'You're still eating with your hands!' A few years ago, famous American TV show host Oprah Winfrey allegedly made this comment on her show on India. What he meant to say was that eating with hands is a primitive habit and therefore undesirable. Such insensitivity to the culture of a country! Why is eating with hands so disgusting? People all over the world eat with their hands, be it the tribes of Africa, the original Aboriginal tribes of Australia or the tribes of America or Asia, the Greeks never ate with cutlery. Romans to eat

Forks and knives were not used.

Chopsticks were being used in China long before the use of cutlery became popular in Europe. The oldest chopsticks, dated to 1000 BC, were bronze. From China they gradually spread to other parts of East and Southeast Asia. Serving food to guest in these areas

Note, the Government of India is expected to use cutlery in its official banquets and its diplomats. It is considered the proper way to eat it. If someone wants to eat with his hands, he cannot.

It is considered rude to tear or pierce with a fork. Today we see chopsticks all over the world because of Asian immigrants.

In medieval Europe, food was eaten on hard stale bread. Knives were used because people were influenced by them, not because they were necessary. Men would cut and pierce pieces of meat and serve them to women and they were impressed by it. In the 16th century, Catherine de Medici of Italy was married to the King of France. Then with them came the first thorn in France as a dowry. Initially everyone laughed at him, but eventually the same people started imitating him, as eating with a fork became a symbol of being aristocrat.

In Vedic texts, the rule of eating with hands has been associated with five elements.

The hands can get dirty, which can make eating with them unhealthy. But if water, soap and towels are available to wash them, then this argument becomes meaningless. In many parts of North India, people eat roti with their hands, but prefer to eat rice with a spoon.

• The picture is only symbolic.

Doesn't it sound like a colonial relic? It is natural that in countries where there is extreme cold, the hands were covered with gloves. As a result, the people there must have felt sensible to eat with a knife and fork. This led to the innovation of forks in Europe and chopsticks in China.

But in hot places like South Asia and Middle East Asia, eating with hands has become less important than ever. It was a matter of understanding. one could argue

In Vedic texts, food is considered a goddess and fingers are considered dwarf sages known as Balakhilyas. The sages bring the goddess to our mouths, so that we may live. In astrology, the five fingers are associated with the five elements – earth (little finger), water (ring finger), air (middle finger), ether (forefinger) and fire (thumb). Thus when we eat with our hands, the five elements symbolically get attached to the food. But don't you think that as we become more modern and civilized, such symbols and images