Thursday, May 21, 2020

Monkey fruit -- Barhar, badahal

Monkey fruit/Badahal
 Barhar/Badahal/Badahar is a peculiar fruit in a way that no two fruits have the same shape. There are irregular bulges on the outside. It is edible when riped. Common English name is Monkey Jack or Monkey fruit and the scientific name is Artocarpus Lacucha. 
 
Monkey jack fruit tree
बड़हर का पेड़
     It's tree is big and gives deep shade which is very comforting in the months of April, May and June when the heat-wave or "loo" is common in the northern parts of India. The leaves are similar to the Sal tree leaves and dark green in color. Riped fruits fall down to the ground and eaten by animals. Some people eat the fruits. It is believed to have medicinal properties. So you may find it in some rural markets in the season. Barhar and Mango both have the same season, Summer.
Badahal fruit on a branch

      The Barhar wood is also valued. The trunk looks like Jackfruit tree but is more straight. It is found throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. So it may be called a "Desi" tree.
         Live Barhar plant with pot is available at Amazon at this link,
https://amzn.to/3g6vHUx
              
Badahar fruits

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Friday, April 24, 2020

Mahuwa

The Mahuwa tree and
flowers on the ground
Photo: Ravi Kumar
          It is the Hindu month of Vaishakh, and rural India has again got that special sweet smell of Mahua/Mahuwa flowers. In the morning, the ground under a Mahua tree is spread with white (with a greenish tint) flowers. The flowers continue dropping at a few-second interval. If you see above in the branches to guess where the next flower is going to drop, most likely you will fail. There, you can hardly see a flower like one on the ground. Before dawn, standing beneath a Mahua tree is an awesome experience with the sweet smell around and the dropping sound of the flowers. 
Mahua flowers on the ground
Photo: Ravi Kumar
        Villagers come near the trees with baskets and collect the flowers. The flowers are dried and sold to grocery stores. The dried flowers are used for making some recipes, but generally it is used to make alcoholic drinks. This home-made drink is also known as Mahua, which is a country liquor. This drink is more popular among the forest-dwelling tribal people as this tree is more abundant in their areas. Mahua drinking is accepted as a part of their cultural heritage.
 
Mahua oil, (कोढ़ी का तेल)
In Winters
        The seeds of Mahua are used to extract oil, which is known as Kodhi-oil (कोढ़ी का तेल). This oil is very good for the skin. It is also used to make soap and detergents. It is edible and may be used as a vegetable butter. The seed cakes after the extraction of oil is used as manure. 
           The bark of the Mahua tree is used for medicinal purposes. The leaves and flowers are fed to goats and sheep. The leaves are also fed to a type of silk insect (moth), and Tassar silk is obtained from them. Tassar silk is a type of wild silk.


Picking Mahua flowers
Photo: Ravi Kumar
         The Mahua wood is very hard and used as timber. But seasoned Mahua wood is brittle and very difficult to work with. So in villages, it is mostly used as Chowkhats (door frames) and carpenters work on it before it is seasoned or dry, immediately it is fixed in the walls so that no warping takes place on drying.
           We see that the Mahuwa tree plays an important role in the rural economy. Due to its usefulness, the tribal people consider it a boon and revere this tree.
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Mahua dried flowers and their oil are also available online at Amazon

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Thursday, April 23, 2020

Never bargain with a farmer

Farmers in the field, plucking vegetables
Photo: Ravi Kumar
      When we buy vegetables from the local market, we try to buy them cheaply. So the bargaining is inevitable. We bargain for small amounts of money, which matters to them, not to us. But we do not bargain in the malls and hotels, though the bill may be in thousands. We even give tips to the waiter just for serving us. But it is the farmer who needs our support. Just imagine how the vegetables are produced and taken to the market or local haat. The farmer tills the field, mixes Gobar compost (decomposed cow dung) in the soil, sows the seeds, waters the field from time to time, weeds, applies pesticides, fertilizers, and cares for the vegetables are ready to be plucked. It all needs money and a lot of hard work in the field. You can realise their hard work if you see them working in the field. 
They are plucking 'Bhindi or Okra'
With a hand wrapped in polythene
sheets. Photo: Ravi Kumar
          Now it comes to the plucking of the vegetables and sending them to the local market. It is also not an easy task. Since we reach the vegetable market at about 6:30 in the morning, farmers have to reach there before this time. Generally, they go to the field before dawn, about 4:30 AM. Both men and women work there. Plucking of vegetables is not easy. There is always a danger of snake and insect bites due to low visibility. Some vegetables have thorns, for example, eggplant. Some have an itching effect on the bare skin, for example, ladyfinger (Bhindi, Okra, or Ramtorai). Farmers have to cover their hands to pluck them. Since they can not afford to buy hand gloves, they cover their hands with polythene sheets. They collect the vegetables in baskets and carry them to the local market on their heads. They sell these vegetables there for three to four hours, and if some vegetables remain, they sell them all to local vegetable sellers at a cheap rate and then return. Some farmers can not carry the baskets to the market or can not spare so much time there, so they call a middleman (Bicholiya) and sell all the vegetables to them at cheap rates at the field itself. In this case, the farmer's profit reduces considerably.
             So this is how the vegetables are produced and brought to the market. We see how much labour a farmer and his family do in this process. Can we do only a part of this labour? No. So next, if you hard bargain with a farmer (Kisan), think again about how he has brought the vegetables to the market.
           Most of the time, a middleman or a permanent vegetable seller in the market earns more than the farmer without going through the hard work of farming. It is the point where cooperative institutions have a role to play in making available a good market to the farmers and picking the vegetables directly from the field.
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Friday, December 13, 2019

