A date with prosperity

Surrounded by industries, this farm stands out in Vanjipalayam area, less than 10 km from the knitwear town of Tiruppur. Bunches of golden yellow fruits hang from the trees in the months of June, July and August.

K.G. Murugavel grows the Barhee variety of dates on his 2.5-acre plot. Switching over from turmeric, vegetables and cotton about a decade ago, Mr. Murugavel of K.G. Fresh Dates today exports fresh dates and supplies Barhee tissue culture plants to interested farmers across the country.

“I wanted to go for a change from the normal crops. Based on information that I gathered in the media, I decided to import tissue culture of the Barhee variety in 2009 and planted 180 plants. Each tree now yields 150 kg to 200 kg of dates a year,” he says. Mr. Murugavel, who sells in the wholesale and retail markets in India and also exports, says the trees flower in February-March and the fruits can be harvested in four months from then.

Door-to-door marketing

“In the first few years, my wife and I used to take the fresh dates to Tiruppur and do door-to-door marketing,” he says. These fresh dates have several health benefits and with increasing awareness, the demand has also grown. “We sell 40 tonnes to 50 tonnes a year now.” Awareness among farmers has picked up in the last five years. If climatic conditions are suitable, farmers can raise them on 1.5 to 2 acres.

Investment quite high

The Barhee variety grows only in specific weather conditions and the investments are quite high. The yield goes up gradually and the growers will start seeing profit in five years. The average life of a tree is about 35 years.“About 40 farmers in Tamil Nadu grow the Barhee dates now. We supply the tissue culture plants and guide them on how to grow. We encourage the farmers to market directly,” he says.

Since it is a perishable commodity and can be harvested only during three months a year, its availability in the market is restricted to that period.

Dates consumption is high in the country and a substantial quantity is imported, he adds. we studied the possibility of growing other varieties of dates here before deciding on the Barhee. “We studied it in detail. The other varieties are not commercially viable,” he said.

“The Barhee variety needs good land, plenty of water, and suitable weather conditions,” he adds.

“The night temperature during the winter months (December to February) is crucial for these dates. Even in Tamil Nadu, it cannot be raised in all places. It can grow well in Gujarat and Rajasthan. “I guide interested farmers on these details before they decide to go in the Barhee dates.”

The annual maintenance cost, including inputs and labour, works out to almost ₹1 lakh. This would be viable for farmers as the realisations are much higher, especially from the fifth year. They can also go in inter-cropping. Vegetables, greens, and groundnuts can be grown between the trees and the farmers can get additional income from these.

Garden grows...

Not with silver bells and cockle shells, but this Chennai woman plants everything from strawberries and bleeding hearts, to brinjals, beans and kale

It all started with the hibiscus.

Walking her way flanked by rows of adeniums on the terrace of her two-storied house at Besant Nagar, 58-year-old Sujatha Ravi narrates how she turned her terrace into a veritable garden. “About three years ago, I wanted to grow hibiscus flowers, because we needed them for our pujas.”

Today, it’s not just hibiscus flowers: cabbage blooms invite you onto the terrace while banana trees stand sentry. The spinach rest under a pale-coloured mosquito net, protected from squirrels, while baby carrots are nestled inside the soil. The brinjal is not the usual round and purple, but white and long.

Sujatha takes us around the garden, the sun winking at her through the criss-cross grid of the bamboo 

shed. From this grid, hang bottle gourd, elbowing their way through the more decorative pots of bluebells, cosmos, bleeding hearts and ivy. The guavas are ready, the strawberries still green, getting ready to be plucked, while the grape vine has a while to go.

As she runs her fingers through the tulsi, I take a whiff of the adjacent basil plant, the aroma enveloping us. She plucks a single ‘mint-tulsi’ leaf, and offers it to me. Rolling it around in the mouth instantly cools the tongue down. “One leaf is enough to act as a mouth freshener,” she says.

