a form of preferential treatment

[Guest guest]

>

> RR: Taking food together was an important part of our life. It was not

> like in the West, where someone comes home and just fixes himself

> something from the fridge. For example, no lady would eat until after her

> husband had taken. Eating was a family event. There are still joint

> families where fifty or sixty people sit down at a certain time to eat

> together. (GOTIL, p131)

 

This is not really "taking food together". Rather "taking food

separately". First a husband eats. Then when he's finished, a

wife may get to start eating. NOT together.

 

But what's it really so important "part of our life" in having

your wife wait with eating until after you had taken? I thought,

if someone got to wait then rather the stronger members of the

family got to be "on the end of the line". So first children,

old people and women get the food. Then men.

 

I prefer to be taking the food *together* with my wife. What is

really the use of this particular "traditional Indian life", having

a wife not to eat together with her husband but only after he's

done??

 

 

- Mahanidhi das