SURVIVAL T ECHNIQUES FOR THE ABANDONED HUSBAND. Part 1: Fire & Fuel. & Part 2: Living off the land

SURVIVAL TECHNIQUES FOR THE ABANDONED HUSBAND. Part 1: Fire & Fuel.

My self-inflicted and self-taught course in SURVIVAL as an ABANDONED HUSBAND started in a forest. I was living in a single room hut on the edge of the Anekal Forest. There was no Electricity, no Cooking Gas supply and no Water from a Tap. But, yes, I did have water – the purest emerging from natural springs and flowing down a tiny little brook which gurgled down falling down tiny waterfalls till it joined another little brook at the end of the land. The quality of the water was pure – no chlorine, no brackishness, no pollutants.

Sadly, now, the stream no longer flows. Rampant illegal mining of sand clogged up all the springs. Bore wells going down 500 feet into the ground dropped the water table, literally, to rock-bottom. However, the “hut” is now bigger, the Electricity has reached the “farm” and Water comes down a tube after being pumped up 600 feet from a bore well.

Without Gas or Electricity, I had to adapt to the most rudimentary way of making a cooking fire – using dried firewood. There was plenty of this around – enough on our land plot itself and much more abundantly in the adjoining forest.

Here’s the procedure.

To make the hearth, you need six standard size bricks. Bricks are generally 9” X 4.5” X 2.25” in a ratio of 1: 2: 4:. Bricks dating over a hundred years are however in a size ratio 1:4:8. So if you are near older structures – like an Archeological Dig, you will need to pilfer 12 Bricks from the ancient structure the Archeologists have been working on…

You may be where there are no bricks, but plenty of flattish rocks. The Hearth should ideally be about 9 to 12 inches above the ground, the stones arranged as three walls, with one side open. The Side Walls should be placed slightly in front of the Back Wall. With this arrangement, the sides can be moved wider or narrower to accommodate the size of the cooking vessel. If you need to stir the ingredients while cooking, make sure the vessel sits firmly stable. As a learner, be prepared for the vessel suddenly toppling off the hearth and at best you will lose your food into the fire or at worst you could land up with a painful scalding with hot Sambhar on your thighs and feet.

It is important to check the direction of wind while setting up the Hearth. As far as possible, the wind should blow into the open side and the smoke and fumes should be carried downwind away from you. Winds in Forest and Hilly Countryside are quite unpredictable. They could suddenly swirl in the opposite direction blasting your eyes with stinging smoke and while you go to soothe your eyes with water and a towel, your dinner probably will get burnt.

Fire. There are things which burn and things which don’t burn. And, things you should NOT burn! Worse still, there are things that could burn after being set on fire – accidently - from your hearth. Like, your clothes! And, in a worst case scenario, you may set fire to the surrounding forest, or the country side, or, if you live in close quarters in an urban sprawl, your neighbor’s house.

So, first ensure that the hearth is properly located. In the open or in the forest, make sure that an area of at least three feet round is cleared of any dry inflammable leaves, grass and small twigs. If it is windy clear at least five feet around. The ideal clothes to wear is shorts and a T-Shirt. And, check that the flames are well away from your neighbor.

To start the fire, first lay a layer of quick burning stuff at the bottom. This could be dry grass, farm straw or light brush wood. You could also use newspaper – provided it is dry. I’ve seen some villagers using thin plastic bags, but it is not good – for the environment. Over this lay a layer of very dry twigs, preferably picked up from the ground. Over this, start placing the main firewood as long branches sticking out of the hearth.

Normally a single matchstick could get your fire started. If it doesn’t, you can put in a few pellets of Camphor – the “Temple Variety”. As I mentioned somewhere earlier, this is made from paraffin and perfumed with camphor essence. True natural camphor – which comes from a tree resin, is quite expensive and is better used as a flavor. As a last resort, you can pour in a small dash of kerosene or petrol.

