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One of the many reasons why India is losing out on its native food wisdom is because its primary carriers are women and their role in the kitchen has been grossly misunderstood. Oops! Did I just say that? On International Women’s Day where it’s all about "power talk", the changing face and role of the Indian woman. But then right at the start of my career I decided that my job was to be ruthlessly honest. So stomach this. Traditionally, the kitchen has been the power centre, the place where all ingredients; fresh, local and seasonal, come together through the intuitive energies of these very upholders of our food wisdom and turn into delicacies like kadhi chawal, makai ki roti sarson ka saag, sidu, ghee etc. Food that is rich in therapeutic and nutritional values and is also yummy. Not so long ago in the early 1900s, when my grandfather was just a child, he and his 16 siblings or their father weren’t allowed a word while they were eating. Their mother never asked or begged them to eat. She, singlehanded, took decisions of what to cook and serve and in what amounts. No, she wasn’t your typical "liberated" woman, she didn’t "earn", nor did she wear the pants in the house. She simply knew her mind, trusted her oral wisdom and took her job of transmitting this wisdom to her children (of both genders) very seriously. Luckily for her family, they had the wisdom to know when to shut up and listen. Lost advice
Post-British era though, wisdom got confused with degrees and since women were not being "educated," their food advice lost credibility. As a society, we have failed our women and their wisdom, blindly following conflicting "research" over our grandmother's and mother's heartfelt advice. The traditional role of the man in the family was to work alongside the woman and not to switch TV channels as she bent over the sink to do the dishes. It is very unfortunate that men have used this very word "tradition" to limit their role at home. What we, therefore, need is an Indian Men’s Day, where we make them feel that they are powerful enough to come back home and help at all places, including with cooking in the kitchen. Women do seem to have that power of working outside of home and inside homes, it is men who seem to have lost out on this power. It’s our responsibility to make men feel as energetic and responsible as we do in our kitchens. Our kitchen is the hub of our homes where each one of us, irrespective of gender, position and age, must contribute. When one section of the society doesn’t feel enthusiastic about contributing in the kitchen, they overlook their real work, of passing down this ancient wisdom of food and cooking to the future generations. It’s a family heirloom, richer and more precious than the land, jewellery and money you inherit from your forefathers. Both my books and my soon-to-be launched video-book on oral food traditions draws inspiration from the wisdom my grandfather passed down to his children and his grandchildren. The agenda for passing this information is pure and simple, harmony between mankind and the surroundings. Packaged food Ok, coming to the practical implications. The packaged food industry came into existence to make up for the lack of contribution of men in this power center, the kitchen. But then, a packet cannot do what a man can. Opening a packet can bring out edible stuff but its not food or anna. "Anna he purna brahma", an all-encompassing, nourishing and nurturing entity. When carriers of rich, cultural traditions of culinary wisdom where cuisine changes every few kilometres as a response to regional, environmental and temperamental differences start eating out of packets, it is the equivalent of degrading your inherited wealth. My heart bleeds every time I hear people, especially traditional parantha-eaters, saying that the parantha is fattening or when they prefer oats and skim milk over this anti-wrinkling, anti-ageing and fat-burning therapy. Yes, therapy, that comes in the form of parantha, gajak, sidu, pinni, halwa, chana poori etc, each one of them is a life-enhancing and disease-ridding therapy. Just because we have lost out on their true meaning doesn’t reduce or take away from their therapeutic and nourishing values. Packets of multi-grain biscuits and "cholesterol-lowering", "fibre-rich" foods and "low-fat" yogurts, not only damage our body but also load the earth with garbage and carbon emissions. Men & holistic health It’s the men who can make a difference here. The packets are sold as "health food" to ease the women’s guilt of not slogging endlessly and as a balm to the man’s ego. He has stopped seeing the woman as a wise person shouldering the responsibility of transmitting the culinary wisdom to him and his future generations. We don’t bat an eyelid before calling women lazy or nostalgically make statements like "Aaj kal yeh sab ghar mein kahan banta hai". When all delicacies as per the North Indian traditions like laddoos, achaars, rotis, makhan and ghee were made at home, was when men took their roles at home seriously and worked alongside women. That was when the average North Indian man was strong not flabby, the women were glowing and not fighting hormonal issues. This, because together they valued the inherited food wisdom and used their lifetime to make valuable contributions to it. Because none of them ate junk and ate wholesome they thought wholesome and didn’t feel limited by their gender. Now that we eat out of packets, and occupy ourselves with fussing over our body weight, pimples, hormones, bloating, weak bones, fragile joints etc. We are, as a society, so preoccupied with disease that well-being doesn’t stand a chance. As much as the food and weight-loss industry may claim, wellbeing won’t come out of a packet. The options before us are quite clear: We either go back to our roots or eat out of packets. Happy Women's Day! — The writer is a Mumbai-based celebrity dietician and nutritionist and the author of bestsellers: Lose Your Weight, Don’t Lose Your Mind and Women and The Weight-Loss Tamasha
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As primary
caregivers, women usually put themselves last. Do you counsel
them on changing this?