In India it is forbidden to eat ice cream with your mouth. And how can?

It would be extreme cruelty in such a sultry country as India, to forbid the use of ice cream in general. But the legislator was indulgent and therefore forbade eating ice cream with a mouth - just something!

And this is not the most ridiculous law, acting in thecountry. By the way, it is violated at every step, and children, and adults, and even Buddhist monks. And this is - in front of the police, who, most likely, themselves do not represent what measures to take to punish violators: they take away the icy dessert from them, or what?

Even curious what the guards could doorder, noticing that a person is frank with asphalt or with socks (and in his mind is this person?), or who died suddenly, without washing his dishes before uttering death and not informing relatives, or marrying a dog ...

Yes ... all of the above - very serious laws, prescribed in the criminal or civil codes of India. So the law prohibiting eating mouth ice cream, is not the most absurd, if you think about it.

Versions of the origin of the law

So why is it forbidden in India to eat ice cream with a mouth? Perhaps the very process of eating (more precisely, biting dessert from a wooden stick) did not match the Hindu views on good manners.

There is another option: modern indulgence in a pack and on a stick, the Hindus were ranked among the fast food dishes, and in India, honoring the tradition of a leisurely family feast, snacks on the street were never welcomed. And the ice cream, the recipe of which has been known in the country for a long time, was called "kulphi" and was prepared, thanks to the vicinity of the Himalayas and the possibility of delivering mountain snow and ice, has always been a luxury item. Therefore, it is, according to tradition, need to slowly and enjoying.

And some "ice cream" argue that the ban clearly shows the British track: after all, India has been under the colonial oppression of Great Britain for many years and has adopted some stiffness in behavior.

This is very tempting!

Hot Hindu men, they say, are starting with a half-turn, they only need to see something from afar reminding some spicy passage from the Kama Sutra.

And then look: the woman is so delicious eating ice cream! From the associations of the peasants can also take down the roof.

Well, the Hindu elders consider the law very appropriate and correct, because, according to all conservatives, the way a woman eats ice cream with her mouth looks very vulgar and vulgar.

That's a moral appearance for the sake of India it's forbidden to eat ice cream with your mouth.

Echoes of the colonial regime

It would be very strange in the 19th century to see an Englishman tucking ice cream in the middle of the street, hastily releasing it from packing ... And then there was no factory: everything was only from the own kitchen of the lords.

Looking at the manners of the colonialists, the rich HinduThe houses immediately adopted the habit of European serving and European behavior. It was prestigious and, according to the Hindus, made them closer to caste of white people.

Because of the desire to match "the powerful of this world," and in the understanding of the Hindus, the strong one who managed to conquer entire countries, and now in India it is forbidden to eat ice cream with the mouth.

More about kulphi: this without a spoon is not eaten

Traditional Hindu cool dessertprepared from whole or almond milk with the addition of fragrant herbs, in particular saffron, rice flour, sugar, pistachio nuts and mango. All this was boiled, then cooled with Himalayan ice.

The food is not cheap, so it's no wonder,that most Hindus still perceive any, even the most affordable ice cream available to all layers of the population, like kulfi, and support any relic associated with the rules for the use of desserts, in particular the fact that in India it is forbidden to eat ice cream with the mouth.

Actually, it is impossible to eat kulphi without a spoon: despite the boiling time of the ingredients and the time of their cooling, ice cream has always turned liquid.

Use the instruments, or inaccuracy of the translator

Hindi is a very melodic language. This could not be overlooked by those who were once fond of Indian cinema and sang excerpts from the incomprehensible-romantic hits born in Bollywood: "Jimmy, Jimmy, ah, ah!" And what this "Acha", it was somehow clarified lack of time.

Approximately the same story could happenduring the translation of legislation. And the phrase "in India it is forbidden to eat ice cream with a mouth" has been translated too literally, word for word, having lost its true meaning: it is forbidden to bite or gnaw, it is desirable to use cutlery.

Children and tourists are allowed ...

However, knowing to what mark risesmercury column Indian summer, you can not be surprised that the country still has such a law: eating ice cream from the pack is extremely inconvenient, because in a few minutes it starts to melt - and not flow, but literally pour on the hands.

Sticky hands, plus heat, plus dust and possible insects ... It is unlikely that such a logical chain will add the desire to print ice cream directly on the street.

Although Indian children living in poorquarters, the law is not written: Well, it's forbidden to eat ice cream with your mouth, and they eat. And even the smell from the soaking skin or the smell of the funeral pyre that constantly hangs in the air in some urban areas can not spoil them neither appetite nor mood.

Visitors arrive with ice cream a little more cautiously: unfold and eat cool briquettes only in places of maximum pure, cultural and without a specific ambre.

And there was still no case that the Indianthe policeman, noticing the intruder, who was eating ice cream with his mouth, applied to him some sanctions. But "illegal" eating of dessert is often practiced not only by children, but also by quite respected local adults.

Here for alcohol in India they are punished: they can fined for an unopened and not to be drunk a bottle of gin. Just for the fact that you carry it unpacked. And ice cream is forgiven.