Finding a community

Sujatha, like many in this generation, has woken up to the benefits of organic farming — of knowing exactly what is on your plate. “There’s a belief that organic farming is expensive,” she says. The solution? Finding a community where you can share the saplings and reduce costs. The Facebook group, Organic Garden Foundation, is this community for her, and presumably, for its over 35,000 members.

“Three months after I began gardening, one of my friends introduced me to Organic Garden Foundation,” says Sujatha. The group discusses techniques to solve problems of manure, compost, de-worming, and crop rotation and organises meet-ups. “Prior to these meet-ups, we list the extra seeds and saplings that we have, and the ones that we need. When we meet, we exchange these among ourselves.”

When she started out, her first challenge was to fend off worms without store-bought fertilisers. “I would look everything up on Google, but now this group has become my search engine,” she quips. Today, she posts pictures of the problematic plants and her predicaments, and can expect immediate responses from other experts around India.

It was with the group’s help, and through trial-and-error, that she learnt to make her own compost. In a small room with green wooden doors, she keeps three four-feet high drums of home-made manure. “I collect vegetable and fruit peels in it, and in the summer lay it out to dry, and mix red soil or coir with it. This is what I add to the seed beds,” she says.

“A garden can’t grow without the entire family chipping in. It’s not a task for an individual,” says Sujatha, adding that her husband 63-year-old R Ravi does as much for the garden as she does. Her son and daughter-in-law take care of the garden in their absence.

The family has been living in this house since 1987, but for the past couple of years, they can feel the change the garden has brought. “My son and daughter-in-law live on the first floor, and they say their room is now much cooler,” she says.

Though she lives on the ground floor, and has a slight congenital limp, she makes sure to visit the terrace every day. “They are like my babies, I know they wait for my affection every day.”

Chakram Prabhakar, a masterartist at the Kalakshetra Foundation’s Craft Centre

A pungent odour lingers in the well-lit and airy room, where Chakram Prabhakar instructs his lone student. You can hear a rhythmic clang-clang-chak from the adjacent room.

“Follow the strokes as I draw,” says Prabhakar, drawing a daisy that morphs into a moustachioed man.

Prabhakar reviews the student’s work, nods and on a fresh page, draws a woman’s face. His strokes are quick and precise. The student’s, more guarded. The exercise then advances into complete human figures.

The student is taking her first kalamkari class at the Kalakshetra Foundation. Kalamkari (kalam-pen, kari-work) is done on cotton or silk fabric. Scenes and characters from the Hindu epics, and motifs such as peacocks and flowers, are hand-drawn. Only organic dyes are used, lending the fabric earthy hues. The art form that originated in Srikalahasti in Andhra Pradesh, is 2,000 years old.

Prabhakar, the master-artist at the Crafts Centre, is from Srikalahasti. The 73-year-old took a kalamkari course there, under the auspices of Small Scale Industries, Government of Andhra Pradesh in 1976. Having joined the unit at Kalakshetra in 1998 as a resident-artist, he currently heads it.

During his training, he practised on a slate, recalls Prabhakar. His father’s

veshti was the first piece of fabric he dyed at the training. His students at the Craft Centre though, are given a piece of gadha cotton fabric soaked in a solution of buffalo milk and powdered myrobalan seeds to work on. “This prevents dyes from smudging and bleeding into each other,” the master explains.

A rectangular piece of greenish-yellow fabric, coarse with the residue from the solution, awaits the student at the work station. “Rub the residue off the cloth,” he says and hands her a stone. She is then instructed to border the fabric with daisy-paisley motifs. Upon completion, Prabhakar hands her a plastic mug with runny black glug inside. The strange odour is from this mug containing kassim, a mixture of palm jaggery and iron rust. It is used to give a black outline for the figures.

Before joining Kalakshetra, Prabhakar toured different parts of the country, showcasing and selling his craft in exhibitions. Of all his creations, he is particularly proud of a 60-feet long

Sampoorna Ramayana piece he sold for ₹25,000. “My depiction of the Tree of Life was used as the backdrop when Pranab Mukherjee came to Kalakshetra,” adds Prabhakar.

