What Does My Food Preference Have To Do With Religion?
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Food is healthy, whether you eat it or talk about it. While returning from IIT Bombay, on my journey to Delhi on August-Kranti Rajdhani, an incident happened when food actuated a political discussion. The man in his 40s seated opposite to me asked what a Jain-platter was pointing towards my plate which happened to be Jain. [I figured out the availability of Jain-platter on the train last year while on my way to Ahmedabad on Swarna-Jayanti Rajdhani when my fellow passenger ordered it. I went there for the NID interviews.] "It doesn't have onion!" I replied after swallowing. After a while when we were finished eating, he tried to crack a conversation again, "Now you also have got a reservation!" "Sorry?" I said keeping my book (a Paulo Coelho's...) aside as if I heard something wrong. "Jains have got reservation too," he said. "I'm not a Jain! I'm Hindu!" I modulated my voice. "Jains are also Hindus!...