|
|
Freiburg:
ETHNIC ROOTS ABROAD (Satis Shroff, Freiburg)
Claudia, Maria, my sister Neeta and I had lunch together. We'd cooked Nepalese food comprising: chicken, potatoes, rice and chutney and ice-cream as dessert, and sat watching some videos of Neeta’s trip to Europe, when I suggested that we should go to the ecological exhibition (Ökoausstellung) at the Messplatz in Freiburg, reputed to be the biggest of its kind in Europe.
We took the Strassenbahn, as trams are called in Germany, and got off at the Messplatz. Neeta, who’s a teacher in a Nepali school, was on a visit to Germany, and was quite surprised to see a peaceful exhibition going on. There was no jostling, and not much noise. There were alternative energy exhibits, esoteric music, tourist curios, temple statues from the Hindu and Buddhist pantheons priced at 200 euros each, and lots of biological food: müsli, which some nasty people call Vogelfütter (bird-food), full-corn bread and crepes (a French invention), which can in no way compare to roti, chapatti or paratha from Nepal and the Indian subcontinent, bio-drinks, and woollen textiles and so forth. Solar cars, watches, pumps and other energy-saving gadgets were also on display.
Freiburg even boasts of an ecological-station at the Seepark (west). We, Freiburger, called our city till 1996 the 'Ökohauptstadt', which means the ecological capital of Germany. This is a status awarded officially in Germany. Till Heidelberg nabbed the title. Science City? Another German town grabbed it. Perhaps Solar City?
Neeta tried out wholesome 'fullcorn-crepes’ and found herself making a grimace. She wasn't a friend of full-corn bread, though she'd always been fond of puris, chapatis and parathas made of 'atta' (full-corn flour) in Nepal and India. It was a matter of taste, nothing more. Either you liked something or not. The fresh apple-juice that went with it was delicious though.
After the exhibition, which to Neeta seemed more like an esoteric exhibition than an ecological one, we were, as the Germans put it "fix und fertig" (exhausted), and decided to have a siesta and recharge our batteries.
Later we watched the European Championship soccer in TV because Germany was apparently playing against Sweden, and we were all avid soccer-fans. The match was after dinner, which comprised: Thai scented-rice, Indonesian egg-cauce and masala curry with onions, garlic, ginger, tamarind and tomatoes.
Claudia took delight in cooking Nepalese and Asian food and had even taken courses in Asian cooking at the local Volkshochschule, where an elderly Indian guy was teaching German women the finer aspects of using Ayurvedic spices in the potato-cum-masala chicken.
In Nepal a good many orthodox Hindu families have a brahmin or bahun as a cook, because a bahun has a high esteem in the Nepalese society for he can not only speak, read and write in Sanskrit which he has learnt in Benaras or Kasi (India) but can also function as a priest, is pure and unpolluted in comparison to other mortals, and is respected as a mediator between the humans and the Hindu Gods.
An orthodox brahmin doesn't even touch the food that has been handled or cooked by someone from the lower castes due to the impurity associated with the lower castes. Even though the socio-religious barriers are slowly disappearing in the urban areas of Nepal and because the Nepalese have started travelling to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Europe and America--such customs are still strictly adhered to in the Himalayan villages.
Neeta recalled that we had a Tamang cook from the tea-gardens of Ilam, an all-round talent but he hadn't mastered the Chettri's usual command of the Nepalese language with its complicated grammatical rules, derived from Sanskrit. In Nepali, like in Latin in Europe, you have to be careful about the tense and the honorific usage of words. For instance: ‘He has come’ would sound 'waha aunu bhayo.' The rice is cooked would be: bhat pakyo. But this sincere, well-meaning Tamang kitchen boy didn't know the rules of Nepali grammar and turned up with: bhat paknu bhayo, which caused a great deal of laughter and was a family joke for years.
Bhat is a neuter word and, as such, it cannot be attributed with an honorific. He was bestowing honour upon the rice which was a howler. Contrary to most guidebooks on Nepal, even the Nepalese are glad when the guest comes punctually, because the dal-bhat-tarkari may get cold and a warmed up meal tastes different than a freshly cooked one. Most Nepalese don’t have a refrigerator. The guest can bring some sweets for the children but alcohol is taboo in the high caste Brahmin and Chettri families, even though a German guidebook suggests bringing a bottle of whiskey for the host primarily because it’s imported or from a duty-free shop.
When Neeta read that, she thought of her dear aunty Deviji in Patan, who would be shocked if she produced a bottle of whiskey. Alcohol is associated with decadence in the purity-pollution conscious Nepalese world of the high caste Hindus. But on the other hand, there are other ethnic tribesmen who pass under the rubric of the 'matwali-jat' (the caste-that-drinks) who might be delighted with a bottle of Scotch and it might create a good impression. After all, Scotch is expensive for a Nepalese-pocket and is an imported item. Nevertheless, it is useful to find out whether the person is visiting prefers alcohol or regards it as an affront.
|
Tags
You must be logged in to add tags.
|