A wood fire does not have an “On/Off” switch or a gas regulator knob, but can only be controlled by your own attention. With some practice you can get to control the blaze and heat produced by adjusting and pushing in more fire wood. This has a tendency to die down into glowing embers frequently. The fire is revived by driving more air, or oxygen into it. Fanning with any kind of fan helps, but an “Oothangole” is better. This is a tube through which you blow in and direct the air into the embers where needed. The best ones are of metal. You don’t put your mouth at one end but blow into one end the tube from an inch away. The resultant should produce an interesting “foooohn” musical note, like a flute.

In the old days, it was traditionally in most TamBrahm and other Hindu weddings, essential to include an Oothangole with the bride’s “seeer” or dowry. Other interesting traditional “seeer” included a stone grinding sill – the “ammi” on which the bride placed her foot to get two small rings – usually silver with little bells on her toes. These were supposed to sound when the new bride walked with her husband – not alongside, but respectfully seven steps behind! Another important item presented in a Vedic wedding was a bullock yoke, which was placed on the girls shoulder to signify her ownership by the husband (Like Cattle).

How horrid!!! Yes, I do agree. But there is hope. TamBrahm women are very strong in will and physique. The image of today I see is of Mami walking seven steps in front of her husband, busily chattering or fiddling with her smart phone, while Mama trudges woefully behind lugging the shopping!

I believe each type of wood burns with different smoke and smells. Lantana, which was plentiful at the Anekal farm, burns with very pleasant camphor / sandalwood smell which adds an extra flavor to the food cooked on it.

After you have finished whatever you wanted to cook in vessels, you let the fire die down into embers. This smoldering hearth can still be used. “Pappads” can be roasted on it. Even “Phulka” chapattis can be roasted directly on the embers. You can also throw in your “Chillum” if you use one to smoke tobacco or anything else. It will come out super clean!

How many of you have seen “Cow dung cakes”? If you have not, I don’t blame you. Cow Dung Cakes known by various names in the many Indian vernaculars, was, till about half a century ago, the second largest cooking fuel after fire wood. The sight of round brown cakes stuck onto the white washed walls of houses, on public and private walls, in fact, almost any flat surface facing the sun was wide spread around the whole of India. The cow dung would be collected off the roads – almost immediately after it was excreted by the bovine and carted off fresh and wet. Straw from farmyard waste and if possible, coal or charcoal dust was mixed in, the whole smelly goo patted into a flat disk which was firmly slapped on the wall. In a couple of weeks, the cake would be dry enough to peel off the wall and used as cooking fuel. The residue would be an unsightly stain on the wall.

However, with electricity and LPG gas connections having penetrated to the villages and urban sprawls, we don’t see cow dung cakes any more. It helps, I suppose, the “Swach Bharat” or Clean India Campaign promoted by the Prime Minister.

These obnoxious wall decorations seem to have disappeared over most of urban and rural India now and can probably be seen only in remote and poor hamlets.

But this does not mean the cows & bovine population has diminished. If anything, it has only increased and India now has the world’s largest bovine population. But what happens to all the dung that this population produces?

Technological advance has provided many farmers & animal husbandry with ”Gobar Gas plants”, where the Cow Dung is poured into a bio-digester and comes out as usable cooking gas. This process also leaves the spent slurry as valuable soil fertilizers.

For the poorer families, who do not have “Gobar Gas Units”, each family has a “Gobregadde” also known as “Khobragade” – both of which translate as “Manure Pit”. The smell of Cow Dung is the first one that hits you as you go past the smaller villages in India.

A little aside: Khobragade? The name rings a bell. It is the surname of an Indian Diplomat who was involved in a rather unsightly tiff between the Indian & US Foreign Offices. But why would a person get a name like Khobragade? Or “Kuppuswamy” which translates “Prince of the Garbage”! Or “Pichaimuthu” which means “Pearl of Beggars! Sometimes a couple is unfortunate to lose their first born in child birth or at a very early age. To ward off the spirits when they successfully have a son, they give such names to the next offspring.

