Food and Faith: 3 - Hospitality and Autonomy

Food and Faith are largely inseparable in India. In part 3 of my conversation with Devdutt Pattanaik, author of over 50 books on mythology and faith, I explore how food choices often symbolise a spectrum of complex human behaviours. In this brief segment - we explore the symbolism of Green Leafy Vegetables (Saag) and how it straddles the autonomy-hospitality spectrum. One of the unfortunate side effects of social media is that it forces people intro extremist camps where a certain narrow form of intellectual purity is expected - those who are "rational" must automatically decry all forms of religion, faith or cultural practices while those who are fierce defenders of tradition must push for a fundamentalist interpretation of what is ultimately a diverse mythology that spans the Indian subcontinent and extends well into places like South East Asia. The goal of these conversations is not to make some artificial both-sides "bridge" between tradition and science. They are both very separate things, but establish a "samvaad" culture (as opposed to "vivaad") where seemingly contradictory world views can be brought to the table and considered (as opposed to a fundamentalist agree/disagree binary). YouTube (English):    / @krishashok   YouTube (Tamil):    / @masalalabtamil   Instagram:   / _masalalab   Twitter:   / krishashok   Masala Lab (Hardcover): https://www.amazon.in/Masala-Lab-Scie... Masala Lab (Paperback): https://www.amazon.in/Masala-Lab-Scie...