He goes home at least once every month. His wife is also a kalamkari artist. His children, however, didn’t show interest in the art form.

At the Centre, it takes the student over 10 hours (four classes) to simply draw and outline the borders and a peacock, on cloth the size of a halfspread newspaper.

The cloth is now set to undergo a complex dying process and sun bleaching before it becomes marketready. Roots, flowers, seeds, leaves, peels and barks are used for pigment.

The student hasn’t seen the infusion of colours on her artwork yet. She tells the master that she will paint her peacock in red as she heads out.

For details on the Kalamkari and Vegetable Dye Designing courses, call 24525423. The Hindu, 4 Feb 2019

PUNCH TANTRA

Aditya Roy’s urban survival workshop in Goa trains people in the Filipino martial art form of Pekiti Tirsia Kali 10 Jan 2019

Sunday mornings in Goa are synonymous with hangovers, sleeping in or perhaps lazing by the beach. Ours, however, is a little different. The alarm rings at 6 am. Listless, we drag ourselves out of bed, and after a hurried breakfast, head for our Airbnb Experience of the day — Urban Survival Workshop.

We navigate our way to Moira village, past lazy cows, playful puppies, slow-moving twowheelers and joggers, till we are lost. After a few phone calls, we find Light Haven, the martial arts school tucked away amidst greenery, far from the busy narrow streets. It’s the last house on the left; beyond it lies a trail that leads to nowhere. And standing dramatically in the middle of that path is our trainer Aditya Roy.

He doesn’t look like a typical martial arts teacher. Instead, he has the vibe of someone who might just break into a Bollywood song and dance. Handing us each a wooden stick (designed to look like a blunt knife) and bottle of water, he leads us to the practice area.

The blade wins

“This is a three-hour workshop. Keep sipping on water and stay awake,” announces Aditya, seeing a few of us yawn.

“Pekiti Tirsia Kali is an indigenous Filipino martial art based on the use of the blade. It is the fighting style of the Tortal family from the Philippines and its current guardian and head is Grand Tuhon Leo T Gaje Jr,” he explains. The way you use the sword is

vaccinate against flu

Preventive measures Wash your hands and get vaccinated  

Given how easily influenza spreads, and the incidence of H1N1, doctors say that vaccination helps keep people safe

One sneeze is all it takes to set off a panic-stricken reaction, thanks to the various reports of the H1N1 virus that seems to have spread across Tamil Nadu. Also called swine flu, the initial symptoms are similar to that of the common flu — cough, fever, and diarrhoea. Since both are viral in nature, it is not easy to differentiate in the early stages, says Dr Ramesh Gopalswamy, Mobile Medical Officer at Anaikatti-Attapady region and Quality Assurance Officer at the Government Tribal Speciality Hospital, Kottathara, adding, “But if you also have vomiting, lethargy, and loss of appetite, you need to see the doctor.”

Swine flu is highly contagious and communicability begins from day one of onset of symptoms. Younger children may potentially be contagious for longer periods. What can one do to stay safe? The first step, says Dr Gopalswamy, is to wash one’s hands regularly and properly. He lists other steps: Practise cough etiquette, don’t shake hands, avoid close contact with people who have flu-like illnesses, stay away from crowded places and, most important, stay at home if you have flu-like symptoms. What about wearing a mask? No need, he says but adds sternly, “no self testing or self medicating either.”

He suggests that everyone gets a vaccine but recommends that this is done under medical supervision since some vaccines are contraindicated for pregnant women. Children below eight years who are being vaccinated for the first time must have repeat dose with a four-weeks gap between the two. “Annual re-vaccination is mandatory,” emphasises Dr Gopalswamy, “because a new strain emerges every year.”

