Yesterday was a beautiful day and finally I got to be outside all day. When its nice out i love to walk around barefoot all day and yesterday for the first time this year i was able to do so. It got me thinking though a lot about touch, and the fact that we always have shoes or socks on our feet, especially when we are outside. I wonder if this has effected us in any ways at all. Think about it most animals walk on all fours, and even monkeys use their paws a good deal of the time to walk. Are we denying ourselves the ability to feel the world to its fullest extent by constantly blocking our feet from touching the earth? are we depriving ourself of a more spiritual connection to the world by not allowing our feet to connect with the earth? This makes me think of how good it feels to have your feet in fresh grass, or in sand, there is definitely something calming about it, and i think we should do it more.
Healing, purity, and revitalization: A tour of Kashmiri staple spices
“So, Adi, what do you want to know about spices?” These were the words that started my evening at Iqbal’s, an old family friend and professor of management at UMass Amherst alongside my parents. Although his department is that of economics, his expertise, in my opinion, lies in the realm of authentic Kashmiri cooking. He taught me and my parents how food is traditionally eaten by hand in India, how they were often served in large, metal bowls in which the individual components of the meal were free to mix, and now (at the behest of my parents) I’d come to learn about the nuances of spice in Iqbal’s cultural background. Admittedly, I had no idea what questions to ask or where to start, but thankfully Iqbal came prepared for this lesson. He opened a large drawer underneath the counter, revealing countless honey-jars repurposed for spice containment. “In just about all religions, spices have been used as disinfectant,” Iqbal tells me as he passes me a handful of cloves, prom...
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