Don't touch me on my dish

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For those who missed the South African YouTube sensation called “Don’t touch me on my studio,” a disagreement captured on tv turned into a common South African phrase often used to either tease or warn people about touching all sorts of things. The incident even had songs created around it. In India and Nepal, we have learned that there truly is a “Don’t touch me on my dish” belief. During a longer stay in a place, we organise weekly housekeeping to keep things clean. In Malaysia, India, and Nepal we noticed that even though we wash the dishes and leave them out to dry, they are never put away. Then we tested this strange dishes thing and left a couple of dirty mugs in the sink to see if attracting ants would change the behavior and encourage doing the dishes as part of the cleaning day. Nope. We came back to a sparkling bathroom and the dishes were still in the sink. Our noticing and curiosity taught us that there are superstitions and beliefs related to cleaners not touching your dishes.

In Hinduism as an example, many people believe that dishes should not be touched by people who are considered ‘impure’, such as those who have recently given birth, attended a funeral, are menstruating, or are from a lower caste (yes, it still prevails). They believe that this can contaminate the food and bring bad luck.

In some households, hand washing dishes is believed to be more effective than a machine or dishwasher, as “only hands can remove impurities and any negative energies.”

Suddenly our witnessing rows and rows of people hand washing dishes at the Langar at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, where 50 000 - 100 000 people are fed daily, made more sense. We don’t know what we don’t know until we get curious and put the puzzle pieces together. We wondered at the time if it would not be easier to have giant dishwashers.

Our dishes experience opened a different inquiry about the Langar and we found out that all activities around serving food to others, including washing dishes, is an important part of a spiritual practice for many religions and it is a way to show love and respect for others and in so doing, serve their God.

So “don’t touch me on my dish” is a real request in Malaysia, India, and Nepal and its meaning is both literal and figurative.