Goan Chef Zubin escapes the kitchen for an Indiana Jones-like adventure with snakes
Naag Panchami or the great Indian Snake festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the Hindu season of Shravan. It is a day to celebrate and repay the snakes for blessing our way of life.
Snakes occur very commonly in Indian mythology and more often than not, they are the good guys. In the cosmic ocean of milk (what we now may refer to as the Milky Way) and was discovered eons ago by Indian astronomers (my turn to gloat!!) the Lord Vishnu also known as the Protector of the Universe rests on a bed composed of the Sesh Naag or the hundred headed snake. Lord Shiva appears composed in numerous depictions with a black cobra draped casually around his neck. Of course there is also the recitation of the Mahabharata that took place at the snake sacrifice yagna that King Janamajeya had organised.
Actually, the present day Naag Panchami is more of a farmer oriented festival. Tilling of the fields are prohibited and offerings are left for snakes at their known resting spots. Usually milk, but often sweets, rice, ghee and water may find their way as part of the offerings. Women often undertake a fast for the entire day while trips are made to the temples where entreaties and offerings are made to effigies made out of carved metal or stone.
It is considered extremely lucky to have a snake dip into and partake of your offerings and rumours have it that the results are a bounty from the fields. Now, apart from a snake doing this once in a year thingy with your food, it is also considered extremely auspicious to invite a stranger over to your house for a meal.
I think that I used this knowledge of Indian culture to the best of my advantage and faked hunger at the first three villages I stopped at. Then I really had to work on my emotions and my pleading looks because the nonchalance was showing on my face. By the time I had hit the sixth home, I couldn’t do it anymore. Not even the village simpleton would mistake a corpulent, bloated, belching chef for a starving individual in need of a meal.
For more Indian food writing please check out other articles by Chef Zubin here.
Buy Zubin’s All-India Vegetarian Cookbook: A Subzi Sutra Containing the Secrets of India’s Vegetarian Cuisine
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