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One of the items on display at most of the local Autonomous Council sponsored/organized exhibitions at BTC areas of Assam is different varieties of rice seeds, including indigous and hybrid ones. The main target is to create awareness of hybrid varieties of rice but what it does is also make aundience realize the invisibility of indigenous varieties.
"We used to pack food while wearing gloves but some customers would ask us to take them off and then pack with bare hands," one of the vednor's response to us when we asked her why she didn't wear gloves while packing food.
We were puzzled by this response. Why did the customers ask the vendors to remove their gloves? How did the customers perceive gloves? Is there lack of awareness over hygiene? Do people - vendors and customers- view hygiene differently?
Jou is the most favoured traditional brew of the Boro people in Assam. It has social, cultural and religious usage but jou for a long time was identified with the community. Particularly the Hindu caste society of Assam looked down upon the indigenous (tribal) people of Assam because of their traditional lifeways that involved making and drinking of jou. But for the Boros, no ritual and custom is complete without it. Traditionally, Boro women were expected to know how to make jou, and therefore, this community knowledge also is held by women.
“It seemed that the whole city had turned into a huge market.”
On every street corner various food outlets compete for customers with other types of businesses. Most places have very rudimentary facilities.
"Some have simple tables set out in the open, others stay in the sun while others, like breakfast sellers, join sheets together to make a sort of voting booth in a corner of the street"
On every street corner, too, various street food outlets compete for customers with other types of businesses. These places are either "canteens" or garages of houses transformed into catering spaces with a large table and wooden benches around for customers, or metal or wooden kiosks glued to a wall or by the roadside.
The materials used are numerous: stainless steel or plastic or glass containers, spoons, dishes, a gas bottle or coal furnace, plastic basins for laundry, a few 20-litre oil cans recycled into water reserves and a stack of newspaper used as packaging.
Depending on the time of day, meals with varied menus are served to this very diverse clientele. For breakfast, for example, the saleswomen have bowls on a table, each containing a sauce to make a sandwich, at the customer's discretion, on site or to take away, wrapped in newspaper:
"Arame provides its customers with three long benches. On his table are bowls containing mayonnaise, tuna, pea sauce, spaghetti, French fries, canned meat, ndambé etc. It adds seasonings and spices (chilli, pepper, broth) to foods to suit the taste of customers.
For some vendors the entire preparation chain is a very serious matter, and therefore personal, especially for reasons related to Muslim (halal) precepts:
The rice in the photo is known as "Namar catsa" or " Caca". It looks strange from its name to its colour. According to the farmers, the rice used to be eaten by the Kings and the senior citizens because it is nutritious. The interviewee shared, "it made up complete balanced nutrition for the sick or weak. But now most of our people don't have much knowledge concerning with that kind of paddy ( including me). Today that kind of rice is not grown widely".
Bruno to vendor: Are you a Moor?
Vendor: “I am a Pulaar (ethnic group from Senegal) sir, and I am from Lao Air. You can't read? It's nevertheless well written on my beautiful stove! - - aere lao cité baratal fouta toro. ... I know this way of preparing meat better than the Moors. It is a job, like any other, that does not belong to any ethnic group."
Let's build this up together
Let's build this together
The Kokrajhar workshop on rice revealed how urbanization and ‘modern’ non-agricultural lifestyle is putting pressure on the practice of rice cultivation. The space for transmitting indigenous knowledge system is shrinking and rice as a site of knowledge and meaning is being challenged, though it continues to be the main staple in the region. With growing number of younger people migrating to urban areas looking for job opportunities and the gradual spread of urbanization process, the biggest challenge is how to sustain productivitity.
Lemon is a fruit and a small shrub that grows 5 to 10 meters high. It has many benefits, culinary and therapeutic. I like to squeeze a lemon daily when I take tea. On my visit to Leiden, The Netherlands, I bought a lemon at a Saturday Market – one lemon for one Euro - in July 2019.
“A lemon for one Euro” - It was a high price but it made me think about the two different worlds – one in the south, Mali, where I live and a developing region, and the other in the north- the developed region.
Every day, the youth of Huay Hin Lad Nai community go into the forest to find food. The forest serves as the local supermarket. Accompanying them into the forest today are students from Chiang Mai University, who are part of school's Ethnic Studies and Development program. Both the students and the youth group woke up early at 5:00 a.m to go and learn in the forest together. The local youth shared stories about shifting cultivation, properties of variety of vegetables and herbs, and their way of living with the forest and nature.
The images are from Kokrajhar Town bi- weekly market. Every Thursday and Sunday people living in and around the District Headquarter of Kokrajhar in the BTC (Bodo Territorial Council) area visit the main market when the bi-weekly bazaar takes place. The bazaar is a huge affair where assorted items are sold and bought, and contribute to the local economy. From direct producers-to-middlemen-to-whole salers of innumerable products partake in the commercial exchanges here. There are dedicated lanes and by-lanes within the market area for different items sold.
This haiku encapsulates my impression of the debate titled 'Cash or kind transfer? The regional, national and global dimensions of revamping the Public Distribution System' facilitated by Augustin Brutus, a scholar activist (Intercultural Network for Development and Peace) and post-doctoral scholar at IFP, Nithya Joseph, at the Pondicherry workshop. The participants included Sudha Sundaraman, of the AIDWA (All Democratic Women's Association) and members of the local women's group SAMAM (Samam Makalir Suyasarbu Iyakkam).
When we bought the plants, we met Mbaye, who has a real garden where he grows vegetables and fruit trees. I was impressed by his knowledge, his courage, and his ability to maintain by irrigation this very beautiful and green garden, in an arid area where it only rains for three months.
"May God preserve us from sickness that comes from elsewhere…”.
People often associate strong emotions of ‘home and comfort’ with certain food and food preparations. This stands true for the first generation Bengali migrants living in the Delhi-NCR area. Each year, during the monsoon season, members of Amraa Shobai, group of Bengali residents from Delhi and NCR, organize the ‘Ilish Porbo’ food festival in Chittaranjan Park (CR Park).
