Milk…an Indians elixir of life!
April 27, 2009
Oh, yes, we Indians do love our milk, just like we love our cows. There is milk in our food, our prayers; our rituals as w e even bath our Gods in milk as a gesture of supreme faith.
Pouring milk on a shivaling
There are special days like the Nagpanchami, when we offer milk to serpents in the hope that they will bless us and not bite. It is of course another matter that scientist say serpents like the cobra, do not actually drink any milk.
There are days like the Shardpurnima when milk is kept in front of the full moon so that some special blessing are received from the Moon God and the milk becomes more pious than ever when it is drunk.
We ask our guests and bridegrooms and children to drink milk in the hope that they become strong and remain healthy. And when we can’t have enough of this pure glassful of white liquid, we turn it into curd or cottage cheese or ghee or butter or chas or lassi and still have it day in and day out. We have entire empires made of milk, those entrepreneuring milk people who serve delectable sweets made out of condensed milk.
Spoilt for choices...at the sweet shop
Be it for the bones, for the health, for the teeth, for the brain, or just for the powerpacked wholesome goodness of it, milk is indeed an Indians elixir of life.
Here is something interesting that odzer observed about this Indian obsession. http://www.odzer.com/?p=1485
Entry Filed under: Indian Life. .
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1.
odzer | April 27, 2009 at 10:02 am
@ Atulag : Actually Milk is not as healthy as it is made out to be. However that is another debate. One of the things that surprises me is that not many Indians know that Paneer is not actually an Indian food. It comes from the Turkish Peynir. Probably imported in to India by the Moguls who were Turks. Originally many Hindu people did not eat this foreign food because splitting of the milk was considered a sacrilege. However it seems to have caught on massively. In any case there are a very few varieties of native Indian cheeses and one of the most interesting is the Ladakhi but Tibetan influenced Chura. It is good in soup but it is definitely a very acquired taste. Burfi is a type of sweet cheese as well, made from condensed milk in a way if you look at it roughly.
2.
atulag | April 28, 2009 at 2:18 am
you are right odzer, the debate about milk is still going on and there are even many doctors who say, children should not be given milk after a certain age as it is really of no use. there are also other experts who say milk should be taken by adults too for the calcium benefit. Personally, I am not much of a milk fan but I am fascinated by the fascination of all Indians with milk and other dairy products.
The information about the origin of Paneer is very interesting and I also came to know about a type of Whey cheese in Cyprus called Anari which is very similar to our paneer. Thanks again for adding value to the post.