I might sound like a carnivorous monster, but blame it on the genes that I inherited right down from my carnivorous grandpa!
Dashain! Ever since I was a small girl I have always loved this festival. Be it for the new clothes my mommy bought me, the money I received from my elders or the goat my daddy bought to sacrifice to Goddess Durga. As I grew up, clothes and money came by as usual, but my heartiest anticipations were for the goat, or to be more specific, meat. I might sound like a carnivorous monster, but blame it on the genes that I inherited right down from my carnivorous grandpa!
It might sound hideous but during Dashain, I go on the so called ‘goat hunt’ with my daddy and accompany him while they slaughter the goat mercilessly and collect all the blood in a bucket to make a dish out of it. It sounds awful, but it tastes like heaven when eaten with beaten rice. You may ask where we go for the ‘goat hunt’ and where it is slaughtered. That isn’t much of a problem. We don’t quite worry about that and neither do others who follow the custom. People here are not that hygiene conscious. They shop for the animal a day before and slaughter it in a place where hundreds of other animals are slaughtered on the same day. There might be so many germs in the area and the chief problem, the animals we so lovingly slaughter, might have some serious disease!
Meat, meat and more meat
On Asthami, the day we slaughter the goat, my mother cooks awesome dishes out of the same meat! She cooks the goat’s brain, tongue, ears, ribs, intestine and what not. In other words, she cooks the whole goat and I eat all the various resulting dishes. For a few days, meat is all I eat. Be it for breakfast, lunch, in-betweens and dinner. You must be thinking, “Does this girl’s family just eat meat?” Well no, we eat other items such as samaybaji which is made of smoked fish, black soybeans, diced ginger and chiura. They are served on tiny leaf plates, which make the meal even more delightful. Everywhere we go to put tika and get blessings, I end up eating all that they have to serve as I am just like my father. We tend to compare the kebab prepared in all the different households and savor it. But, in spite of eating all these meals, it’s amazing how I never get sick. And it’s not just me but almost all of the carnivorous people celebrating Dashain!
On Asthami, the day we slaughter the goat, my mother cooks awesome dishes out of the same meat! She cooks the goat’s brain, tongue, ears, ribs, intestine and what not. In other words, she cooks the whole goat and I eat all the various resulting dishes. For a few days, meat is all I eat. Be it for breakfast, lunch, in-betweens and dinner. You must be thinking, “Does this girl’s family just eat meat?” Well no, we eat other items such as samaybaji which is made of smoked fish, black soybeans, diced ginger and chiura. They are served on tiny leaf plates, which make the meal even more delightful. Everywhere we go to put tika and get blessings, I end up eating all that they have to serve as I am just like my father. We tend to compare the kebab prepared in all the different households and savor it. But, in spite of eating all these meals, it’s amazing how I never get sick. And it’s not just me but almost all of the carnivorous people celebrating Dashain!
Even after consuming so much of meat, not being sick made me do an extensive research on it. Yes, I am a health conscious person too and I found that due to unawareness and due to absence of laws, people buy meat which cannot ensure consumers’ protection because of quality that is low grade. High sanitation standards in the slaughter houses, processing plants and handling of meat at various stages of marketing are of great importance to obtain high quality meat because the meat is an ideal medium for the growth of unwanted microorganisms. Bacteria reduce the life of meat and cause many health hazards. I’m sure you will agree that all we care about is the meat we get to eat and not so much about the hygiene!
No meat for Brahmins? No way!
In spite of coming from a Brahmin family, my ancestors were smart not to follow the ‘no meat for Brahmins’ taboo. I always wondered what went inside the Newari kitchen because Brahmins and Chettris more or less had the same rituals. It might sound stupid but I always wondered if the Newar people cut buffaloes during Dashain and I imagined all the mess it created. When I told my friend Avas Shrestha about this, he told me, “I don’t let anyone cut anything at my place. We substitute eggs in place of sacrificial animals, forget about the buffalo!” and he even called me a monster for what I did. He told me his mother’s secret recipe to avoid toilet troubles - they ate curd and pau, a drink made of lapsi or amala. Also, cucumber and radish pickle which spice up our taste buds and also help in digesting food, are famous during Dashain and are found in almost every household.
In spite of coming from a Brahmin family, my ancestors were smart not to follow the ‘no meat for Brahmins’ taboo. I always wondered what went inside the Newari kitchen because Brahmins and Chettris more or less had the same rituals. It might sound stupid but I always wondered if the Newar people cut buffaloes during Dashain and I imagined all the mess it created. When I told my friend Avas Shrestha about this, he told me, “I don’t let anyone cut anything at my place. We substitute eggs in place of sacrificial animals, forget about the buffalo!” and he even called me a monster for what I did. He told me his mother’s secret recipe to avoid toilet troubles - they ate curd and pau, a drink made of lapsi or amala. Also, cucumber and radish pickle which spice up our taste buds and also help in digesting food, are famous during Dashain and are found in almost every household.
After Dashain, looking down at the weighing machine as I stand on it, I know what to expect and I stay calm. As a fellow lover of delectable Dashain feasts, I know how hard it can be to resist asking for second helpings of that delicious meat full of fatty goodness, so I’m not one to ask you to eat little and be weight conscious. Let’s just remember that we are after all eating traditional healthy food and as long as we don’t follow our heavy Dashain meal with more junk food, we can enjoy Dashain to the fullest – totally guilt free!
poor little goat :'(
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