Eating without a blue screen
Being present in present is the best present one can present to oneself
First let us agree to the fact that most of us are addicted to blue screens whether we are idling, eating, infinitely scrolling through memes before going to bed/after waking up or even when relieving ourselves in the morning. Our lives meaning is now to spend an endless amount of time in front of a blue screen with doing something or the other in between.
To be honest I didn’t realize about how much time I spend in front of the blue screen until a few days ago before I was leaving for work. Usually I eat my food browsing some memes on my phone or watching my favourite YouTube channels but on that day my phone was out of charge and I had just ordered some breakfast online. So I kept my phone for charging and went for a shower and shortly after I came out of the shower, my food got delivered.
At that moment my phone wasn’t fully charged yet nor did I wanted to turn on my laptop for 15 mins so I decided not to use either of them while I eat and let me tell you it was the best experience with food that I have ever had. I have done my morning meditation on that day and my mind was fully focused and as I took my second and third bites I realized how much we under-appreciate these short moments.
It was during this time that I got to know how much time and effort goes into preparing a dish which easily gets delivered at our doorsteps and we eat them without appreciating it or even noticing the different items in it that constituted for the whole dish.
The item which I ordered that day is called Poha which is considered as a healthy breakfast in our country, India. Before that day I knew it was made out of flattened rice and something else but on that day I finally got to know the something else part only because I paid attention to what I was eating.
Now I had seen vlogs of people visiting our country and almost all of them say that Indian food contain a variety of flavours which us Indians don’t know about because that’s what we have been eating all our lives and we are used to it or maybe I don’t know about them because I never paid attention to what I am eating as long as its food.
Let me tell you, on that day I experienced the same explosion of flavours in my mouth that I have been hearing from people from other countries and I went like WOW!! Is this the same dish that I have had so many times in my life or is it something different today?
So let me break down the ingredients for you to let you know what to expect and maybe you can try making it and experiencing it yourself. It’s a vegan dish and I am not going to tell you how to prepare it because I do not know how to prepare it myself but you can easily find it out by googling. In fact, I will save you some time and provide you the link for the same exact dish. So do check out the recipe.
The main ingredient of this dish is flattened rice which I guess is soaked in water before cooking to make it fluffy. The fluffy rice were cooked in little oil along with finely chopped onions, tomatoes, beans and a little bit of ginger. Some spices were added to give it that exploding flavor. The two spices that I recognized in there were fennel and mustard seeds. It was then garnished with whole peanuts, diced raw mangoes, pomegranate seeds, some cilantro or coriander and a lemon slice. The end product looked something like this.
Doesn’t it look like a plate of wholesome goodness?
Now I have never read the recipe or the ingredients of the dish. I found out the above written ingredients using my eyes, taste buds and a little bit of common sense. Obviously there must be a lot of other ingredients that went into making the dish but that’s not the point of this blog.
So how does being present in the moment help us?
You see, a modern human is always busy with something or the other. Gone are the days when humans had nothing much to do. So they used to spend their time thinking, observing and being in the present and that gave rise to some of the great people we know and read biographies of today like Leonardo da Vinci and Archimedes.
For example Archimedes was taking a bath when he figured out water displacement which we know today as Archimede’s Principle or The Law of Buoyancy.
One of the most famous inventions of Leonardo Da Vinci is the flying machine (also known as the ornithopter) which is clearly inspired by the flight of winged animals, which da Vinci hoped to replicate.
The point is not just to discover new principles or making new inventions (if that happens, congratulations) but to stay in the moment, to observe, to think, to be creative and not to perform like a smartphone with some Apps running in the background while another one in the foreground.
The moment you realize how much more knowledge you can gain about the stuff you are doing in the moment just by paying attention is the moment you will experience a connection to that thing and a sense of belongingness.
This post is a part of a series that I am writing on my journey make some changes, to adopt better lifestyles and to become a better person altogether. If you haven’t already then you can read about the first one here I cured my depression.
I am looking forward to publish the next one soon.
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