Cooking for Avantika

Growing Up as a child, there was no religion in my life. It took a long time for me to attach a sensible meaning to this word so I could accept it as a reality of life. There were rituals which were half-heartedly followed at times and we had visited a temple or two and my mother had read us the Bhagwat Geeta and everytime we filled up a form that asked religion, we were reminded that we were Hindus and our nationality was Indian. We inherited this categorization and with it came a hefty number of obligations in the form of diet rules, diet restrictions, social boundries. I guess we survived without religion mostly because there were enough restrictions and disciplinary facets in life (particularly for a school going child) that people around me did not feel the need to explain the existence of a God or recognize the spiritual side of our being. Our family and freinds and acquaintances circle was full of people who at times glorified some god-headed figure or another but it was eas...

"The best of all medicines are Resting and Fasting" - Benjamin Franklin  Many religions and scientific systtastf belief that exist today we're formed off sound principles but due to the limitations of language and perceptions, some of the science in those principles faded off with time while many meaningless rituals stayed back.  Every religion propagates periodic fasts and though sometimes these practices seem to be tied down to myths and ancient legends, their existence in society even today serves an important purpose. One: of detox or in other words excercising control over common foods, we come so much to depend on, that we eat them mechanically and religiously without questioning their significance or listening to our bodies and taste buds;  And Two of promoting awareness of life beyond the physical body. In this post, I am going to only talk of the first purpose. Different cultures follow different cleansing routines when seasons change. Tha...