Inside a Green World in Sullia

Walking through the plantation. 

A friend of ours had mentioned and described his home-town a few years ago. He said that their house sits on many acres of land bearing coconut, cocoa, arecanut plantations and paddy fields and there’s a river running across their land. This was enough for me to pester him to ‘invite’ us to his home soon!

Towering arecanut trees.

That day finally came in November last year. There was a wedding in the family and he said it would be an opportunity to meet everyone and sample traditional wedding food too! It seemed perfect.

We took an overnight bus to Mangalore and then another bus to Sullia, which is where his house is. Even as we entered the gate he pointed in different directions telling us where the rubber, arecanut and coconut plantations were. We were entering a green world where the only respite would be multiple hues of jade and emerald greens and the bright colours of beautiful flowers, fruits, birds and butterflies! I roamed amongst towering trees, ate food cooked with vegetables plucked from the farm, breathed the freshest air possible, feasted my eyes on verdant greens, adorned my hair with all kinds of flowers till my head looked like a bouquet, ate turmeric roots and stained my teeth with people giggling around, and came back refreshed, with a sense of warmth by being around people who have such a close relationship with the earth.  

Turmeric roots. I bit off a piece and realized that my teeth were stained yellow, when people giggled at me. 

Ginger root. 

What impressed me most is the entire family’s deep reverence and connection with the environment.  What we urban people would label as ‘eco-friendly’ is their natural way of life. This was evident especially during the wedding. Instead of buying cheap plastic decorations, all the festoons and decorations were made of flowers, leaves and arecanuts. Even on the main stage where the newly married couple were to greet people , the screens were made of intertwined coconut leaves. I watched the woman who was making these, and was impressed by her skill. Sadly, with readymade plastic decorations flooding the market, her ilk is rapidly shrinking and so is art also dying.

Coconut leaves for decoration.

The artisan weaving the leaves. 

Notice how the decoration is natural

I, too, joined a group of people to pluck arecanuts which was later strung together and wrapped around the pillars. And they looked so bright and colourful. A short lean man, with a bamboo pole around 30 feet long, with a sharp knife tied to one end, climbs the arecanut nut tree in a blink of an eye and starts precisely cutting the stem of bunches of arecanuts of the neighboring trees. Again he is back on the ground in a second and climbs another tree and repeats the process. I was left amazed by his dexterity, precision and swiftness.

A worker climbs an arecanut tree. 

Arecanuts wrapped around the pillar for decoration. 

An arecanut on my henna stained orange palm. 

For the wedding, all meals were served on banana leaves which is put into the compost and becomes manure for the plants. Nothing goes waste!

Banana leaves stacked for meals. 

Food being served in the main hall. 

We went around the farm and I was delighted to see cocoa trees for the first time. The friend climbed a tree swiftly and plucked a yellow, ripe cocoa pod, broke it by striking it against a stone and asked me to taste it. The inside of the cocoa pod looks nothing like the chocolate we eat. There are multiple seeds coated with sweet white flesh, much like custard apples, but only less sweet. I ate half a pod and scattered the seeds around, hoping more cocoa trees would sprout.

Cocoa trees with some ripe, yellow cocoa pods. 

Inside the cocoa pod.

We went to the river too, during sunset and it was so peaceful to see the sun lending a golden glow to everything around, the birds returning home and the silhouette of the coconut and arecanut trees in the background.

Sunset by the river.

We visited the paddy fields, where just two days earlier the paddy had been harvested. I missed that! We went and saw where the paddy was being stored.

Paddy husk. 

The paddy field recently harvested. 

The family is large with different family members taking care of different parts of the farm and fields. It was heartening to hear that many young boys in the family have left lucrative career options to take up agriculture, and are using innovative techniques to improvise farming and output. The entire farm is purely organic. Our friend’s father has himself brought about numerous innovations to organic farming and has received many awards for the same. Each house on the farm has a separate cow shed with two to four cows. So all the dairy products are fresh and homemade and we had copious amounts of ghee, buttermilk and curd.  The cow dung is used as manure for the plants and also for bio-gas. It’s a remarkably self-sustaining ecology created by the family.

Large lady's finger. They should be renamed giant's finger! 

