Hands? No thanks...

It was a very disturbing sight for me when I first saw the Indians in Singapore delivering food into their mouths using hands! I was still a little kid back then when I first came to Singapore. Being from a country where races besides Chinese were uncommon, I had no contact with any Indians, let alone having seen one eating with his hand. And note that I used hand and not hands which I will explain why later (in fact I believe most Singaporeans would know the reason behind it). Personally, I found it quite gross to be eating rice and mixing them with the condiments, all using your hands!

If you are not an Indian. then you may have at some time wondered why Indians still eat with their hands. Though these days, forks and spoons are a common sigh in India, the most popular and traditional way of having food is still, sans any cutlery. While Westerners prefer to use forks, spoons and knives to eat their food and the Orientals use chopsticks, Indians prefer fingers to ‘fork in’ their food.

Ask any Indians, and he will say that the best way to completely enjoy any Indian food would be to eat them with your hands. Moreover. Indian foods are designed to be eaten with hands. The method that Indians follow when eating foods such as naan and roti prata, is to break the bread, dip it in one of the condiments and eat it. In the past, meals were served on banana leaves and using forks and spoons to blend the curry and rice would have only ended up shredding the leaves!

One thing that should be noted is that is that Indians only eat with the right hand as the left hand is considered unclean and eating with it is frowned upon.

There is a philosophy behind this Indian practice of eating with the fingers. In India, eating is perceived as being a very sensual activity. The idea is that one should be able to enjoy the process of eating with as many of the senses as possible – taste, smell, sight, and touch.

After being in Singapore for years, Indians eating with their hands no longer turns my head. In fact, I have even transformed to adopt their culture, at least partially. I do eat my roti prata with my hands at times, and yes, they do taste better that way! On the hindsight, I suspected that certain forms of racial prejudice were involved in my perceptions of their culture due to lack of understanding and exposure. If not, why did not I ever think that eating pizzas with hands was unhygienic?