On Sunday 07 Jun 2009 4:14:06 am Radhika, Y. wrote: > My mother says that rice is served first on the plate only to widows > presumably symbolizing the bareness of their lives in a traditional > society. sounds barbaric to me so i now serve it first in complete > defiance;-)
My late father would insist that a plate had something other than rice placed on it initially. He never said why - but he would usually comment in Kannada (while doing that) "Yele thudige" which means "something for the edge of your (plantain) leaf" I just wonder if this was a status issue. Having veg to go with your rice indicates status higher than just rice alone. shiv
