Eating with your hands - or not

One of the ways in which we Indians assert our identity these days is to extol our custom of eating with our hands.

 
Eating with hands is great. Whether eating a roti or biryani, drumstick sambar or dosa -- and definitely when eating from a leaf -- hands trump utensils.

But calling those who prefer eating with a spoon and fork Macaulay's children with colonised minds? That's a bit of an overstatement. Many people genuinely prefer not to eat using their hands for whatever reason.

The world is divided into three broad food zones -- the western world of eating with a fork and knife; the Indian, African and Middle Eastern world of eating with hands; and the east Asian and southeast Asian world of eating with chopsticks and spoons. But because of many decades of travel and cross-cultural pollination, food customs and habits have widely diffused across cultures.

So framing the preference for eating with or without utensils in simplistic occident vs orient terms is misguided.

The cool thing to do is to blend with the culture you are in. If you can seamlessly transition from hands to fork to chopsticks depending on the company you are eating with, you are truly cosmopolitan.

The corollary, unfortunately, is not true. At least not yet. Eating with your hands in gatherings where most others use utensils can get you unwelcome attention.