Smack Your Lips

Smack Your Lips

We’re a republic of cuisine that includes everything from the exotic to the mundane. Food is the channel of the spirit and the cement of solidarity.

When materialist philosopher Feuerbach wrote: “Man is what he eats,” more than merely philosophising, he was revealing deep truths about human nature. Indeed, our everyday eating, drinking, feasting and fasting are significant symbolic actions that reveal who we are and what we are about.

India has rich food traditions. Tribal societies bolster bonding among members through commensality — especially at festivals, at peak events of the agricultural cycle like harvest-time, and after rites of passage, like name-giving and handing over of brides for marriage. Food is the channel of the spirit and the cement of solidarity.

Vedanta portrays humans comprising of different layers. The outermost, visible layer is the annamaya kosha which can be sattvic, pure, rajasic, hot, or tamasic, intoxicating, depending on the foods one eats. Classical texts extol food. For example, the Taittiriya Upanishad, 2:2, reads: “From food, verily, are produced all creatures — whatsoever dwells on earth. By food alone, furthermore, do they live and to food, in the end, do they return; for food alone is the eldest of all beings and, therefore, it is called the panacea for all.”

The Abrahamic religions have prescriptions and proscriptions regarding food. Adam and Eve are shown as hungry humans. God says to them: “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food”, Genesis 1:29. Moreover, their downfall is also due to eating the forbidden fruit: “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Genesis 3:11. Islam too distinguishes between halal, good, and haram, impure, foods.

M K Gandhi succinctly said, “If God were to come to this world, he would come in the form of bread.” God is the ‘Giver of Bread’: the Primal Annadata. Jesus said, “I am the Bread of life,” striving to satisfy physiological hungers, satiate spiritual thirsts and resuscitate sagging spirits. His Last Supper was the culmination of a life generously given to nourish others, even though his so-called ‘table fellowship’ with the scum of society was scandalous to those who considered themselves pure and despised supposed ‘sinners’.

Global Nuances

Beyond religious dimensions, food has global nuances. Germans distinguish between essen, which is the eating activity of human beings, and fressen, which is used when animals gorge. I’ve had many memorable meals with Italian families who’d happily say: A tavola non siinvecchia, meaning, one doesn’t grow old at the table. This runs counter to the ‘fast food’ fad concomitant with the current culture, which reduces table-time but increases calories and cholesterol.

Like the kaleidoscopic diversity of her cultures and languages, Mother India dishes out sumptuous fare differing from north to south, and from northeast, east to the west. ‘Indian food’ as such is nonexistent, an abstraction. Rather, we enjoy Gujarati, Punjabi, Mizo, Bengali, Goan and Tamil foods with their distinct spices and flavours, don’t we?

Fasting is the flip side of feasting. While one might voluntarily fast for religious or health reasons, there are millions of our Indian sisters and brothers who are forced to fast since they simply cannot afford to eat. Sadly, India is regarded as the ‘hunger capital of the world’ since more than a quarter of the world’s hungry and malnourished citizens are Indians.

The Bhagwad Gita, 3:13, wisely teaches: “Those who prepare food for their selfish ends eat only sins.” Food is meant to be shared so as to sustain all of our sisters and brothers; for, so many of them have anonymously been involved in the many processes that transform God’s bounty and Mother Earth’s fecundity into rice, wheat, vegetable and fruit. Unbeknownst to us, the tears, toil and sweat of millions of people have gone into each mouthful we eat.

The English word ‘companionship’ derives from the Latin cum-panis — literally meaning ‘with-bread’ — implying that one fosters friendship and fellowship through sharing one’s bread, one’s meal. The Sikh langar best represents this fellowship.

Christians often pray: “God, our Father, give us today our daily bread”, Gospel of Luke 11:3. While being glad and grateful for the roti, idli, dosa, appam, paratha and naan on our tables, may we also strive to be bread so as to nourish those we encounter.

Om Namah Shivay