Cow Dung is also used as flooring. In many poor mud huts, with a mud floor, Cow Dung is used to keep the floor clean, dry and cool too. Slurry of Cow Dung with water and Turmeric is spread lightly over the mud floor and this will dry in a few minutes giving the floor a yellow tinge. Turmeric is a powerful anti insecticide and keeps various insects – especially ants away. By adding a paste of crushed Neem leaves, the floor can also be rendered anti bacterial.

The next most widely used fuel, till about fifty years ago – was Coal. This too has virtually disappeared, because the main source of supply has disappeared. In those days, most of rural India – especially villages near the Railway Line or Railway Stations, got their fuel from pilfered Railway Coal. At small villages and hamlets, kind Engine Drivers would throw down chunks of Railway Coal. At some of the bigger Rail Yards and Junctions, this pilfering was more organized and powerful mafias ran the business of pilfering and selling the coal. Mughalsarai Junction in Bihar once held the dubious distinction with the highest levels of pilfering - all run by a very powerful mafia.

Now, the grand old steam engines have retired from the Railways which now use Diesel or Diesel Electric or Electric powered locomotives. You can see the old “Iron Horses” only in the Rail Museums today.

Coal and charcoal cannot be used in an open hearth like firewood. For this a “Sigri” is required. This “Stove” usually made up from an old iron bucket, was necessarily portable as the “Sigri” produced a lot of smoke till the coal caught fire. A couple of Cow Dung cakes were placed as “Tinder” and set alight. Over this the Railway Coal, which came in large chunks, was broken down into smaller bits and filled to the brim of the “Sigri”. The resultant would be at least half an hour of smoke, till the coal was fully alight. If you look out from a Railway Train early in the morning, you will see all the houses in a little village light up their “Sigris” together at the same time and a thin layer of smoke hangs just a few feet above the huts looking like morning mist. As the Coal burnt, more coal chunks could be added, but this would not be smoky.

Today, Cow Dung Cakes and Railway Coal have disappeared, but firewood still remains the main fuel for the poorest. In rural areas, collecting firewood is a daily chore, but it is used in the slums and poorer localities in Urban India too. The sight of Urban Poor carting away any wood from old packing crates, broken furniture and even card board boxes and cartoons is quite common.

Kerosene was the first fuel subsidized by the Government. Till about two decades ago, it was in high demand and had to be rationed out to the public. You could buy it at subsidized rates. You could also buy “open market” Kerosene at about twice the subsidized rate. To differentiate between “Rationed” and “Open Market” Kerosene, the former was colored with a blue dye. But this did not actually work. “Blue” Kerosene was being used by many auto rickshaw drivers – mixed with costlier petrol. There was no way the Government could check if the Rationed Kerosene was actually used for cooking, or went into Auto Rickshaws. Besides, on the farms, several machines – Water Pump Sets, Crop Dusting & Spraying Machines and Road-Side Sugar Cane Juice Vendors all still use Fuel Engines burning Kerosene.

Now Kerosene is being replaced by LPG or Liquid Petroleum Gas – usually Butane. This too is distributed in Cylinders and Domestic usage is subsidized. It is much more efficient and produces a blue flame without smoke. But here too, a lot of Subsidized LPG gets diverted into LPG powered Auto Rickshaws as well as goes to Hotels and Industries which are actually supposed to use non-subsidized LPG which is about 60% costlier.

There are two types of Kerosene stoves – the Wick Stove and the Primus Stove. Several attempts were made to make a more efficient Wick Stove. Though some burnt with a reasonably Blue Flame without Smoke, the taste of Kerosene in the food cooked never really disappeared. A reasonably smokeless Wick Stove was developed by the Government owned Indian Oil Corporation which was also the prime agency supplying and distributing Kerosene.

The Primus or “Pump Stove” is made with a tank which is air-tight. After filling in the Kerosene, the stove is pumped by operating an Air Pump – very similar to a Bicycle Pump. The Kerosene comes out in the burner through a fine nozzle at pressure and with a lot of air dissolved. The resultant flame burns quite hot and blue and without smoke. The taste of Kerosene, however, will still permeate into the food cooked.

