Banana Leaf Knowledge

The third stop on our Indian lecturer tour was to see Jagan in the city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras. Shortly after our train arrived, Jagen met us on the platform and put Scott and I on a local bus while he followed the bus on his motorbike. When we got to our stop, Jagan’s father met us on his motorbike. Scott jumped on the back on Jagen’s bike as I hopped on the back of Jagan’s father’s. His hair, to my delight and surprise, smelled of coconut oil.

After a bumpy ride through small streets, past houses and shops and people and piles of garbage, we arrived at Jagan’s parent’s place, a bright green building. As luck would have it, Scott and I happened to arrive on a very auspicious day, for that evening, there would be no moon in the night sky. In honor of this, Jagan’s family, as well as households throughout the country, celebrated tai ammavasai. They offered food to remember past loved ones and, that night, set a whole pumpkin outside their house on the street.

Scott and I watched as they offered food to Jagan’s dead grandfather and were then welcomed to join them for a special meal in honor of the day. It was our first time eating off a banana leaf, something we’ve since come across time and again in South India.

But that first time was special. The banana leaf was placed in front of us, broad end to our right. Water was sprinkled on to rinse the leaf off before separate small piles of food were heaped on – all vegetarian, all delicious. The biggest pile was the rice.

Scott and I have eaten with our hands before, and while I’ve gotten used to it, it’s not something I prefer. When I do eat with my hand, I try to just use the tips of my fingers in order to avoid the discomfort of  getting my whole hand dirty. Jagan’s father must have noticed this because he instructed us to use our whole hand to blend the rice with the curries as this would produce the best blend of flavors. It wasn’t enough to simply use my fingertips in, what I guess is, a weak attempt mix the rice with the curries; I had to place the rice and curry in my whole hand and, making a fist, totally mash the two entities together. That was how to eat.

After being served seconds and even offered thirds of the different dishes, Scott and I were ready to call it quits. Jagan told us that when eating off a banana leaf, to show that you’re done eating, you must fold the banana leaf. I folded from the top of the leaf down. Scott did the opposite. Only after we had folded our leaves did Jagen tell us that even in this small action, there was meaning:

If you fold from the top of the leaf down, it indicates that you would like to be invited back to your host's home. If you fold from the bottom of the leaf up, it means that you do not care to be invited back.

Now we know.