Out of the blue came the invitation from my friend Anuradha, “Do you want to celebrate Pongal in my village?” Wow! I thought, this is literally ‘being paid to eat sugarcane’ (Karumbu thinna kooli in Tamil). Not only did I get to celebrate Pongal in her beautiful village, Tyagali, surrounded by sugarcane stalks, but also indulged in the regional delicacies like appe saru, mavinakai thambuli, hasi, jonne bella (liquid jaggery), gensle, to name a few.
Tyagali in Siddapur taluk, Uttara Kannada district is nestled in forest-clad Western Ghats (Sahyadri range) with about 100 houses. Everyone here knows the other and there is no need for postal address or GPS. “Thirumala Hegde mane elli?” “Go north 500 meters, turn left in front of bus stop, third house.”
The road to this piece of heaven passes through lush green forests and rice fields. Every house is surrounded by areca nut plantations and multi-crop farming is practised. Besides areca nut, pepper, cardamom, coconut and plantains are grown in the same field; this saves water and land space. Vegetables are grown in the garden by the house and organic farming is a way of life here.
The harvesting of areca nuts requires a minimum of two people, one professional tree climber with experience of plucking the fruits and another person to hold the gunny bags and catch the falling fruits. The trees are planted close enough such that the climber can jump from one tree to another to harvest the nuts and not get down to the ground to climb another tree.
Coconut flavours all the dishes. Chutney from garlic leaves and cucumber skin, liquid jaggery from cane juice, papads from jackfruit — nothing goes waste, everything is converted into a splendid dish. The striking feature of the people here are humility and hard work. In spite of being estate owners, all members of the household, from grandparents to pre-schoolers, pitch in with labour for the smooth running of the household and farm.
Another pride of Uttara Kannada is the pristine Aghanashini river. With more than 150 varieties of fish, it is the lifeline of fishermen who live along the banks of the river. Just as Cauvery is revered in South Karnataka, Aghanashini is worshipped in North Karnataka. The latter is unique in that it is untamed and still flows on the same course as it used to thousands of years ago due to the absence of any dams to alter its flow.
A ‘bonus’ to Pongal celebrations materialised in the form of a visit to Ramachandrapura mutt in Hosanagara, Shivamogga. The ‘goshala’ which serves as a sanctuary for Indian-breed cows from all over the country is the highlight of the mutt. The zealous maintenance of the cows, bulls, calves and the loving care given to the sick and injured cows are heartwarming. I remembered George Bernard Shaw exclaiming, “On the face of India are the tender expressions which carry the mark of creator’s hand”.