Mere Desh Main

I am glad that I was born a citizen of this great country India( I wasn't born in India though). It is famous for its diversity in everything, be it language, terrain,culture, and the most importantly food.

The thing is that in our country not everything has just the physical significance but much more than that. Take the case of our phones, they arent just about the usability but also a status symbol. Money here is not just about its use, but also takes form of prayers in temples, it is also a shagun, it is also a gift and so many forms, the bottom line is that we attach an emotional value to whatever we have

Food is one of them. Food is a symbol of love for us, and that is why dieting is just not OK here!. How many times have our mothers stacked rotis,parathas,puris on our plate, even when we are full!. Picture this when you join a new place, you trying to make new friends, one of your colleagues asks you to join him for dinner with his family. That is the mark of new friendship. When you buying pakodas, from the aunty at the road, she adds an extra pakoda for you coz you buy pakodas at her place all the time. It might not be costly or expensive but a token of love.

If you have relatives coming over from a different country, they always bring some kind of eatable from the other country. I still remember my cousin, when he came fromUAE, bought me shwarmas, a chicken sandwich which is a very famous food in the gulf. The sandwich might not have been more than a buck, but he still took the effort of bringing that one sandwich on a three hour flight!. My granny used to send me the achar she made when I was in UAE. My dad always had a huge smile on her face when he used to taste the achar.

When we are dropping over at a friends place, bengalis have a tradition of carrying mishti(sweets), In Lucknow a paan or a food dish are common, In Maharahtra pedas are often carried along.

The point what I am trying to make is that, for the Indians, the way to our heart is through our stomachs ( though Konkana sen sharma had a different opinion in the movie Omkara, I mean her opinion isnt wrong but mine isnt wrong wither)

Keep exploring the variety of food our country have on offer, you will be surprised every day