A Nagpur-based etiquette coach has landed in the middle of an online debate after showing people how he believes dosa should be eaten at a restaurant.In a video shared by Western Wings Spoken English on Instagram/Facebook, the coach reaches for a fork and spoon instead of eating the dosa with his hands.He folds the dosa into a neat little parcel, cuts off a small piece with the fork, places it on the spoon and then takes a bite. The whole process is careful and deliberate.The idea, according to the post, was to make eating dosa at a restaurant look cleaner and more refined.“Using a fork and spoon for dosa can make dining more hygienic, especially in restaurants where utensils are provided,” the caption said. It also described good table manners as part of “graceful dining.”That explanation, however, didn’t exactly win everyone over.A number of viewers pushed back on the idea that eating with your hands is somehow less hygienic. If you’ve washed your hands properly, they argued, what’s the problem?Others wondered why something as ordinary as eating dosa with your fingers suddenly needed an etiquette lesson.And then came the jokes.One person commented, “Angrez chale gaye lekin angrezi chhod gaye,” poking fun at the idea of using Western-style table manners for a food that’s traditionally eaten by hand.At the heart of the debate was a fairly simple question: is this really about hygiene, or is it just about dining etiquette?For many people, using a fork and spoon at a restaurant is perfectly fine. But so is eating dosa with your hands. Neither automatically makes someone cleaner or more sophisticated.And honestly, for anyone who’s grown up eating dosa, there’s something very familiar about tearing off a piece, dipping it into chutney or sambar and taking a bite with your fingers.The video has clearly touched a nerve, though. Comments on the Instagram post have since been limited.
