INDIAN MEALS
Stones for grinding grain. Exclusively women's work.
Elaborate inspection of the grain. Food a matter of much
interest. The meals of a Hindu. Difference between Indian
and English custom. Even beggars fastidious. Refinement of
native dishes. What the daily bread is like. Hindu caution
after the bath.
In the last chapter we spoke of the women singing when they are
grinding at the mill. The grinding-stones of their handmills are of
various sizes. The smaller ones are rather more than a foot in
diameter, and can be worked by one person. The lower millstone is let
into the ground. The upper one has an upright wooden handle stuck into
it near the edge. The grinder sits on the ground close to the stones,
and grasping the handle causes the upper stone to revolve vigorously.
The larger stones have two handles, and then two women work together.
They often go on grinding for some hours, generally beginning in the
early morning while it is still cool. By preference they only grind
what is required for the day's use, because the freshly-ground flour
is thought to make the best bread. But in the case of schools, or the
large composite families of prosperous Hindus, a large quantity of
flour is needed daily.
The custom of grinding the grain at home is almost universal, because
of the adulteration of flour sold ready ground. There are numbers of
working women whose sole occupation is that of grinding at various
people's houses, and though it is hard work, they earn in return what
is to them a pretty good living. It is curious that men apparently
never lend a hand in this department, even if the wife is poor and
sickly, and sorely in need of help. It appears to be regarded as such
an absolutely feminine employment, that a man would be disgraced if he
put his hand to the mill at all. Even Christians have not quite
succeeded in shaking off this idea.
Careful housewives go over all the grain minutely before it is ground,
so as to make quite sure that no bit of husk, or defective grain,
finds its way into the mill. This is a long and troublesome process.
Watching a Christian woman engaged in this occupation, I said
something to her husband with reference to its being rather a toil. "I
always have the grain prepared in this way," he said cheerfully. "Do
you never help your wife?" I asked. "No," he smilingly answered, "but
our little girl does."
Ever since the earth began to be inhabited by man and woman, food has
been a delicate subject to deal with, and probably the larger number
of domestic quarrels find their origin in this department of the
household. In India, certainly, food is a subject of prominent
importance in the minds of the people of the country. Well-to-do
Hindus find their chief interest and pleasure in the two big meals of
the day. Very few practise any real asceticism concerning food. An
orthodox Hindu does not break his fast until he has taken his bath and
worshipped his household gods, so that he is habitually fasting till
nearly noon. But those who have been always accustomed to this say
that it causes them no inconvenience. It must also be remembered that
their evening meal is nearly always very late. If guests are expected,
and the preparations more elaborate than usual in consequence, the
meal may be delayed till ten o'clock or later.
But at these two principal meals the Indian, if he can afford it, eats
a large quantity. It is not merely that his appetite should be
satisfied, but if the meal is to be regarded as a satisfactory one
there must be the physical sensation of repletion, and the diner does
not need to eat again for several hours. Nevertheless he nibbles odds
and ends of spices and fruits and sweets a good deal in the course of
the day. The custom of early tea, with some accompaniment, has become
general with Indians who have got a little familiar with English ways.
Easterns are astonished at the frequency of English meals, under the
idea apparently that we eat to repletion three or four times a day,
instead of only twice as they do. The breakfast bell rang when two or
three young Indian students were talking in the verandah, and they
asked if they might come and see our table spread for the meal. We
gladly assented, and explained the use and nature of the things set
upon it. Fortunately it was not a beef day, and they seemed relieved
to find that there was nothing terrible on view. But they expressed
great surprise at what appeared to them the small amount of food
provided, and we were able to point out the difference between English
and Indian customs in this respect, and that though our number of
meals daily is greater, we eat less than they do on each occasion.
A very large number of Indians, both Christian and heathen, live on
poor fare and go to bed hungry. This is from necessity, not from
choice. The poorest man is particular in his degree as to what he
eats, more especially as to the manner in which his food has been
prepared. Even the beggar off the road will unblushingly and loudly
grumble if the fare at a feast to which he has been invited by some
wealthy man is not exactly to his mind. The children of mission
schools, many of whom have come out of lives of real privation, are
sometimes very critical about their meals, and more especially as to
how it has been cooked, and they will leave a good supper uneaten and
go hungry to bed because of some trifling defect in the manner of its
preparation.
Most Indian women have been taught how to cook from early childhood,
and many of them are experts and take much pleasure in their art. Some
of the native dishes take a great deal of care and toil to prepare,
and except that their tendency is to be rather too pungent for the
English palate, a really first-class Indian dinner is refined in
appearance; and in the variety of dishes, provided there are always
certain things which can be eaten with pleasure. The varied objects
which make up the meal are neatly grouped before each guest, and they
are meant to be taken in a certain order, so that the palate will be
constantly renovated for the next dish which it is to taste.
Even the ordinary daily bread, in the form in which Indians like to
eat it, gives a great deal of trouble to those who have to get it
ready. Not only is there the grinding of the flour to be done, but it
has next to be made up into thin flat cakes which look something like
pancakes, which are then lightly baked on a hot plate, and are eaten
at once by preference while hot. The preparation and baking of these
means that the women of the household have been busy in the kitchen
from an early hour, especially in Christian schools, where the
children's day begins earlier than in most Hindu households. Hindu
schools and colleges commence work very late in the day, because of
the necessity of getting the bathing and feeding over first.
Even the most orthodox Hindus have now no scruples about touching
Christians, except after they have taken their bath, but previous to
their meal. Having occasion to consult a Brahmin pleader rather
frequently concerning the purchase of some land, he always made a
point of shaking hands rather effusively, with an eye to business. But
I called one morning when he had just emerged from his bath, and he
was then careful to keep at a safe distance, because contact would
have involved the necessity of bathing again before he took his food,
in order to get rid of the ceremonial pollution.