The Hindu families are unique by a pequliar feature which I presume can never be found in other parts of the world. This essay is not meant to demean them totally, but those people who have converted this feature into an unreasonable superstition.
When a Hindu bride enters the house of her husband, she is not judged by the degrees she holds or the academic qualification she has acquired throughout her life. But if she is dexterous in handling the 'untouchable' theory, she is considered a sage and an enlightened woman.Ignorant of all these, she is an illiterate Heathen in the true sense of the word.
Now, what is this 'untouchable' theory? In Bengali there is a weird word called 'ENTHO' derived from the Sanskrit work "UCCHISTA". To explain this to people who are not acquainted with it is a bit difficult.
Generally, food that has come into contact with the saliva is untouchable or "entho". but it is not as simple as that.Even non-veg food whether cooked or raw are entho too.Rice , when raw is touchable but untouchable when cooked. On touching entho food hands must be washed everytime.Actually cooked rice becomes sticky and hence hands should be washed.The funniest part of it is that if a container with non-veg food gets accidentally touched with a container with veg food the veg container becomes untouchable too!
This was not simply superstition in the olden days but pure science and hygiene on the other hand.But as days passed people forgot its implication and made it more and more complicated due to their stupidity.
Especially Bengali brides were commanded to follow these superstitions but were not allowed to question. I, myself tried to excavate the reason for rice being 'entho' while cooked which I asked my sister-in-law but she smirked in a sheepish manner since she was debarred from posing any debatable question from her childhood.
Comparatively, my Mother-in-law, though much older than her was far modern and open-minded even in the medieval era.As for me , as said earlier, I myself hailed from a so called heathen family and I gradually got accustomed to this theory with the help of my Parents-in-law.
Rice, though entho, but if it is offer to God in the form of Khichdi Bhog is not considered as entho.I have heard of many makeshift practices during austere arrangements of Pujas and other sacred rituals where people especially women make stupid mistakes and try to make up with void logics.
For example,one Sunday morning my sister-in-law was frying puris on a kadai ( a wide vessel with handles) which is meant to be veg and she mistakenly put down the kadai and put on a non-veg item on the gas burner.When the item was warm enough, she put away the vessel, but forgot a general ridiculous practice i.e. wiping off the flaming burner with a piece of cloth to turn it back into a' veg burner' again.She was in a shock and asked me 'what to do?' then she mumbled to herself 'Agnidev (the God of fire ) will forgive .'
This incident brought forward to my sight the glaring fallacy and height of stupidity of the followers of this custom who , with the help of their empty headedness has made a scientific truth a mere illogical superstition.
