It is the reason there is vegetable
haleem at Hyderabad-based photographer and writer Nishat Fatima’s house for Eid. Or that Ekta’s in-laws who may eat a
tehri (vegetable rice dish) on its own understand her parents would like it with a gravy side. Or that Rev Hitter’s family always makes an eggless, alcohol-free fruit cake for family that does not eat either.
While the Jewish community in India has strict rules around kosher — milk, animals with cloven hooves and scales are not allowed, and ideally anything else needs to be slaughtered by a priest — Rabbi Ezekiel Isaac Malekar is mostly vegetarian especially when he goes out. “We like to take part in Diwali, for example, so it’s the easy option,” he says. As the person in-charge of the Interfaith Study Centre at the Judah Hyam Synagogue in Delhi he says, “What is common to all nine major religions is that they all believe the food they prescribe is for the good of the body, mind, and soul.”