What a grind !

Once upon a time , cooking was heavy duty physical work .......

Lets make sugar !

First , You need a shed ofcourse . Tiled , three walled , dirt floor , huge cauldron over woodfire . 

Collect your sugarcanes 

Crush ! .....manual or motorised . 

Collect the juice and Filter out scum :

Pour into cauldron and boil ......boil ....boil ...

About an hour and a half .......add the "additives " 

Sometimes, detergent too , to  lighten  the brown  sugar ! 

Keep the fire going. Feed it  the dried Cane waste left over after juice extraction. 

Mounds of ready fuel ! Some of it might go to make paper . 

Pour the thickened syrup into wooden moulds . 

Jaggery / Gud / Bella / raw sugar ready ! Pack in palm or banana sheaths .

There's always space for a cow or two....they can snack on cane leaves . 

Beaded Dolls of yore.

Vintage : first quarter of 1900s . Imported porcelien dolls dressed up by  grandmothers,  with woven beads ..

And beaded dolls , hand stitched from scratch .

Kitchen Kreatures

Sometimes, what is seen is not what it is ....

Pareidolia : "the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees a meaningful object where there is none".

In short "seeing things" . Classic examples being  shapes seen in Cloud formations ,  ink blots , tree trunk knots etc. 

Sometimes, images are suggested by shapes . And then , with some imagination , recognisable forms can be built. 

On a lazy boring day , this : 

In Honour of Ancestors......

Some facts gathered :

These memorial stones are not Veeragals, but Ancestor Stones or Veeragara Kallu , honoured by the Kuruba clans. Regular ancestral worship takes place in all the kuruba shrines scattered across Bengaluru. Kurubas have subsects , each group following a particular temple ( somewhat like the concept of " parish " ) , the sects are called Vokkalis. There are six or seven Veeragara gudis in and around Bengaluru,most of them, like this one, modernised. The other locations where Veeragara gudis are located : Benson Town, Begur, Ranasingapet , Bommasandra, Sarjapur. The Bommasandra temple stores all the holy copper and brass vessels (used in ancestor worship ) belonging to all the shrines of Bengaluru.  Some priests can sing the ancient kuruba legends / puranas which are all Oral Traditions and only very recenty written down. Scriptures  differ by  " Mathas" ( based on regional and cultural differences ) Halumatha ( Milk ) followed by shephards, Jenumatha ( honey ) followed by those who live off forest produce....etc. 

Interesting to see at least a few indigenous, aboriginal traditions still being preserved , though Vedic hinduism has swallowed up all ancient, tribal beliefs , homogenising them as a Pan-indian  "Hindu  Religion ".

Fort.....gone

It used  to be a handsome circular fort ......Chikkajala...in those days, never found out whose it was......then came the new Airport. Land acquired for highway widening included the outer walls of this fort . Part ofit was pulled down. 

Heritage lovers woke up and made a noise. Journos dug up some background on it. 

Turned out to be Private Property. A palegara's . Passed down to present family. 

Too huge and unwieldly to be preserved by present generation. Ofcourse it earned some cash when let out for movie shootings. But that wouldbe nothing compared  to the sky high real eastate value today. 

Looks dreamy and romantic ofcourse. But......it will disappear soon. Heritage lovers' laments cannot help maintain it.

From here and there.....

Things found , scenes seen....

Discarded . On the roadside wasteland , Mysore -Gundlupet road. 

Did the beautiful carvings on the stone make life less  of a grind for our poor grandmothers ? 

A pavilion in Kallhalli . A doorway ( to magic land? ) near Nanjangud

A watchful ogre in a Mysore garden. An antique clay doll in Tranquebar . 

And hiding behing the foliage......not Nandi  but a gnarled tree trunk .

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Ghosts of Bengaluru Past ......alleys behind Commercial Steeet :

From the attic : A seat ....with a game on the reverse side . Early 20 th century . 

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The ageless charms of a Halli Jaatre ! The colors, sounds and scents of Village Life !.