Jootha?

An interesting conversation in Big Boss caught my interest. Salman Khan asked Manoj Tiwari why he disagreed to inmates eating from each-others’ dishes. He asked if Manoj found something wrong in the practice. I became curious. Indian/Hindu culture is unique in many aspects and Indians/Hindus maintain the highest aspects of ‘personal hygiene’ (as different from public one). And we have this concept of not eating other’s jootha – a word for which there is no English translation available at all! I support this practice – it’s anyone guess that eating someone else’s jootha may result in disease contraction – as jootha would contain traces of saliva; and contamination - we never know if the other person had properly washed hands or not. Salman Khan may not be knowing the background, or maybe he was casual (or tricky?) in his question. Anyways, so what did Manoj reply?

Manoj Tiwari’s reply was something like this: “I have no problems as such but I think we should not eat from someone’s plate until we know him/her properly.” He went on, “Also, I protested against them tasting the food in kitchen itself before it was served, which I found to be improper (unhygienic).” Interesting answer! It doesn’t offend anyone (which a lecture on culture or hygienic benefits would have done), and yet it is precise at the same time! I think such an art of speech really makes one very popular. And it is not everyone’s cup of tea.

- Rahul

Big Flattering

I saw a scene from the recent edition of Big Boss. One participant was asked to describe his other inmates in a single word each. The words he chose were interesting. I noted that he used very flattering words to describe each lady inmate. He used words like “naughty”, “kind”, and even “angel” for them. For men he was blunt and used words like “double faced”, “back stabber”, and many other negative words. Though there were one or two ladies he criticized and men he hailed too, the pattern was so clear. All women in the house couldn’t be only nice, and most of men couldn’t be only of negative character. The way he described them also clearly indicated about his own approach and his own character.

I think to treat a woman nicely, just because she is a woman, is also an injustice to her. It is high time people like the participant described above learn that ‘flattering women’ is not a necessary or sufficient criteria to be called a ‘gentleman’.

- Rahul