I think I am practicing untouchability!

SomeProfile wrote:I am generally conscious of personal space in my interactions with others. I try not to touch others or let them touch me unnecessarily. however, I am extra careful with janitorial staff. I keep myself an extra distance away from them to avoid accidental contact. the cleaning lady in my lab has a tendency to come too close when she empties the trash can next to my desk. I have started to leave my desk and take a coffee break when she comes. fortunately, I don't have any friends, relatives or acquaintances who do janitorial work as far as I know. if they did, I wouldn't feel comfortable eating or drinking anything in their home. I have no idea how I would handle that situation! am I practicing untouchability?

SomeProfile wrote:gc how are you?

when we visited our naanamma's house as kids, there was a man who came once a week to thoroughly clean the toilets, which were all outside the house, btw. after he was done, he would sit outside in the garden and eat the food they gave him in leaf plates. then he would pick up the money thathagaaru left on a big rock and leave. they definitely practiced untouchability. but I can see why. the cleaning man didn't seem to be bothered by it either.

truthbetold wrote:IN USA, all most all middle class people clean their own toilets and bathrooms. If someone touches any colleague (Indian american or american), he/she is touching the untouchable.  

SomeProfile wrote:gc how are you?

when we visited our naanamma's house as kids, there was a man who came once a week to thoroughly clean the toilets, which were all outside the house, btw. after he was done, he would sit outside in the garden and eat the food they gave him in leaf plates. then he would pick up the money thathagaaru left on a big rock and leave. they definitely practiced untouchability. but I can see why. the cleaning man didn't seem to be bothered by it either.

truthbetold wrote:IN USA, all most all middle class people clean their own toilets and bathrooms. If someone touches any colleague (Indian american or american), he/she is touching the untouchable.  

goodcitizn wrote:

SomeProfile wrote:gc how are you?

when we visited our naanamma's house as kids, there was a man who came once a week to thoroughly clean the toilets, which were all outside the house, btw. after he was done, he would sit outside in the garden and eat the food they gave him in leaf plates. then he would pick up the money thathagaaru left on a big rock and leave. they definitely practiced untouchability. but I can see why. the cleaning man didn't seem to be bothered by it either.

I am doing reasonably fine. Thanks for asking.

I am actually pained to hear such anecdotes. These people did the dirty work that others didn't want to do and, to add insult to injury, they were treated like shit.

I don't have the Howard Hughes-Howie Mandel phobia.

swapna wrote:

goodcitizn wrote:

SomeProfile wrote:gc how are you?

when we visited our naanamma's house as kids, there was a man who came once a week to thoroughly clean the toilets, which were all outside the house, btw. after he was done, he would sit outside in the garden and eat the food they gave him in leaf plates. then he would pick up the money thathagaaru left on a big rock and leave. they definitely practiced untouchability. but I can see why. the cleaning man didn't seem to be bothered by it either.

I am doing reasonably fine. Thanks for asking.

I am actually pained to hear such anecdotes. These people did the dirty work that others didn't want to do and, to add insult to injury, they were treated like shit.

I don't have the Howard Hughes-Howie Mandel phobia.

several years ago, I was standing near a person (p) you know well, who was accompanied by a child.(c), all of us awaiting our turns to deposit our used plates, after dinner, in the kitchen sink of our host's home.

sensing danger that c might touch a used plate that was in the sink, p pulled c's hand sharply back, cautioning c with a shocked, "ayyooo! echchai, ashuddham!" as if c was about to touch a poisonous snake.

swapna wrote:

goodcitizn wrote:

SomeProfile wrote:gc how are you?

when we visited our naanamma's house as kids, there was a man who came once a week to thoroughly clean the toilets, which were all outside the house, btw. after he was done, he would sit outside in the garden and eat the food they gave him in leaf plates. then he would pick up the money thathagaaru left on a big rock and leave. they definitely practiced untouchability. but I can see why. the cleaning man didn't seem to be bothered by it either.

I am doing reasonably fine. Thanks for asking.

I am actually pained to hear such anecdotes. These people did the dirty work that others didn't want to do and, to add insult to injury, they were treated like shit.

I don't have the Howard Hughes-Howie Mandel phobia.

several years ago, I was standing near a person (p) you know well, who was accompanied by a child.(c), all of us awaiting our turns to deposit our used plates, after dinner, in the kitchen sink of our host's home.

sensing danger that c might touch a used plate that was in the sink, p pulled c's hand sharply back, cautioning c with a shocked, "ayyooo! echchai, ashuddham!" as if c was about to touch a poisonous snake.

Echil ( literally meaning Saliva) is mixing food from one another’s plate or touching anything with the same hand while eating food. For example while eating, if you touch the vessel containing rice with the hand that is being used to eat , you have sullied all the rice in the vessel with your echil. Consequence: it becomes unfit for consumption by others and has to be entirely consumed by the person who has sullied it or thrown away. So every time you have touched echil you have to wash your hand before touching anything else with the same hand.

