Chapter 6: Food and Dress

Well, so far this is probably my favorite chapter. I mean really, who doesn't like to talk about food, and what girl doesn't like to talk about clothes? This chapter was just fun. It was also very interesting though, especially to learn about foods and the meaning behind them along with the meaning behind the dress worn in India. Throughout this chapter I was constantly reminded about experiences that I have had while in India--some of which I had completely forgotten about until reading this chapter. It is really neat to understand more of what I have already seen and experienced in order to better prepare me for this coming summer. It was a nice "stroll through memory lane" while reading this chapter, but more than that I was really grasping the meaning behind a lot of what I saw and experienced.

The first thing that really caught my attention in this chapter was when the author mentioned that foods have supernatural characteristics. This again reminded me of the fact that in India, the natural and the supernatural are intertwined. We have now seen this in the family, in the land, and now we are seeing the supernatural in food. Foods are often used for ritual purity and given to the gods as a sacrifice. Foods can also have "hot" and "cold" qualities, and these are the supernatural qualities of the food. Within these, there are also three categories of food: earth and water, fire, and air and sky. By eating different categories of foods, people can affect their inner nature or people can attain a desired state by what they eat. This "natural" thing--food--is also used for the supernatural. I really though the tie between this and family, and land truly portrays the the the natural and supernatural are intertwined.

I also thought it was interesting the amount that food and dress vary from region to region. For some reason, as a Westerner I seem to lump all of India into one category. How unfair is that?! I mean, in the United States, South Carolina is very different from California--so why would I expect the entire nation to share the same foods and clothing styles? It's interesting the things that this book brings up that I have never thought about before, yet they seem like such trivial facts sometimes. I guess that just shows how blinded I can be sometimes.

When it comes to clothing, color really does matter. Red, green, and yellow are considered happy colors and they are associated with fertility and good luck. White, pale blue, and lavender represent mourning. Blue and green often have diverse meanings. Many middle class youth in India today show that they are trendy by following western fashions. I can remember this first hand when I met a girl my age in India. We ended up hanging out for awhile and talking, and I remember laughing to myself as I looked down and I was wearing a salwar kamiz and she was wearing jeans and a Nike t-shirt. What reversed roles we seemed to be playing. This is becoming very popular among teens in India today. Middle class wives typically wear the traditional sari, while middle class mean wear Western clothing. Farmers, and lower class individuals usually wear traditional Indian attire.