Ganda (गंडा) -A forgotten unit

        Way back in the decade of 70s, the use of an LPG gas stove was rare and thought to be a luxury. The regulator system over the cylinder was also different from the present-day regulators. It was more like a screw. The food was cooked on coal ovens (called Chulha) in every household, even in cities like Patna. As a teenager in those years, I remember my mother requesting my father to bring an LPG gas stove to get rid of the smoke. But my father was more concerned about its safety. He did not think it safe after some accident news in the newspapers. Due to this fear, the entry of the LPG stove was very late in my house. So every morning and evening, the coal oven was to be fired. At these times of the day, we used to witness smoky and polluted air around us. But nobody cared, and the awareness about the environment was nonexistent. Now, firing the coal in the coal-Chulha (Oven) was not easy. An easily combustible thing needed to be placed under the coal pieces. This thing was dried cow-dung cakes, which we knew by the name "Goytha" (गोइठा). It is also known by the names of "Upla" or "Kande" in the other part of the country. It is still used even today in the rural parts of this subcontinent. 
Diagram for Chulha
         The Goytha pieces were placed on the iron gratings inside the Chulha. It was sprinkled with Kerosene oil and lit. Otherwise, we used to light it with newspapers. Over it, coal pieces were put. So not only coal but also Goytha was to be purchased and stored. The Goytha-sellers roamed the streets like "Pheriwalas," putting the basket of Goythas over their heads. When asked about the rates, they would tell the rate as twenty Ganda (गंडा) for a rupee. I had never heard this word before. My mother told me that Ganda is a unit like a Dozen or an Ana. While a dozen means a bunch of twelve things and an Ana contains six paise similarly, a Ganda is used for a collection of four things. So when he says twenty Ganda for a rupee, he means eighty Goythas for a rupee. Surprisingly, I never saw this unit being used for any other thing except for the Goythas. As time passed, LPG replaced coal in the kitchen. With the lesser coal use, the Goythas also slowly disappeared, and the Ganda became a forgotten unit. Hardly does the new generation know about it.  

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Thursday, October 10, 2019

Tona-Totka - Kale Ghode ki Naal - Earning from superstitions

Horseshoe of a black horse
       The horseshoe of a black horse is the "Kale Ghode ki Naal" in Hindi. It is used as "Totka". There are many superstitions about it. Some of which are as follows:-

1. It removes the negative energy from a house and brings positive energy if fixed at the entrance.

2. It brings good luck.

3. If hung in a pair, it brings positive vibes and secures good fortune.

4. It ends the financial crunch if kept in the grain storage wrapped in a black cloth. 

5. When put in the cash chest wrapped in black cloth, it attracts money.

6. When fixed at the entrance of a shop, it brings an increase in sales.

7. To get a job and keep away the bad "Shani Drishti," one should put on a ring made of "Kale Ghode ki Naal".

8. It keeps away the bad effects of the evil eye.

9. It helps recover a patient from chronic illness.

10. Driving nails made of "Kale Ghode ki Naal" in each of the legs of a cot (Khatia) saves a patient.

A boy selling "Kale Ghode ki Naal"
(Horseshoe of a black horse)
            There are no scientific reasons behind these beliefs. So, people who believe in such things are called superstitious. Due to these people, the horseshoe of a black horse is in good demand. To make a living from this superstition, some people have started selling it. They keep a black horse, sell its horseshoe, and replace it with another one. At least three such horses are brought near the vegetable market in our locality. Two of them are with a cart where they play some music to catch the attention of people.
         One day, I saw a family buying a horseshoe from a boy riding a black horse. On demand, the boy lifted a front leg of the horse and removed the horseshoe, and gave it to the family. 
       Though superstitions are not viewed as good in modern days, they give employment to some people.
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