"In the [train's] dining-car ... South Indian languages, excessively
vowelled, rattled about me. The South Indians were beginning to unwind; they
were lapping up their liquidized foods. Food was a pleasure to their hands.
Chewing, sighing with pleasure, they squelched curds and rice between their
fingers. They squelched and squelched; then, in one swift circular action,
as though they wished to take their food by surprise, they gathered some of
the mixture into a ball, brought their dripping palms close to their mouths
and
- flick! - rice and curds were shot
inside; and the squelching, chattering and sighing began again."
[--VS Naipaul, An Area
of Darkness, p240, 1962-64] |