Pathu: Cooked items are usually not mixed with uncooked items like curd, milk, salt, water, oil etc. You cannot touch them with the same hand with which you have touched cooked items. You touch the vessel containing curd with the same hand which has touched the cooked rice and all the curd becomes Pathu and cannot go back into the storage but has to be consumed or thrown away. One is supposed to wash hands every time after touching pathu items and before touching non pathu items. Complicated? ya, if you entered a traditional brahmin kitchen it would be full of people obsessively washing their hands between handling items pathu and non-pathu.

SomeProfile wrote:gc how are you?

when we visited our naanamma's house as kids, there was a man who came once a week to thoroughly clean the toilets, which were all outside the house, btw. after he was done, he would sit outside in the garden and eat the food they gave him in leaf plates. then he would pick up the money thathagaaru left on a big rock and leave. they definitely practiced untouchability. but I can see why. the cleaning man didn't seem to be bothered by it either.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:in my maternal grandmother's large kitchen/dining room where the entire extended family would gather summers for dinner, she enforced very rigid eating rituals that went by the collective name of 'paththu'.  there were strict proscriptions against touching the ladle immersed in one class of food, after touching another class of food without a quick water rinse of one's serving (non-eating) hand in between. i don't remember all the rules too well, but even my poor grandfather was not exempt from any of these rules, and my otherwise gentle grandmother was quite the enforcer in her kitchen. i liken this to the kind of eating and food rituals that are found in other cultures and religions like judaism.

Vakavaka Pakapaka wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:in my maternal grandmother's large kitchen/dining room where the entire extended family would gather summers for dinner, she enforced very rigid eating rituals that went by the collective name of 'paththu'.  there were strict proscriptions against touching the ladle immersed in one class of food, after touching another class of food without a quick water rinse of one's serving (non-eating) hand in between. i don't remember all the rules too well, but even my poor grandfather was not exempt from any of these rules, and my otherwise gentle grandmother was quite the enforcer in her kitchen. i liken this to the kind of eating and food rituals that are found in other cultures and religions like judaism.

Your grandmother is a lot more scientific than you. Have some humility to accept that.

SomeProfile wrote:I am generally conscious of personal space in my interactions with others. I try not to touch others or let them touch me unnecessarily. however, I am extra careful with janitorial staff. I keep myself an extra distance away from them to avoid accidental contact. the cleaning lady in my lab has a tendency to come too close when she empties the trash can next to my desk. I have started to leave my desk and take a coffee break when she comes. fortunately, I don't have any friends, relatives or acquaintances who do janitorial work as far as I know. if they did, I wouldn't feel comfortable eating or drinking anything in their home. I have no idea how I would handle that situation! am I practicing untouchability?

garam_kuta wrote:matter of fact, each one will have their own plate and tumbler/lOtta  which will not be used by any other individual. these are etched with their own name/initials so that there is no mix up or confusion, in case two more more looked the same. it is an excellent deterrent against interpersonal contaminations. echchil and asuththam are for real, and calling them out to teach little children a good discipline is commendable.  

swapna wrote:

garam_kuta wrote:matter of fact, each one will have their own plate and tumbler/lOtta  which will not be used by any other individual. these are etched with their own name/initials so that there is no mix up or confusion, in case two more more looked the same. it is an excellent deterrent against interpersonal contaminations. echchil and asuththam are for real, and calling them out to teach little children a good discipline is commendable.  

can one get infected by diseases from using clean eating and drinking utensils that others, especially apparently healthy people, have used before? what does medical science say about this? what are the risks?

I wonder if non-hindu people living in a similar environment, and in the same income class have a higher infection rate. I also wonder what the point of having personal utensils is when one touches coins, door-knobs and the handles attached to gasoline nozzles, nearly every day.

I suspect that most of the "rules" that hindus, especially brahmins follow in their eating habits are irrational, caste-based rituals that have no place in 21st-century united states.

SomeProfile wrote:I am generally conscious of personal space in my interactions with others. I try not to touch others or let them touch me unnecessarily. however, I am extra careful with janitorial staff. I keep myself an extra distance away from them to avoid accidental contact. the cleaning lady in my lab has a tendency to come too close when she empties the trash can next to my desk. I have started to leave my desk and take a coffee break when she comes. fortunately, I don't have any friends, relatives or acquaintances who do janitorial work as far as I know. if they did, I wouldn't feel comfortable eating or drinking anything in their home. I have no idea how I would handle that situation! am I practicing untouchability?

garam_kuta wrote:

swapna wrote:

garam_kuta wrote:matter of fact, each one will have their own plate and tumbler/lOtta  which will not be used by any other individual. these are etched with their own name/initials so that there is no mix up or confusion, in case two more more looked the same. it is an excellent deterrent against interpersonal contaminations. echchil and asuththam are for real, and calling them out to teach little children a good discipline is commendable.  

can one get infected by diseases from using clean eating and drinking utensils that others, especially apparently healthy people, have used before? what does medical science say about this? what are the risks?

