Feb 12, 2016 Daily Life, The Daily Post
Eat to Live, or Live to Eat, but LIVE!
©February 12th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Don’t we all? I mean, live to eat?
No? Which planet do you come from?
No, seriously!
Food is good. It’s beautiful. It’s … full of untold sensations that satisfy so many needs!
Yes, we may analyze in all sorts of ways, and perhaps we might be right, but food is beyond that. It’s mystical. It’s joy. It’s comfort. It’s love.
I remember there was a time when all I did was eat to live. I was too busy being worried about things I had to do, and places I had to be. No, no, I was never anorexic (even then, I liked food, just didn’t eat too much — except for my favorite, crunchy, Indian junk food, a craving which endures even today, and to which my husband and daughter object) — I was just busy with other stuff. I will say that that was when I was in my teens. I was too obsessed with playing music, singing songs, playing the guitar and sitar, writing poetry, and reading books, to be much interested in food.
In my twenties, I was too busy working, composing, writing songs and poems, and being newly in love with my future husband, to pay attention to food, although I ate all sorts of dishes with great enjoyment — I definitely wasn’t one of those dainty, pick-at-your-meal types. I still had my favorite junk muchies like tortilla chips and potato chips, but they were organic junk foods, don’t you know? (she said, with exaggerated pride). And I was slim, despite all that — walking everywhere, and not having a car had something to do with that.
Ah, feminine vanity! When I noticed I was a little heavier than I liked, I started exercising in a focused way, and even went on a diet of my own making, making sure that it was for only ten days, but very strict. After that, it was easy to eat more, and exercise to keep off unwanted weight.
When I reached the age of thirty, I decided I’d go to the gym for the first time. I became quite exercise-obsessed. I loved it. It gave me a rush. So, food, which I still loved, came a poor second. But oh, how I loved my salads, my roasted almonds, and polenta, and Indian food! And I started biking everywhere, so I stayed skinny.
Then, I became a suburban school-teacher, and caved in to the necessity of buying a car. That was the slow beginning of the end. Being in one’s thirties, and staying up many nights to grade papers, and having all sorts of tempting sweet baked goods in the front office on most days added to the slow creep of weight. I still ate to live, though.
But after my daughter was born, it began to change within a couple of years. Being in my early forties, with a toddler, as well as being a school-teacher, with no time for such indulgences as going to a gym, I turned into a full-fledged live-to-eat type.
“Living to eat” compensated for the sleep-hunger and loss of time that occurred when I turned my sleeping hours into grading hours (because I spent my after-school afternoons, evenings and nights with my baby girl, being the good, attentive and joyful new mommy that I was). It made up for the endless work, and the occasional spurts of depression that come when one sleeps less and works a lot.
Mind you, I was not obese — just slightly in the overweight category. So, I was grateful. Standing in the classroom, walking around while teaching helped to keep me moderately fit, and so did walking up and down the halls for this or that errand between classes. Sometimes, my walks led me downtown in my lunch half-hour to get a cappuccino and a cookie — which, of course, did not help!
Then, two years ago, came the arrival of a dog into our lives. With Holly’s entrance, we had no choice, any of us, but to take long, strenuous walks on most days, except during very, very cold (seven-degrees-Fahrenheit-type-cold) weather or rainy days. Holly made us all very happy and fit.
And now, retired after seventeen years of teaching, I look forward to balancing my now somewhat deplorable tendency of Living-to-Eat with my earlier Puritannical tendency of Eating-to-Live. I plan to do it by taking long walks, not eating out much, avoiding Indian junk food (that will be a serious blow for me), and taking the long road back to a balanced, physically fit life, I plan to spend time with my daughter, husband and dog, friends — as well as do music, and write poems and stories.
Back to food, however. Food is too beautiful to ignore. Don’t turn up your nose at it. Instead, turn your nose towards it. Savour its lingering, satisfying aroma, whatever your pleasure. For me, food-pleasure lies in things vegetarian: In the rich fenugreek-and-tamarind flavours of sambhar; in the bay-leaf-cinnamon-cumin-mustard-seed-ginger-and-ciantro flavors of mixed vegetable pulav; in the warm, ghee-infused savour of brown chappatis –Indian flat-breads, in delicately curried vegetables with fresh grated coconut, in toor, massoor, udid and moong dal, in pasta, polenta, in tempting hot South Indian idlis, coconut or mint chutney and dosai, in mint rice, palak paneer, malai kofta, chana masala, candied lemon and orange peel in the delicious cakes I bake; in upma and chakkarai pongal, in masala chai made with freshly chopped ginger and ground pepper, cinnamon and cardomom, with added milk and sugar. It’s in vegetarian Chinese food: Bright, delicate baby bok choy with garlic sauce, spiced tofu, juicy water chestnuts, tender, shy, baby corn, plus other vegetables, crunchy scallion pancakes. It’s in vegetarian Mediterranean foods I’ve tasted: Falafel, fresh, parsley-topped hummus, olive-oil-infused grape leaves, muhammara, pilaf, pita bread with baba ganoush, and more.
My point is, why deny oneself innocent pleasures? As Oscar Wilde said, “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it,” and “I can resist everything, except temptation.”
So, go ahead, eat to live, but also live to eat. It cannot hurt you, unless you overdo it. Oscar Wilde might say, “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess,” but this is where I disagree with my literary God.
Mangia, mangia! Chappidu, chappidu! Kha jao, kha jao! Mange, mange! Eat, eat!
And LIVE joyously!
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Tags: #vegetarian, Eat to Live, Food, Live to Eat