Though still seen in many shops, Primus Stoves are a bit dangerous. The combination of Kerosene and high pressure air can, if the stove is not perfect lead to fire accidents. Many housewives have succumbed to explosion from a Primus Stove.

The Government is now promoting the shift to LPG or Bio-Gas and this is also steadily replacing Kerosene, Coal, Charcoal, Cow Dung Cakes and Firewood. Gas is much more fuel efficient, cleaner and does not add the pollution that these other fuels produced.

Many decades ago, the Coal Ministry added a new Fuel – brand named LECO, briquettes of Coke. Largely made from the lowest grade Coal – Lignite, Coke is “refined coal”. It burnt with a blue flame and had higher calorific value than Coal or Charcoal. However, it was being produced by the Neyvelli Lignite Corporation in Tamilnadu. But like it happens in most Public Sector Undertakings, inefficiency, corruption and political expediency killed the product.

The most privileged ABANDONED HUSBAND may have access to a range of Electric cooking gadgets. Electric Stoves, Ovens, Kettles, Rice Cookers, Pressure Cookers etc. are all available. Microwave and Induction Plates (which also work with microwave energy) are becoming very popular.

The trouble with Electric Cooking gadgets is they need Electricity. But in India with restricted supply, load shedding, power cuts, power outages, besides erratic and fluctuating Voltage, no household can depend on Electricity alone and need a back-up of LPG Gas, Kerosene, Coal / Charcoal / Coke and even Firewood for survival.

14.05.2015

Next Chapter:

SURVIVAL TECHNIQUES FOR THE ABANDONED HUSBAND. Part 2: Living off the Land.

Living, as I did, in a corner of the forest, I learnt to survive on what the land offered. I learnt that one needed a bit of ingenuity and creativity to obtain food. This is true, particularly, if you choose to live in a rural area. Neighbor farmers would willingly part with a little of whatever they were growing and I always got enough of vegetables – especially seasonal produce for my own needs.

Palaks, various Keerais and other leafy spinaches are always available in the market. These provide iron, minerals and roughage. But besides those varieties which are available in the vegetable shops, there are several edible plants and herbs, naturally occurring. However, one needs to know which plant is edible and which is not. I did not know, but I had Radhamma, Byranna the hunter’s wife to help. A few days after the rains start, small plantlets would sprout out of the ground. She would just take a walk round and come back with her “sari pallu” full of a large variety of saplings less than a week old – all tender and edible. Of course, like all other spinach, the whole lot would shrink to about 25% on cooking.

You are never very far from a Drumstick Tree. The leaves make for good spinach – though somewhat dry. They have good therapeutic value. The Drumstick pods have even better therapeutic value – many consider that it has some kind of aphrodisiac properties and increases the libido.

When a young wife informs her neighbor that she has made “murungakai (drumstick) sambhar” for her husband, it would generally be received with a benign snigger.

If you throw the kitchen and dinner plate wastes around and the rains have been good, you will find several things that sprout up, but they may not be exactly what you had before. Today, hybrid round red tomatoes is popular, but if you use these and the seeds are thrown, the next generation reverts to the original wild tomato – the “cherry tomato”. The original native strain is very hardy and will spread out giving you enough of cherry tomatoes for your cooking. Other things that came up on my farm spontaneously were pumpkins, various gourds and water melons.

I have even done a bit of farming. I had grown Beans, Green Chili, Ladies Finger and Brinjals (egg plant) in a small plot – enough for my own consumption. In the main field, which was just about half an acre (about 22,000 square feet), I had planted Ragi – the millet most widely grown in this region. Multi-cropped with this were lines of Avarekai (a flattish bean), Mustard, Jowar (another millet which was mainly used as cattle feed), Tur or Arhar Dhal (a pulse) and as a border, Huchchu Yellu (a variety of sesame, which made the field look very pretty with a ring of marigold like flowers).

