Melvin Durai
Isak Munda, a 35-year-old man from Bubupali village in western Odisha, is a former labourer who now makes his living through YouTube. He uploads videos using his cellphone and downloads thousands of rupees into his bank account.
“I make videos about life in my poor household and village, showing what and how we eat,” Munda told News 18.
His YouTube channel, which has about 7.5 lakh subscribers, is called “Isak Munda eating.”
His parents must be so proud: “Look, our son is eating on YouTube!”
Munda’s first video, which has more than seven lakh views, is titled “rice and Indian sambar fast eating.” The video shows Munda eating a meal so fast, he must have set an unofficial Guinness World Record for “fastest human being to put away a plate of rice, sambar, leafy vegetables, green chillies and raw tomato.”
A large number of people apparently find it entertaining to watch food being consumed. I’m not surprised when it’s a video titled “Crocodile eats zebra” or “Raccoon eats pizza,” but I didn’t think the same curiosity would apply to “Man eats rice and sambar.”
But maybe that’s because I’ve already seen many people eat rice and sambar. I’ve already recorded seven lakh views within my own family.
None of my immediate family members eat as quickly as Munda, and that’s one reason he has managed to capture so much interest. Another reason is that India—not to mention the entire world—has so many different foods and eating habits. What’s familiar and comforting to one person is strange to another. My wife, for example, enjoys a bitter gourd dish that would be considered the perfect food, in many parts of the world, to punish prisoners.
For some YouTube users, just the fact that Munda is thoroughly enjoying a vegetarian meal is odd. Indeed, one of them left this comment on his “rice and sambar” video: “Wish someday he will have his meal full of meat on his plate.”
But wishing meat on his plate might be wishing doom on him. His religious beliefs might forbid him from eating meat.
According to a new survey by the Washington, DC-based Pew Research Center, 81 per cent of adults in India restrict their meat consumption in some way. This includes people who consider themselves fully vegetarian (39 per cent), as well as those who do not eat certain meats or avoid eating meat on certain days.
What amazes me about this finding, derived from a face-to-face survey of 29,999 Indian adults, is that almost one-fifth of Indians apparently do not have any meat restrictions. They’ll eat anything: frog, snake, even alligator.
Actually, they probably weren’t thinking of such meats when they were surveyed. They were thinking of chicken, pork, mutton and beef.
Chicken is probably the most widely consumed meat in India, but if you have Christian guests in your home and they decline to eat butter chicken, don’t assume that it’s because of the butter. According to the survey, 10 per cent of Christians in India abstain from meat. Joining them as vegetarians are eight per cent of Muslims, 25 per cent of Buddhists, 44 per cent of Hindus, 59 per cent of Sikhs and 92 per cent of Jains. (Eight percent of Muslims are apparently doing what eight per cent of Jains should be doing.)
The majority of Hindus (83 per cent) and Muslims (67 per cent) are either vegetarian or restrict their meat consumption in some way. That isn’t surprising, considering their religious beliefs. In fact, the survey found that 72 per cent of Hindus say that if you eat beef, you can’t be Hindu, but only 49 per cent say that you need to believe in God to be Hindu. Among Muslims, 77 per cent say that you can’t be Muslim if you eat pork, but only 60 per cent say that you have to believe in God.
Good news, vegetarian atheists! You can be Hindu or Muslim. The choice is yours.
