"Food and Knowledge"

As a human being, we are born with plenty of gifts and curses. Most of us have the gift to see, communicate, taste, feel, and smell. Also some of us are cursed into greed, jealousy, power, hate, etc... One of the biggest curse that can bring any human being down is greed. Whether is food or money. Some of us see more than we can handle, and do not know when to stop or when to say no. "Food and Knowledge" goes hand in hand with these gifts and curses.

We live the way the we live now is because of what happened in the past. Some of us may have a different opinion about this but for the people that believe in GOD and the Bible, it goes back to the beginning when Eve ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge. What if she never ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Will we have knowledge today? Can we tell the difference between what is right and wrong? Do we know what is good and whats bad. Everything can be a speculation now. I believe that if Eve would've never ate the fruit, someone else would've. Who knows. But we cannot live in the past and worry about what happened back then. This is the present and we have the gift of knowledge and we need it to use that in a good way.

I believe in GOD and I thank GOD for everyday that I get to see and for every meal that I get to eat. I do not eat everything that I come across and I am very funny when it comes to eating from people that I do not know. Sometimes we have no choice and we have to eat what other people cook whether we like it or not. For example when we go to our friends house and his/her parents offers us food. Sometimes we cannot turn that down. But I always say my grace before any meal and ask GOD to protect me from any food poisoning or any other type of sickness. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat and I love to try new things, but I've a limit when it comes to that.

When it comes to food, some of us got it easy and some of us don't. Most of us got it easy because we live in the U.S. But if you look at some other countries that are so poor like Haiti or Somalia, they don't have it easy. There are plenty more countries that are struggling today with no food or shelter. We have to be thankful that we live here and food is really not an option. When we are hungry and have no food at home, all we have to do is go into kitchen and cook something. If there is nothing to cook go outside and find a place that's open to eat. In New York that's not very hard to find because we restaurants, drive thrus, and delis that are open twenty four hours. All we need is some cash in our pocket and our hunger is taken care of.

I believe that food is knowledge and power. When we are hungry, we have the knowledge to find something,cook or even buy something to eat to fulfill our hunger. I am very thankful now because I have the knowledge to know whats is good and bad. Sometime life catches us by off guard and we may not know what to do. That's when we pause for a second and think to our self about what we doing with ourselves. We have the power to change. Change is good when you living a bad life style and turn it around to do good. It can go the other way also. Change yourself before you change someone else. That's why knowledge is very important and we all have that but some of us do not know how to use it.

South Indian Festival "ONAM"

1. 1. Onam is the biggest festival in the South Indian state of Kerala, where I am from. Onam usually falls on the month of August. The dates are different every year. This festival last 10 days and the South Indian people celebrates this holiday with a open heart. Everybody wears new clothes during this festival. They also dance, sing, decorate their home with flowers, boat races, play games, cook and eat too much. The story behind Onam is, According to the legend, Kerala witnessed its golden era during the reign of King Mahabali or Maveli. Everybody in the state was happy and prosperous and the king was highly regarded by his subjects. Apart from all his virtues, Mahabali had one shortcoming. He was egoistic. However, for all the good deeds done by Mahabali, God granted him a boon that he could annually visit his people with whom he was so attached. What now peole call Onam. Best thing about Onam is the food. This is like a Thanksgiving dinner but the South Indian call it Onamsadya. This usually is a big lunch instead of dinner. This meal is served on a banana leaves instead of plates and people eat with their hands instead of using forks and knives. Each family makes about 9-15 different dishes and all these dishes are vegetarian. South Indians do not eat meat during this holiday. When the time come for Onam, people usually decorate thier homes with different types of flowers and they make different types of shapes and symbols. When the decorations are done people gather around it and they would sing and dance. Everyone decorate thier homes differently and it looks so beautiful when its done. I love this holiday because everyone gets along with everybody. People are so happy and thankful for this day. Everyone gets to show off their new clothes and the new clothes must be in beige or cremish color. We have so many different holidays. Other than Christmas, Onam is the holiday people celebrate with joy and peace.

Hello my name is Lenny David. My nationality is Indian and I love Indian food. I pretty much eat Indian food everyday. I also loves Jamaican, Thai, Italian, Spanish, especially Colombian food, and soul food. I do not mind trying new type of food but if the food does not taste good to me the first time, I probably won't eat that food again. Unless if I get the taste back again, I might try it again. The reason why eat so much Indian food is because my mom makes it everyday and I just cant turn it down. My mom is a really good cook and she makes different dish everyday. She only knows how to make Indian food only. When my friends come over to my house, my mom would say hello and offer everybody tea to drink and some snacks to go with the tea. She would also would offer lunch or dinner, depending on what time it is. If there is no food to eat, she will make something for everybody. Some of my friends loves my moms cooking and some don't. The one's that do not like my moms food usually say that its too spicy and they could not handle the spice. I am not going to lie, her food is very spicy and every time I'm eating the food I've to have a gallon water next to me. But the food taste so good that I do not complain. My mom is mostly nice to everyone. She do not like being taken advantage of and she treats everyone fairly. If she feels that someone talk bad about her or her cooking, she would never be nice to that person again. Other than that my mom is cool. She loves cooking for people and make sure that they are satisfied.