New coconut shoots sprouting from dried coconuts. 

Brinjals grown outside the house. 

Drawing water from the well in the farm. The water tasted so sweet and refreshing. 

Pineapple. I love the tiny purple flowers on the plant. 

There is something unique about people who work so closely with the earth. I've noticed that time and again, during my travel and interaction with those who work with the soil. They are so down-to-earth, simple, grounded, with an inner knowing about the working of Nature and of life itself and my friend’s Father was no different with a serenity on his face that only an association with Nature can bestow.

Puran polis or sweet stuffed flat bread being prepared for the wedding. 

The place abounds in this tree, the leaves of which are used in making leaf plates or patravali. 

This post would be incomplete without a mention of food. The food was simple, delicate on spices and prepared from ingredients from the farm itself, and served on banana leaves. Eating from a banana leaf enhances the flavour of food, which was lip-smacking to say the least. I could get only these two pictures of the food, as the rest of the time I was, well, too busy eating!! 

Traditional breakfast of idlis, vada, sambaar, chutney and kesari bhath. 

Dosa and chutney. 

Three days were over earlier than expected and it was time for us to leave. But we promised to back soon, to relax and spend more time learning about crop cycles, the soil and Nature, with whom we are so disconnected with, in the city.

Bright hibiscus flowers. 

We stopped for a day at Mangalore before returning to Pune. Do read my post on what to eat in Mangalore..:-) 

Pune's Oldest 'Olx' and 'Quikr', long before the Internet: Juna Bazaar.

Scorpion shaped wall-pegs, damsel shaped bottle opener and betel nut crackers.

It’s been over 4 years since we came to Pune, and although I had visited the Juna Bazaar twice earlier to pick up scrap for Recycling, I decided to visit again, but this time, with a traveler’s perspective. And I’m glad I did, because I could appreciate and observe the bazaar more than before.

A box with compartments for betel leaves and nuts. 

The Juna Bazaar is a market for old and second hand goods, as the word ‘juna’ which means ‘old’ in Hindi, suggests. It’s a make shift market, stretching over half a kilometer, that is set up on every Sunday and Wednesday from 9 am to 6 pm on Veer Tanaji Ghorpade road in Kasba Peth. 

I am usually petrified of crowds but I braved this one. 

If you are visiting this market be prepared to wade through the crowd and narrow spaces. I entered the market and was casually strolling and stopping by at stalls to take pictures and occasionally chat up with the sellers. I stopped at one antique seller’s stall and casually enquired from where he sources these antique items. Instead of answering my question, he asked me where I am from. I told him I’m from Pune but I’m visiting the market for the first time. (Yes, I know I lied!!). He laughed and said that he guessed that because the locals never ask that question. He invited me to sit on the footrest of the scooter that was parked next to him and I took a short leap over his precious collection and sat down. He proceeded to show me various items from his stall. 

Nizam Bhai and the scooter next to him where I sat. 

Some of the coins he showed me dated back to Shivaji Maharaj and Aurangazeb’s time, which is almost over 300 yrs old. He said he sources things from various places. The coins are usually from villages and farms and fields, because in the earlier days before the banking system, people kept their money safe by burying it in the fields, in pots. Some people also part with their own collection. A lot of interesting brassware was sold by people who could no longer keep up with the demands of this high maintenance metal.

Old coins in the denominations of one paisa and pice. 

Coins from Shivaji Maharaj's time. Note the words 'Chhatrapati' and 'Raja' in Hindi on the coins. 

Coin collection.

Silver coins from Aurangazeb's time, made in Surat. 

The coins at his stall as well as in other stalls was priced between Rs 50 to Rs 300 depending on its antiquity.

Anklets for humans and animals like cows and elephants. 

Door knockers. 

I asked him how old this market was. He said the market has been thriving since the reign of the Peshwas, since over 300 years. He said he is in his 60’s now and remembers tagging along, as a young child with his grandmother, who herself had been selling antique items at the bazaar for a very long time. My guess is that when the city started expanding, the oldest original market of Pune, which was outside Shaniwarwada, diversified around 150 yrs ago, into the vegetable market at Mandai and the Juna bazaar for second-hand items.

