Sordid saga of the stomach

A cow has four stomachs, I am not sure how many of you actually know this fact. I am a hard core Maths stream variety since school days, so much so that we were taught Biology by our Physics teacher who had to stand in as our school did not have anyone to teach us the finer aspects of life sciences. But even I remember this fact, may be because this figured as one of the questions in our NDA entrance exam way back in Dec 82. I found this very intriguing and no wonder this has remained in the memory bank somewhere, which otherwise is overflowing and the erase function is carried out randomly but the recent events generally get obliterated almost immediately.  

You must be wondering as to how come this holy cow is figuring in this nonsensical column, after all bovine population is sacred so this may be tantamount to sacrilege. Be rest assured I have no such intentions. The four stomachs thought struck me as I was ambling across a royal wedding lunch spread which comprised all possible vegetarian dishes from Oriental to Continental with all types of Indian cuisine thrown in ranging from Bengali sweets to South Indian Dosa Idli, Rajasthani Ker-sangri, Punjabi Makka ki roti Sarson ka sag and Chaats of all kinds. How I wish we were endowed with multiple stomachs where we could fill each one with  different types of delicacies without any fear of upset tummies and buffer overflow resulting in corrupting the digestive system itself. Then at leisure we could chew these honeyed cud relishing each one to our heart's content. But alas, that is not so, invariably we end up overstuffing ourselves as it is the taste buds which usurp the decision making sending our grey cells packing till we are full to the brim.  

These days such lavish spreads are quite common during the wedding season and one wonders whether the dishes are also in some sort of competitive spirit in terms of quantity ie numbers and their aficionados. There are hard core fans who stick to the their palate and there are some who are the adventurous kinds  who are keen to try out the exotic dishes. It is the adventurous ones who freak out with such spreads with nothing to lose, taste and discard if not palatable. Incidentally gluttony is supposed to be a sin in Abrahmnic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam but we the Orientals have no such qualms, on the contrary a pot belly was always considered a sign of prosperity. Although zero was invented by Aryabhatta an Indian but this size zero syndrome is a purely western construct, I wonder what would be the effect of such a gastronomical splendour on the anorexic girls that we come across. 

This profligacy takes its toll and typically for the satisfaction of the taste buds it is the belly which ends up suffering the consequences. The stomach naturally doesn't have the stomach to digest this torture which is inflicted on it. It can't grin and bear it, per force it surrenders. Let me conclude with the prayer O God either grant these ignorant specimen of our species stomachs as per their desire or give them wisdom to know the limits of their only treasure trove.