Things I never knew about eating south Indian thali :)

I had this tasty yet intimidating experience of eating south indian thali yesterday.
After a few seconds of the arrival of thali, I asked the waiter to serve curd (because I generally mix curd with rice and daal/curry and then eat). Waiter looked at me like I am an alien, and said "Madam curd ? Now???". I said 'yes', then he said sth (cursed) in telugu and while serving the curd, he kept on saying "this is how maharashtrians eat, they mix things which are not supposed to be(rule1), they dnt follow order (rule2) ...blah blah". And my friend( who is a gult) just added fuel to the fire, he ordered sambar, and mixed it with daal to accompany rice (rule3 : sambar is supposed to be eaten with rice alone) . Waiter/owner was aware that he is a gult and that led to exchange of couple of sentences in their native language and the rest was history! They asked him to finish the food fast saying other customers are waiting for the table,  and that was the moment we decided not to visit the restaurant again :P

Well, for those like me who don't know there is an order to the progression of thali eating, it goes like this :

• Begin by eating the roti or directly rice with vegetables (in both curries and dry form) on the plate. You can also eat the vegetables throughout as an accompaniment to the rice and sauce courses to follow.
• The sambar is next to be eaten (it is added to a portion of rice as you desire).
• The rasam, mixed with rice, is always eaten last of the sauces. It imparts a tomatoey and peppery palate.
• Curd (yoghurt) mixed with rice is always eaten last, to cool your palate and aid with digestion.
• Mmmmmmm! Mmmmmm!(throughout the course), eat lots of rice and grab this very soupy/liquidy rice with fingers(not possible? yes, so use your palm). Bring it on!