I wonder if non-hindu people living in a similar environment, and in the same income class have a higher infection rate. I also wonder what the point of having personal utensils is when one touches coins, door-knobs and the handles attached to gasoline nozzles, nearly every day.

I suspect that most of the "rules" that hindus, especially brahmins follow in their eating habits are irrational, caste-based rituals that have no place in 21st-century united states.

i said deterrent, not protection

scroll up to read on door knobs, light switches, handles of trash cans etc.,

goodcitizn wrote:

swapna wrote:

goodcitizn wrote:

SomeProfile wrote:gc how are you?

when we visited our naanamma's house as kids, there was a man who came once a week to thoroughly clean the toilets, which were all outside the house, btw. after he was done, he would sit outside in the garden and eat the food they gave him in leaf plates. then he would pick up the money thathagaaru left on a big rock and leave. they definitely practiced untouchability. but I can see why. the cleaning man didn't seem to be bothered by it either.

I am doing reasonably fine. Thanks for asking.

I am actually pained to hear such anecdotes. These people did the dirty work that others didn't want to do and, to add insult to injury, they were treated like shit.

I don't have the Howard Hughes-Howie Mandel phobia.

several years ago, I was standing near a person (p) you know well, who was accompanied by a child.(c), all of us awaiting our turns to deposit our used plates, after dinner, in the kitchen sink of our host's home.

sensing danger that c might touch a used plate that was in the sink, p pulled c's hand sharply back, cautioning c with a shocked, "ayyooo! echchai, ashuddham!" as if c was about to touch a poisonous snake.

I really hope that the person you are referring to is not my mom, who recently passed away. She was the most open-minded, cultured and totally uninhibited person one could have met. Our long-term housekeeper's nieces and nephews are here in Bangalore deeply mourning her death as she had paid for their education and welfare for well over a decade. They are from Idayapatti, a village near Trichy, belonging to the konar (yadav) community. They were treated as an extension of our own family each summer when they spent in our house. They ate with us at the table, helped my mom in cooking and cleanup, and were one of us.

My mother would never say "ashudham" or "ecchal", not part of her upbringing. If my brother had invited you, playing host, he would have equally been appalled by anyone saying anything like that. You have an innate dislike for the Brahmin culture. You concoct stories to promote your views on others who are unfamiliar with our upbringing and cultural makeup.

I seriously hope that your underhanded comment is not about my mother but about something at MCC.

swapna wrote:

garam_kuta wrote:

swapna wrote:

garam_kuta wrote:matter of fact, each one will have their own plate and tumbler/lOtta  which will not be used by any other individual. these are etched with their own name/initials so that there is no mix up or confusion, in case two more more looked the same. it is an excellent deterrent against interpersonal contaminations. echchil and asuththam are for real, and calling them out to teach little children a good discipline is commendable.  

can one get infected by diseases from using clean eating and drinking utensils that others, especially apparently healthy people, have used before? what does medical science say about this? what are the risks?

I wonder if non-hindu people living in a similar environment, and in the same income class have a higher infection rate. I also wonder what the point of having personal utensils is when one touches coins, door-knobs and the handles attached to gasoline nozzles, nearly every day.

I suspect that most of the "rules" that hindus, especially brahmins follow in their eating habits are irrational, caste-based rituals that have no place in 21st-century united states.

i said deterrent, not protection

scroll up to read on door knobs, light switches, handles of trash cans etc.,

sorry, I made an error; I thought that your post was made by the hyphenated kuta.

garam-kuta wrote:

swapna wrote:

garam_kuta wrote:

swapna wrote:

garam_kuta wrote:matter of fact, each one will have their own plate and tumbler/lOtta  which will not be used by any other individual. these are etched with their own name/initials so that there is no mix up or confusion, in case two more more looked the same. it is an excellent deterrent against interpersonal contaminations. echchil and asuththam are for real, and calling them out to teach little children a good discipline is commendable.  

can one get infected by diseases from using clean eating and drinking utensils that others, especially apparently healthy people, have used before? what does medical science say about this? what are the risks?

I wonder if non-hindu people living in a similar environment, and in the same income class have a higher infection rate. I also wonder what the point of having personal utensils is when one touches coins, door-knobs and the handles attached to gasoline nozzles, nearly every day.

I suspect that most of the "rules" that hindus, especially brahmins follow in their eating habits are irrational, caste-based rituals that have no place in 21st-century united states.

i said deterrent, not protection

scroll up to read on door knobs, light switches, handles of trash cans etc.,

sorry, I made an error; I thought that your post was made by the hyphenated kuta.

what? your explanation is more illogical than your mistaken post.
don't try to divert attention from your old-age reading issues. i just had one prior post in this thread and that was about SomeProfile forgetting to change the handle to pravallika.