For three years, I harvested the Ragi in time and stacked it up into a neat haystack just in front of my hut. But for three years, that very night, the elephants came and raided the haystack and consumed well over two thirds of the Ragi. Surprisingly, for three years I slept through these nights and did not hear the elephants even though there were over a dozen wild elephants in the heard. It must have been the fire-water booze that I was then brewing for myself.

One thing I realized was that the ABANDONED HUSBAND need not SURVIVE on his own but a lot can be achieved “With A Little Help From My Friends”.

The ABANDONED HUSBAND is truly privileged by his state if he cares to accept it. He is now a free bird who can live his life in the style he wants to.

Also, since SHE HAS GONE, he can now invite home all those misfits, undesirables and “ragged men in ragged clothes” who were unwelcome when SHE WAS THERE, and indulge collectively in those very debaucheries that got you ABANDONED in the first place. Birds of a feather stick together and most of your friends will come in like bees to the rose.

Since they were all your friends they would likely share the same life style philosophy as yours. So most of them can be categorized into three compartments – (a) ABANDONED HUSBANDS, (b) Swiftly progressing to become ABANDONED HUSBANDS and (c) those sitting on the fence!

Invite them home (in a farm or flat) to enjoy their evening of “freak-out”, but make sure they bring in the supplies. Most of your friends, you will find, just love an evening cook-out and they would do it all themselves. Setting and lighting the Firewood Fire. Cutting up the Vegetables. Cooking. Serving. With luck, even washing up after. For a change you can relax drinking the booze and smoking the greens they have brought in, while they enjoy doing what has already become a daily chore for you.

After the “freak out”, you may also be left with supplies that did not get consumed – Onions, Garlic, Tomatoes, Green Masalas (Coriander, Curry Leaves, Mint and Green Chilies), Packets of Spice powders and Mixes, even grains and dhal which you can add to your larder and use over the next few days.

Leftover food is another valuable survival method. Every one today knows what a Pizza is: it is made from leftover food. It is basically flat bread on which all the leftover meat, vegetables, curries and sauces are piled on and covered by a layer of sharp, matured cheese. The cheese and a generous sprinkling of pepper help mask any stale taste in the leftover food.

15.05.2015

Cooked rice is the first thing that gets left over. All over Tamilnadu and the South, any cooked rice left after the dinner is kept aside after pouring water in the vessel to just about cover the rice. Overnight this will ferment slightly to give “Pazhaidhu” which translates as “old rice”. In the salubrious climate of Bangalore, this fermentation will be minimal. But in the clime of Chennai, where there are only three seasons – Hot, Hotter and Hottest, the fermentation is much more and by morning you will have a porridge or “Koozhu” which has more alcohol than a strong beer. You will find in Tamil Nadu, pushcarts selling “Pazhaidhu” and “Koozhu”. Some will be of rice, but you can also see Ragi – millet being used. An important add-on on these push carts is a variety of fiery pickles and pickled chilies which the locals like to have with the “Pazhaidhu / Koozhu”. You will also find that most customers appear to be chronically confirmed boozers for whom this is a vital morning pick-up and a hangover reliever.

In my grandfather’s house in Chennai, a typical TamBram routine was followed. As kids we were woken up by six in the morning, anyway nobody could sleep after this time as the sweltering heat of the day set in. The adults would get coffee, while we kids got milk. If I do remember, I never had coffee or tea till I was 12 years old.

Lunch (or if you prefer to call it Brunch) would be ready by 8 am. The Office going Adults and College going teens would be fed first and leave. By 9 am, the rest of the household sat down for a full three course Lunch / Brunch. Rice was the staple for all three courses – Khozhumbu Saatham, Rasam Saatham and Thaiyar Saatham. A large quantity of rice would have been prepared – even a little in excess. After the meal, my grandmother would put in a little curd (as starter culture) and add a lot of creamy fresh milk. The pot would be covered and set aside.

