Random Thoughts - Pattabhi Sitaraman

We used to buy sesame oil and ground nut oil for use at home. We used to buy coconut oil for any medicinal purposes or for grooming the hair. Or at times,the tenant cultivator will bring the yield of sesame from the field. So we used to get the sesame dried in the open terrace and then take it to the oil press (old wooden one with a bull turning the mortar and the pestle remaining more or less motionless). As a young boy and also later a young adult I used to sit on the long arm to which the bull is yoked when the oil merchant used to put the dry produce (sesame, groundnut or coconut) into the press to extract oil. he used to put a little bit of jaggery into the press if it is sesame. He also used to have a small torch made of a stick with cloth tied around at one end and lighted. This he used to stick it into the press and he used to say that this would extract more oil from the produce. I graduated from the formal collegiate education in the mid 1970s and the hunt for a job started...

When I was a small boy, on the second day after Pongal, i.e. on the 3rd of Makara (as per Tamil almanac), we used to have a celebration of the cattle helping the farmer in the fields and also giving milk to the family which was and continues to be an essential nutrient. The cattle will be taken to the rivers and given a bath and brought back home. After extensive polishing with a soft brush/cloth, the cattle will be decorated with turemeric, kumkum, sandal paste and garlanded with flowers and also with a garland made of a plant called Netti. This plant used to grow on the river banks. The people used to cut it,dry it and color it to make lovely colorful garlands. The cows and bulls will have a sumptuous feast made of cooked rice, jaggery and will be fed with bananas. The cattle will be worshiped as demigods as they provide enough nutrients and also help the farmer in his cultivation activities. The dung and the urine of the cows and the bulls will be collected along with the waste hay...