This bowl shaped item is used for massaging the legs. 

If you visit the Juna bazaar, do visit this friendly seller, Nizam Bhai, who offered me tea and also showed me a few clippings of newspapers and magazines in which he had been mentioned. I thanked him for the information and his hospitality and proceeded to explore the other stalls.

A 1920 model of a Marine telescope. 

A seaman's box containing a compass, magnifying glass and telescope. 

The antiques range from interesting brass home décor items like vases and lanterns, door knockers shaped like lions and elephant heads, scorpion shaped wall-pegs, to kitchen items like tortoise shaped vegetable graters and artistically designed betel nut crackers and boxes to miscellaneous items like a 1920 model of a Marine telescope, a brass coal iron and a receptacle shaped like a cow for offering holy water. Prices ranged from Rs 250 to Rs 3000 depending on the item.

A vegetable grater shaped like a tortoise. 

A tiny brass coal iron box. 

Horns and sand clocks. 

I chatted up with another seller and he told me that not all items that are labelled as ‘antique’ are actually antique. There are factories, mostly based in Delhi, which manufacture copies of the original antique pieces.

A tiny antique gramophone. 

A genie's lamp. Yes, I did make a fervent wish! 

A cow shaped vessel for holy water. 

It says telescope made for the Royal Navy. 

A beautiful fish shaped lock with equally beautiful keys. 

Apart from antiques, you also find other second hand household goods like refrigerators, blenders, pots and pans and stoves, and electronic appliances like computer parts and television screens, phones and also car batteries and type writers! There are also various second hand tools like spanners, axes, shovels, chains and pulleys for construction work. 

Half used bottles and tubes of paint. 

Old phones. 

Old refrigerators. 

Pans, stoves, and cookers. 

Steel utensils. 

Although it is Juna bazaar, you also have some stalls selling new items like suitcases, bags, goggles and eyewear, shoes and apparel.

Hardware equipment like pliers, spanners, screwdrivers. 

Suitcases.

Jeans priced at Rs 80! Really cheap. 

Car batteries. 

Reflection on the eyewear. 

The shoes section. 

If you are tired after walking around, there are stalls that sell vada pav, cucumbers and lemonade.

Vada pav stall. 

Cucumbers to beat the heat. 

Things to keep in mind if you plan to visit Juna bazaar:

·         The market is open only on Sundays and Wednesdays between 9 am to 6 pm.

·         Be prepared to walk around a lot.

·         Carry water to keep yourself hydrated. I did not see any shops selling bottled water.

·         I usually don’t bargain, although others would recommend it. Use your discretion.

·         Go through the antique section carefully. There are many interesting items and unless you look closer, you wouldn’t know what it is.

·         Enjoy the experience.

Typewriters. are there people who use them? 

Foot rest for polishing your shoes, seen commonly at Mumbai railway stations. 

Horse shoes. 

Coal operated stoves. 

Kolam Wall Art- Vertical Rangoli.

I grew up watching my late grandmother dexterously decorate the space outside the main entrance of the house, each morning, with 'kolam', the South-Indian term for rangoli. In Palakkad Iyer homes, as well as in some other South-Indian communities, kolams are drawn with rice flour, either dry or wet, and 'kaavi', which is a soft red brick with lends the bright red-oxide colour. Hence kolams are usually white and red. The designs are mostly geometric designs, ranging from simple to complex, doubling up as mandalas, to converge positive energies in homes and keep out dense energies. One variation is the dot kolam where dots are drawn first and then they are either connected or looped across. It symbolizes the interconnection between everything in the Universe. For auspicious occasions like weddings and festivals, kolams run into several feet in length and width, drawn by skilled women, to whom it is second nature. I had to practise this many times in my note book to get the dots and loops right. I wish I had taken an interest when my grandma used to urge me to draw and learn the kolam designs from her. When, at a community centre I was asked to do a wall-art next to the gate, I thought of a vertical kolam/ rangoli on the wall, which blends perfectly with the stone idols of the Gods, reminiscent of temples in South India. That, with the bamboo trees around, to make the setting perfect. :-) I dedicate this wall-art to my dearest Grandma.