Eating And The Right – Hand Rule

The biggest minefield of potential faux pas has to do with eating. This is usually done with the fingers, and requires practice to get absolutely right. Rule one is: eat with your right hand only. In India, as right across Asia, the left hand is for wiping your bottom, cleaning your feet and other unsavory functions (you also put on and take off your shoes with your left hand), while right hand is for eating, shaking hands, and so on.

Quite how rigid individuals are about this tends to vary, with Brahmins (who at the top of the hierarchical ladder are one of the two “right handed castes”) and southerners likely to be the strictest. While you can hold a cup or utensil in your left hand, and you can usually get away with using it to help tear your chapati, you should not eat, pass food or wipe your mouth with your left hand. Beat is to keep it out of sight below the table.

This rule extends beyond food. In general, do not pass anything with your left hand, or point at anyone with it either: and Indians won’t be impressed if you put it in your mouth. In general, you should accept things given to you with your right hand – though using both hands is a sign of respect.

The other rule to beware of when eating or drinking is that your lips should not touch other people’s food – Jutha is a strictly a taboo. Don’t, for example, take a bite out of a chapati and pass it on. When drinking out of a cup or bottle to be shared with others, don’t let it touch your lips, but rather pour it directly into your mouth. This custom also protects you from things like hepatitis. It is customary to wash your hands before and after eating.

Fit for a king – Salar Jung Museum

Day 1 in Hyderabad

My conference was scheduled to begin at 3 in the afternoon so I had enough time to explore the historical town. I inquired about the town from a room boy in my hotel. He advised me to visit the museum, as it is one of the best of its kind in the world.

Fit for a king – Salar Jung Museum

The museum houses the rarest art collections in the world. From sculptures, paintings and toys to weapons, jewellery, clothes, textiles and manuscripts, the exhibits have been hand picked from across continents. Traveling over sea and land, through agents and antique agencies, one man collected these objects of beauty and enshrined them in his house. Many a state guest or VIP was invited to view this rare collection of Salar Jung third, an erstwhile Prime Minister to the last Nizam of Hyderabad.

Salar Jung Third’s love for art impelled him to give up his high post and travel widely in search of treasures to bring back home.

Having inherited a couple of antiques from his father and grand father who also served the same post, his passion for antiques developed early. After his death the collection was shifted out of his residence and was kept into the present 10-acre premises where it was then opened to the public for viewing. Currently under the ministry of culture, a board of directors manages the museum.

The museum has three wings and 36 galleries, which consists of artifacts from about 34 countries. The not to be missed zones are the founders gallery, Ivory collection, Rebecca gallery (which contains the statue of the veiled woman),

Modern India Paintings, jade room, the western Block (where there are five galleries that contain paintings, the famous double statue, glass work, clocks, European porcelain, marbles and bronzes) and the Japanese and Chinese Galleries.

Complete with food courts, curio shops, drinking water facilities and benches to rest your tired legs, the museum is a well maintained and orderly.

I was busy seeing the nuances of the collection when my phone rang…it was a call from a friend reminding me the time and also that I have to attend the conference…