Palak paneer 'smell' row ends in $200,000 win for Indians in US

Complaint over smell of food at university spirals into lawsuit

- BY STEPHEN N. R.

What began as a routine lunch break - reheating palak paneer in a shared microwave - ended in a civil rights settlement worth $200,000 for two Indian PhD students at the University of Colorado Boulder, after they alleged systemic discrimination over their choice of food.

The case dates back to September 5, 2023, when Aditya Prakash, then a 34-year-old doctoral student in anthropology, was heating his lunch in a departmental kitchen. A female staff member objected to the “smell” of his food and told him not to use the microwave, according to media reports.

“The smell was pungent, she said,” Prakash recalled. He objected, arguing that the kitchen was a common space. “My food is my pride,” he said, adding that notions of what smells good or bad differ across cultures.