I remember, since childhood whenever I
suffered from a disease, the first thing every doctor/hakeem advised to be totally abstinent from
rice. Although, due to my mother’s fondness, lunch for me only means
rice. I have had best seasonal Khichdis, Tahiri, Pulao, Biryani and Dal-Chawal
whole childhood. However it was a rule not to eat any form of rice in dinner
except sometimes during Ramadhan.
The point is, rice dishes are not considered a complete
meal(You may not agree completely). Yes, I know how much everyone is fond of
Biryani. But if you are invited for dinner and served only Biryani, its not
considered good hospitality. It is believed eating rice in dinner makes you
vulnerable to cough and cold. And also eating rice when you are sick is a completely
no-no.
I used to blame Hakeems for this earlier. Recently, even a
doctor advised my mother not to eat rice. She argued with the argument I have
told her earlier that whole South India, Eastern India, Bihar, Eastern UP,
and Kashmir eat rice for lunch and dinner both.
The doctor replied, “It is a regional thing, they live on rice but if you start
doing like them you will fall sick”. Hearing this I lost faith in Medical
Sciences. :)
And its not just with Amroha it’s the same with whole Western
UP and most of Delhi.
I think it is because we never combine rice with our
heavenly gravies. Rice is always cooked as a separate single dish(e.g Khichdi,
Biryani , Tahiri etc). We never combine plain boiled rice, like others, with separately
cooked meat and vegetable(Dal is an exception). We need rotis or freshly baked
naan with every gravy.
A simple test:
Imagine you are in Amroha. You are invited to dinner at wedding reception of a friend. There are two dishes on the menu: Naan Gosht and
Biryani.
What will you choose?
Well, I go for Naan Gosht.
What about you?
