaphor for love. We just love you so much we're going to stuff you silly.
We drove up here from DC and it took us a good 6 hours to reach this giant house in the middle of nowhere. And since the closest grocery store is 20 miles away, we figured it would be a good idea to take a few food items for the first 2 days and buy the rest there. Apparently that translated into taking half our kitchen. So the morning of our departure, we are faced with 4 bags of clothes, 2 backpacks, my sister's guitar and 6 bags of food.
I don't know if this applies to all ethnic groups but any Indian event, holiday or gathering is focused around the food. I think it's the funniest thing in the world.
A close family friend of ours once told us a story that captures this concept perfectly. She and her family were at the beach when she saw an Indian family come by. It was a large crowd of people who all came with food, laid it out on the sand, ate and chatted. Then after they finished eating, they all got up, packed and left. Now maybe that's normal for many of you but the way she said it was so funny, "they didn't even get in the water or spend any actual time on the beach except for eating!" I will never forget this story. I just think it's so funny because it's so true. At the time, I laughed at them for being so ridiculous but I realize my family does it all the time.
Whenever I call my family in India they first ask if I've eaten and if so, what I've eaten. And if not, why haven't I eaten yet and what will be eating? We laugh about it all the time but during my 9 months in India, my mom always asked me if I ate and what I ate and most importantly - if I was getting any fatter.
Both my grandmas took care of that though. I always seem to look like a famine victim to them but I really don't. I do like eating but just not like a pig. Actually, it wasn't just my grandmas but anyone I met in India.
They insisted I eat in their house and this was especially difficult during the festival season when everyone makes sweets and fatty food that are "good for your soul" but not for your hips.
In October, there's a festival called Ganesh Chaturthi* where Hindus worship the god Ganesha. Everyone makes mountains of sweet and savory food in his honor and decorates an idol in their houses. It is customary to visit a few houses to look at the idols and eat as many sweets as possible. We don't really celebrate it in my house because who has the time to make dozens and dozens of sweets? So I wasn't used to consuming large amounts of sweets (and this is not like chocolate and candy kind of sweets, it's like doused in butter and fat and syrupy sugar kind of sweets).
I went with a friend, who lives in Bangalore, to some of the houses in her neighborhood. After I visited 3 or 4 houses, I just wanted to pass out on any flat surface that would take my weight. At every house the women would sadly look at me and tell me how underfed I am while they gave me a plate full of snacks and sweets. And if I put the plate down because I was full they'd tell me "It's okay, eat" like I purposely wanted to starve myself. The rule is to help yourself to as many as you can - even if you can't eat anymore, just keep going anyway. After all that effort, they'll ask if you want to take it home. No, thank you. I think I'm fine for the next 5 years.
When I told my mom about this concept, she was laughing. But then a few days ago when I told her I'd miss home food and Indian food while I was in college, she told me she'd freeze it and send it in the mail.
"All you have to do is buy and cook rice," she said. "Do you get Indian rice there? Because any other kind of rice will not work with this. That would be horrible! If you want, I can send rice too".
You're the best, mom. But no, I don't need rice. <3 I guess food is a metaphor for love. We just love you so much we're going to stuff you silly.
Great Post Tulsi! I agree, we tend to do this a lot. The entire time I read it, I couldn't help but think of our DC Fireworks Experience, both this year and in 2010! Nice job!
ReplyDelete-Shabbu