In Coimbatore, for the first time in their history, some paediatric hospitals have a waiting list for the seasonal flu vaccine. Dr Saranya Manickaraj, consultant paediatrician and neonatalogist, Womens Center by Motherhood, says that patients have to wait to get the shot. The vaccine, according to her, is the best preventive measure against seasonal flu.

“In India, the flu season is from September to February. We advise children between six months and five years be vaccinated two to four weeks before the season starts,” says Dr Saranya, so that the vaccine gets sufficient time to kick in before the peak season. Children in the high-risk category — such as those born pre-term, those with underlying respiratory issues such as asthma, kidney, liver and heart diseases — are advised to take the flu shot, available at any paediatric clinic for ₹1000. With Coimbatore seeing several incidences of fever, Dr Saranya advices parents to observe some precautionary measures.

Of which the first one is hygiene. The virus spreads through air and through contact with contaminated objects. Which is why washing hands thoroughly is important. Dr Saranya adds that children should be taught to sneeze into their shirt sleeves or shoulder instead of their palms as “most of them do not wash their hands after they sneeze.”

She also advises parents to keep children away from crowded or closed spaces — “including malls and indoor play areas” — and to approach a doctor if the child has a temperature of over 102 or 103 degrees. “Look out for symptoms such as prolonged fever, extreme fatigue, bad cough, vomiting and loose motion.”

When it comes to the care of senior citizens, gerontologist Dr Rahul Padmanabhan, Medical Director, Grand World Elder Care, suggests they take the flu shot “since the older people have lower immunity and are vulnerable.”

Wash hands properly and regularly  

How to wash hands properly

1. Wet your hands and apply enough soap; around a coin-sized blob of liquid soap

2. Rub palms together well

3. Rub the backs of each hand

4. Rub both hands together while interlocking fingers

5. Rub the backs of the fingers in each hand

6. Rub the tips of the fingers

7. Rub the thumbs and ends of the wrists

8. Rub in between the fingers

9. Rinse and dry

10. If you’re using a hand sanitiser, follow the above steps

Nine things to know about the flu shot

Even as parents grapple with whether to give their children the flu vaccine or not, considering it’s not on the essential list, and its high yearly cost, Dr Pratik Patil, Consultant, Infectious Diseases, Fortis Hospital, Bengaluru, helps us make an informed decision. November 27, 2018 12:14 IST

1. They are to be given annually, ideally two weeks before onset of monsoon or winter. The World Health Organization collects data from all over the world to pick up the most common strains and develop the vaccines.

2. The shot takes two weeks to generate immunity. It does not lower our natural immunity.

3. The vaccines are: Inactivated/Trivalent Vaccine that tackles three viruses HINI, H3N2, Influenza B (Approximately Rs 800); Quadrivalent Vaccine : HINI, H3N2 and Two strains of Influenza B (Approximately Rs 1, 500).

4. A Live Vaccine (nasal spray; approximately Rs 800-900) has been approved this year. This should not be used by those who are on steroid medication, pregnant women, people with HIV, those who’ve had an organ transplant or their family members, children with respiratory problems such as asthma, or those who are on aspirin

5. It’s near impossible to develop a vaccine for the thousands of influenza strains. If there is a virus that is different from those in the vaccine, then the vaccine won’t work on it. Also, in the process of making the vaccine genetic changes may occur in the viruses

6. Children from six months to five years must take the shot. The flu shot is not contra-indicated in pregnant women and it will, in fact, give the baby some immunity to flu. People over 50 years of age who have chronic illnesses, those on steroids, have had or are going to have an organ transplant, are HIV positive, those who spend time in hospitals and with the sick, and family members of all these vulnerable groups are advised the shot.

7. It is 50-60% efficacious. Techniques of vaccine making may have an effect on efficacy.

8. A person may get flu-like symptoms, but it may not be flu at all

9. It’s fine to healthy people to take the vaccine too, but soap and water and good hand hygiene are the most important in protection against sickness. Dec 2018