Monsoon Ritual - Harnessing Nature

Rituals, are quite a common entity when it is a diverse country like that of India, With over 250 uncredited languages and a geography which bewilders the aura of uncertainty, The subcontinent boasts eating habits and renders customised rituals and eating etiquettes forging religious and caste sentiments.

Eating  meat in a hot, humid climate like most of India would have been pretty perilous in the times before ice houses and refrigerators. Freshly slaughtered animals – large or small – would have had to be eaten pretty fast, as any leftovers would go bad in a matter of hours. No wonder most people then preferred to get their proteins from lentils.

So what is “human”?  Are we talking “homo sapiens,” “homo erectus,” Australopithecus, or what? How far back do you want to go? Anatomically modern humans go back about 200,000 years before the present, And what do we mean by “natural”?  Do we just mean what humans, historically, ate at an earlier time?  Or do we mean the diet on which they do the best, however that is defined?

If you go back far enough, yes, indeed, we are vegetarian.   Because genetic changes occur over much longer time frames even than this, you can make a good health argument that humans are naturally evolved to eat a vegetarian diet, Having said that - Isn’t life is all about evolution ?

Harnessing the nature, was humans initial portrayal for life, And nature from its abundance resources, gives produce which are variable to the natural boundaries; The tomatoes were never existent in the modern world unless for the Aztecs. 

Even the Italians had to make do without tomato sauce before Columbus set out for the New World. The tomato as we know it came from the Yucatán, where the Maya cultivated it long before Cortés first encountered one in an Aztec market around 1520. Native versions were small, like cherry tomatoes, and probably yellow rather than red. Two years after Cortés brought the tomato back to Spain, it made its way to Naples — then under Spanish rule — where invention of the pizza made tomato sauce a necessity of life. Once believed poisonous because they are related to the deadly nightshade, tomatoes are now a staple of nearly every cuisine in the world; Since then- The tomatoes have travelled reminiscent to its explorers, new varieties emerged due to its geographical shift, the characteristics tended to vary as well- breeds like Heirloom rode on distinct features.

And, Tomatoes became the centric individuality among recipes world wide, The Makhini to the Neapolitan all evolving and creating a niche of its own, the evolution never ceases to amaze the versatility of the recipes created.

The Monsoon Ritual 

Monsoon Ritual : is one such interpretation of harnessing what nature has to offer, the rain gods of the sub continent always rely on the monsoons, and it has become a common affair to engage ones meal with addition of vegetables from nature- which improves the immunity of ones health and also leaves a cozy comforting feel, Rasam is a soothing after meal concoction which helps in digestion yet it can also play a role to tease your taste buds as an appetiser.

In-numerous approaches on various cuisines- tend to create a new characters forging the old ones; Some  could outwit the history and rewrite in its own manner which would constantly evolve; as the saying goes - "Change is the only constant thing in this world”.