My Malice and Bias

Punjabi Cuisine  It turns out we’ve been eating the spiced dish for a lot longer than anyone ever imagined. The Punjabi curry predates European presence in India by about 4,000 years. Villagers living at the height of the Indus civilization used three key curry ingredients—ginger, garlic, and turmeric—in their cooking. This proto-curry , in fact, was eaten long before Arab, Chinese, Indian, and European traders came in touch with India in the past thousand years. While the ancients left behind plenty of broken pots and mud-brick house foundations, they generally didn’t leave us their recipes. And foodstuffs, unlike pots, rapidly decay. But thanks to technological advances, scientists can identify minute quantities of plant remains left behind by meals cooked thousands of years ago. Serving Pot from Harappa They found additional supporting evidence of ginger and turmeric use on ancient cow teeth unearthed in Harappa , one of the largest Indus cities, located in the West Punjab nea...

South Indian vs. North Indian Ten years ago, I met a well known Indian historian on a plane. We spent hours discussing history of India. I mentioned that my ancestors came from the region of West Punjab where the Indus Valley Civilization blossomed 5,000 years ago. Same land where Vedas were composed, Yoga and Sanskrit grammar was defined, and how proud I am of the facts that my ancestors successfully challenged the Assyrians, Greeks, Persians, and the Afghan invaders. I also shared with him my maternal genetic lineage to the original Kshatriya warriors ( Khatri in Punjabi) going back all the way to the Gods of Hindu mythology. I expected some form of acknowledgement from the learned professor from a well known University from South India. He replied, " Actually, the South Indians are the real Indians. " I was shocked and asked, " How about us, the Punjabis ?" He replied with a smug smile on his face, " Mr. Singh, I do not want to upset you but the fa...