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'The
way to a man’s heart is through stomach' is a
proverb worthy of all praise if someone has been
invited on lunch or dinner. And you are lucky if
served with Katarni Basmati of Bhagalpur
traditionally cooked and served by the local
people of the region particularly a folk woman
gently holding the rice plate and waiting for
your request, “a little more, please!”
This happy smile of the lady mixed with
irresistible puff of smell of Katarni rice is
certainly not comparable with any five or seven
stars hotel anywhere in the world.
Newly married girls at the time of her farewell
are offered with rice, fresh leaves of grass and
turmeric by their mothers and close relatives. I
have seen this on many occasions in my locality
and its surrounding.
What could be the possible reason(s) behind
this? Why not wheat or other type of crops in
place of rice? Has productivity got any
connotation with the transplantation method of
rice cultivation if we keep apart the myth or
mystery associated with any culture or
tradition?
And I got something substantial in Bhagalpur,
near the railway station. Fariya Patti is nearly
50 years old traditional local market and very
popular for sailing Katarni Basmati. There are
about 25 wholesale shops where the smell of
Katarni is. I sniffed around and met 27 years
old Sanjay Gupta, a graduate from a local
college in Economics. He is the family member of
his fourth generation doing the same business.
We talked about some other variety of rice like
‘Mansoori’, and Sonam Shobha at length.
Hospitable he was and offered me tea in a clay
pot. Careless of rain water logging inside the
market premises, we were still talking about
rice cultivation and of course the specialty was
Katarni Basmati rice.
“How is Mansoori?”
“It is almost on the verge of extinction”.
“And Sonam Shobha….?”
“Farmers are no more interested to grow.”
“Why?”
“It is very low yielding. This is the reason
that the acres of land of Jagdishpur Anchal,
Sighman and Madhay are either barren or flooded.
And the excess use of pesticides has eaten away
the purity of the seeds and soil. Above all,
they are not much aware of know-how technology
of agriculture. The incentive for the farmers is
almost nothing… skilled field laborers are
fleeing to other places like Punjab and Haryana.
They are not seen either at the time of sowing
the plants neither at the time of harvesting…
local farmers are not happy…”
I myself reminded of those farmers who committed
suicide in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh only
because they were under heavy debt and had not
been harvesting their crops for long.
Our agriculture based economy is shocking, I
said.
Bereft and confused I couldn’t ask any more. The
smell of Katarni was still coming to me. I asked
him to make a small bag of Katarni rice to be
carried as part of my luggage on my way to
Riyadh, the beautiful capital city of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I wish to share with a
handful of rice but in an exchange to a solution
of the problem:
Will the smell of Katarni keep coming from its
home land?
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Comments: |
Apropos to this article, I commend
Mr Ahmad for bringing this brutal
reality in such a heart-touching
manner. While the lure of quick
bucks in Punjab/Assam/Delhi reduces
the tenacity of our farmers in Bihar
to struggle and learn new things in
these times, their emigration from
roots and Bihar as such are creating
bigger social and economic
challenges. It is important for us
to recall in these times what
Gandhiji said: we should embrace the
changes but not get swept by the
winds of change. - Ajay Jha,
Patna & Virginia - Oct. 3, 2007
I
have not heard of this smell of
Katarani. But as a lover of rice, in
good days I liked the smell of
Sonachur and Kasturi. My grandfather
and great grand mother used to carry
the rice to Calcutta where I did my
schooling just for me. Last summer
my wife went to her village home and
she brought some real good smelling
rice but that was no where near
Kasturi and Sonachur. I miss it but
no one can help me. Here in Noida I
get only broken Basmati rice rice.
And I get content out of it some
how. - Indra - Oct. 3, 2007 |
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