After Lunch / Brunch, all the kids were let loose to romp, play and generally create mayhem in the huge sprawling mansion and its gardens. By 2 pm, and with the blazing heat we would have all digested the earlier meal and become hungry and thirsty. Grandmother would now call us all in for Tiffin – the aunts ferreting us out from our hideouts. We would all assemble – not in the dining hall, but in a large store room which had a fan. More than a dozen cousins, ranging in age from 2 years to 20 years were made to sit in a semicircle round the Pot. No plates were used and each kid was given a piece of “Naarthankai” a dried salted pickle made from Tangerine or Citrine – not fresh limes.

Grandmother now stirred the pot with her hands and picked up handfuls of the “Thaiyar Saatham” and we had to hold out our palms and receive it. For the youngest tots, she would mouth feed them with her own hand.

The rice, which was cooked early in the morning, would have turned to “Pazhaidhu” by 2 pm. The milk would also have set into curds. The earthen pot would have cooled down the food almost as much as a fridge could. Grandmother would relate to us, every day, a story as she performed her duty of feeding her several grand children. The best was the bottom of the pot which had the creamiest part of the meal.

But the “thaiyar saatham” would have nicely fermented and turned mildly alcoholic. It was no wonder some of us kids fell asleep even before my grandmother finished her daily story!

You can find some of these very entertaining and educative Grandmother’s Tales in my other writing.

Orthodox TamBram cooking does not use Onion or Garlic. Also, the dhals are pre-roasted and ground before the Kootu (TamBram Version of Sambhar) is boiled. Such food generally does not spoil even without a fridge for at least 24 hours. A special Puli-Kootu which is prepared on Tamil New Year Day (14^th April), does not spoil, but, in fact gets better if it is re-boiled every day.

Preparations using fresh coconut are most susceptible to spoil and chutneys can go bad in a couple of hours. Onion and boiled dhals too can go bad in a day. These necessarily need to be refrigerated and even then, the taste will not be the same as it was fresh. Vegetables which are dried fried without coconut will also not keep.

Said the Tamil cook to his English Sahib:

“Sir, Salt Flour is Needle Gone”

“What?” asked the bewildered, uncomprehending English Sahib, “What the dickens are you talking about?”

“Yenna man sollarai?” (What did you say?) his Anglo-Indian Memsahib from Vepery asked the cook.

“Memsahib, naan sonnai, Uppamau Oosi Pochu” said the cook, who meant that the Uppamau has gone bad, but he had transliterated this into the English he knew! In fact, most food “gone bad” will taste as if needles are poking your tongue.

Leftover cooked meat as well as raw meat will need to be kept not just in the fridge, but in the freezer section. Meat gone bad can lead to severe food poisoning. Chicken gone bad can give sensomila poisoning which can be fatal too.

By far the most important quality that the ABANDONED HUSBAND needs to develop is a total departure from any form of Food Prejudices and Dogmas based on religion or community. You must be prepared to cook and eat whatever you have and accept any food that is given to you.

Though being a TamBram myself, I am not Vegetarian or “Vegan”. I eat all types of food with or without Onion and Garlic. Both Beef and Pork are accepted and relished by me. In fact, the extent and variety of meats I have eaten will put a confirmed meat eater to shame. I have eaten a wide variety of various insects, animals and fish – anything that “Walked, Ran, Crawled, Swam, Flew or Slithered”. All this started in my younger days long before I even got married or ABANDONED.

My parents as an Indian Air Force family, though vegetarian and brought up in an orthodox TamBram way, were however, very liberal with us and in fact, encouraged my sisters and I to accept non-vegetarian food. This we were quite willing to do, what with several Anglo-Indian Air Force Officers as neighbors.

When I did my internship in my Journalism course, I was deputed to meet and work with Romulus Whitaker, Director of the Madras Snake Park. The sight of the dangerous poisonous snakes all around was, for me, very un-nerving and scared me no less. Romulus suggested that I should go and live a few days with the Irulas, a forest tribe whose occupation was catching and eliminating field rats. The rats also made up their staple source of Protein.

Where there are rats, there are snakes. These too the Irulas caught and ate! Being in Rome and having to do as Romans do, I got quite used to eating these.

