Evocative discussion of the moment when racist and/or hierarchical thinking is instilled in children.
I vividly remember my first introduction to the idea of slavery. It was in the first few days at high-school when we began to learn Latin. The school book introduced us to the life of a family in Ancient Rome. The vocabulary to be learnt included "servus" (the slave) and "vapulare" (be beaten) which led to a predictable combination of the two words. I remember that one of my classmates asked: why do we have to learn about the brutal habits of the Ancient Romans? The answer included a lot of wishy-washy comments about the origins of western civilization etc. It was the moment when the school, with the help of a standard school book, normalized the idea of slavery.
Just looked this one up again to make it to put on Brian's good sourdough, and realized I'd never commented the first time around how much I love this recipe. It's kick-ass--as is the commentary on how we treat domestic help. If there's a culture out there that doesn't have this issue, I haven't yet heard about how they manage it.
Loved the write-up, and the recipe - and tomato chutney! Just want to point out, you haven't said at what point one should add the curry leaves if using them - and what is tomato chutney without curry leaves?!!
Good with bread, good with crackers, good straight off the spoon ❤️
Evocative discussion of the moment when racist and/or hierarchical thinking is instilled in children.
I vividly remember my first introduction to the idea of slavery. It was in the first few days at high-school when we began to learn Latin. The school book introduced us to the life of a family in Ancient Rome. The vocabulary to be learnt included "servus" (the slave) and "vapulare" (be beaten) which led to a predictable combination of the two words. I remember that one of my classmates asked: why do we have to learn about the brutal habits of the Ancient Romans? The answer included a lot of wishy-washy comments about the origins of western civilization etc. It was the moment when the school, with the help of a standard school book, normalized the idea of slavery.
Just looked this one up again to make it to put on Brian's good sourdough, and realized I'd never commented the first time around how much I love this recipe. It's kick-ass--as is the commentary on how we treat domestic help. If there's a culture out there that doesn't have this issue, I haven't yet heard about how they manage it.
Loved the write-up, and the recipe - and tomato chutney! Just want to point out, you haven't said at what point one should add the curry leaves if using them - and what is tomato chutney without curry leaves?!!
Oops! Thanks, Ayesha, for catching that! I have updated it.