Eating in India by Hand

I tell this with some sensitivity not wanting to offend anyone who might be reading. I share it as my observations of how one might learn to eat while in India. It is hard to observe closely someone's eating technique without being too obvious and causing offense but this is what I have gathered on the sly.

First of all every meal has rice: red and white. White is the preferred but less frequent choice where we are staying. Every meal also has one or more main dishes with it. These other dishes are generally moist and have a broth or sauce. Potatoes (I think, maybe turnips?), onions, tomatoes, and other unfamiliar vegetables are always part of the main dish.

Where we are the metal plate/dish is more like a flat, shallow bowl. The lip on the side is about an inch tall and helps to contain the food. Once you have your food on your plate here is I how I would teach you to eat in India. With your RIGHT hand:

• Separate the chunky things from the rice, sauces, etc.
• Mash the chunky things using your fingers. This makes everything roughly the same consistency and the mashing process finds things that are hard to eat (bones, vegetable skins, etc).
• Knead the rice, sauces, and mashed vegetables together loosely. The moisture in the sauces makes the mixture easy to form into a ball suitable for eating.
• If the ball you are working on isn't moist enough put it in the sauce and work some in.
• If the ball is too wet squeeze out the extra liquid.
• Hold the ball on the tips of your first three fingers and flick it into your mouth with your thumb.
• When your food is gone slurp up the leftover sauce/juice.

I'll admit that I've only eaten two meals with my hands and both times the kitchen was out of forks. I didn't go away hungry either time and actually found it enjoying to eat with my hands. It was a visceral experience and I felt somehow closer to my food. I didn't like my hand being dirty for the whole meal. I felt like I wanted to stop and go wash it. If I practiced more I think I could get used to my hand being dirty.

I think it would be fun to have everyone try this at an "etiquette dinner". What do you think? Would you eat with your hand?