Melvin Durai
My fourteen-year-old son, Rahul, is 5-foot-8 (172 cm) and still growing. I can’t help wondering how tall he will be in a few years. I’m 6-foot-2 (187 cm) and my wife is 5-foot-2. So, Rahul is right in the middle — and about to find out which side of the family he has inherited his ‘height genes’ from.
Is there a chance that I will one day have to look up when I talk to him? Indeed there is, especially since I am apparently getting shorter as I age. Between the ages of 30 and 70, the average man loses about an inch of height, according to scientists. And since I consider myself “above average,” I will probably lose more than one inch.
My son will have to be at least six feet tall to eventually be taller than me, assuming that I shrink at an “above average” rate. But it isn’t just genetics that will determine his height—it’s also his diet. In this area, he has a major advantage over me. Not only does he have a voracious appetite, he also enjoys a greater variety of food than I did as a youngster. But perhaps his diet isn’t as ideal as it could be. Perhaps I need to put him on some top-notch, height-boosting food: Punjabi cuisine.
It’s no secret that many of the tallest people in India come from Punjab. Indeed, no other state in India has produced dozens of people who have the ability to dunk a basketball.
This fact was underscored recently when I read that Princepal Singh, a 6-foot-10 forward from Punjab, had signed to play in the National Basketball Association’s G-League, the NBA’s official minor league in America. He is the first NBA Academy graduate to sign with the G-League and first NBA Academy India graduate to sign a professional contract. The NBA Academy India is an elite basketball training center in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), not far from all the people who eat Punjabi food every day.
Princepal Singh is following in the footsteps of Satnam Singh, a 7-foot-2 centre from Punjab who was selected by the Dallas Mavericks with the 52nd pick in the 2015 NBA draft. Satnam was the first player of Indian descent to be drafted by an NBA team and appeared in 27 games for the Maverick’s G-League affiliate, the Texas Legends.
A 7-foot-2, Satnam Singh would make me feel extremely short, but he’s not the tallest athlete of Indian descent to play professionally in North America. That distinction goes to 7-foot-5 Sim Bhullar, a Punjabi Canadian who played briefly for the Sacramento Kings in 2015. Sim has a younger brother, Tanveer, who is 7-foot-2 and played college basketball. Their parents, who emigrated from Punjab to Canada, undoubtedly fed their sons great quantities of roti, paneer, chana masala, and butter chicken.
Actually that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to mouthwatering Punjabi cuisine. There are just too many tasty dishes to choose from. That’s why I’m always disappointed when I visit a Punjabi restaurant with a buffet. I never have enough room in my stomach to taste every dish more than five times. I’m often surrounded by young Punjabi men who are quite tall—and apparently eager to get even taller.
According to Wikipedia, the average height of an Indian man is 5-foot-5. But if you don’t include Satnam Singh, the average drops to 5-foot-4. Well, perhaps Satnam alone doesn’t make such a difference, but the entire population of Punjab certainly does. Indeed, the average height of a man in Patiala, Punjab, is 5-foot-10. That’s why I won’t be surprised if Punjabi cuisine is one day considered the official food of the NBA.