Dad was on his last posting as an Air Commodore and Senior Maintenance Staff Officer of Central Air Command at Air Force Station, Bamrauli, Allahabad. The Airfield was plagued by a herd of Wild Boar, which ran across the run way when planes were coming into land and very a grave peril to the Air Force flying personnel. There was a Cavalry Regiment in the Army base at Allahabad. Though Cavalry now ride Armored Tanks, many old regiments kept the old equestrian skills alive. These included “Tent Pegging” and “Pig Sticking”. Both these sports were played from horseback using long lances. The Cavalry regiment eagerly accepted my father’s invite as it gave them an opportunity to practice a skill that had not happened over two decades – actually hunting down live Wild Boar.

On the appointed day, an army of “beaters” – over 500 of them, beat drums and trumpets moving in steadily from the very perimeter of the huge sprawling Air Base. The animals were steadily pushed in till they were cornered on the run way. Then the Cavalry moved in.

Now, Pig Sticking is a “blood sport”, like Fox Hunting, Bull Fighting, and Falcon Hunting etc. I do believe, like Ernest Hemmingway says in his book on Bull Fighting – “Blood and Sand”, these are all noble sports, presently belittled by organizations like PETA ( a bunch celebrity idiots: Pamela Anderson, the Busty Bay Watch star, says the Kerala government should replace the live elephants in the Trisshur Pooram Festival with fake elephants made of Plastic and Fiber glass!), arm-chair conservationists, Green Peace (now clearly declared as a subversive organization by the Government of India) and NGOs professing protection of Environment and Wild Life (either out of misplaced sense of kindness, at best, or with sinister hidden agendas of vested interests, at worst).

At the end of the day about a dozen adult boar and several juveniles were lying dead on the run way. But the boars had not given up easily. It is not so easy to charge down on horseback and stick a long lance exactly between the shoulder blades. A miss and the boar could yank you out of the saddle to go flying and fall a good 20 yards away. Several of the horsemen got injured and hospitalized. The regiment left the largest of the Wild Boar for the Air Force Officers Mess and at an impromptu party the boar was mounted on a spit and roasted over firewood, which all except those with “Food Dogmas” enjoyed.

Years later, during my Research days, I stayed for a week with a Santhal Tribe in Odisha. The first evening, the clan headman offered me a very tall glass of very strong brew. To go with it they placed a bowl of what looked like Popcorn in front of me. Only it was not corn, but winged termites fried in their own fat with chili powder and salt added. They were very kind and hospitable to me. Through the whole week I got to eat a variety of Forest Meats including Deer Venson.

I am also an opponent of the Forest and Wildlife policies currently in practice which has thrown the Forest Hunting / Gathering tribes out of the Notified Areas and so-called sanctuaries. These tribes were the first true environmentalists. They lived in the forest depending wholly on it for food, shelter and clothing. They killed only what they needed to eat and took as much of the forest only for their own needs. They, in fact, helped maintain the balance of the forest food chain. It was unscrupulous traders who enticed the poor tribes with money and liquor to cut trees for furniture and forest meat for city dwellers.

I got a firsthand experience of this when I, the ABANDONED HUSBAND, finally started staying in my Anekal Forest Hut. Byranna is a Bedar Kannappa – a forest tribe which dates back to the Puranaas. Landless, with no regular income, his family could rarely afford to buy Pork – the cheapest meat, let alone Chicken or Mutton. But he retained his Hunting (with a native made muzzle loader gun) and Trapping (with snares of all types) skills. This alone provided him (and me) with valuable protein. Over three years, I had a regular diet which included Hares / Rabbits, Porcupines and several species of large water and land birds including, once a Peacock. Sometime ago the Authorities confiscated his gun and all his snares – he is literally starving now.

Note: The above section reflects my personal views. You are entitled to yours. So take it or leave it!

But I must add, though I relish all meats including forest meats, I have no idea how to cook it. This is why I have concentrated on vegetarian cooking in general and TamBram style in particular in this cook book.