Dipali woke us up at 5:30 in the morning. Even at that early hour, the sun was already warm on our faces—it was peak summer. I had been sleeping under the mango tree, and somehow managed to drag myself out of the khatiya. Dipali was excited to show us what her usual morning in the village looked like. So, we had arrived at her village, Gudra, 30km from Sukma, the night before. After a restful night, we began our day bright and early, ready for the adventure ahead.
Dipali is one of the community youth, working with Shiksharth in the menstrual health management team for the past two years. She often brings us fresh fish, snails, and mushrooms to eat, and this time, she wanted us to see what happens behind the scenes.
The first place she took us was to a chind tree, a type of date palm commonly found in this region of Chattisgarh. This tree has many uses, but the most common is producing a juice or alcohol, locally called chind ras. Dipali climbed the tree to source the ras. When we collected the juice in the morning, it was sweet and tangy, with very little alcohol. However, if left to ferment throughout the day and consumed in the evening, just one glass would give you a mild but pleasant buzz.
The sourced ras had many dead ants (likely from the alcohol content). We filtered it out by making a simple filter using tendu leaves, and finally, the fresh ras was ready to be consumed.
The second stop was a mahua tree. Since it was tora (mahua fruit) season, we decided to make tora sabzi for lunch. We harvested some tora using a long stick with a hook on the end. It is not as easy as it looks in the picture!
By now, it was nearly 6:30, and the sun was shining brightly. We decided to head to the lake for a dip. On our way, we spotted some taad trees, and once again, Dipali climbed up to gather some taad fal for us.
We made a few friends, Roshan and Hidma along the way who guided us to the lake. The water had mostly dried up, so instead of taking a dip, we decided to go on a little crab hunt.
Also read:Â Aam Pandum: Mango Harvest Festival
Here’s how we went about it: we identified a few crab holes near the lake. Roshan started pouring water into one of the holes, so the crab inside would be forced to come out (smart, right?). Dipali stood right next to the hole, holding a stick. The moment the crab emerged, she quickly poked it back so it couldn’t retreat inside.
We caught three crabs, but soon realized that each of them was pregnant—it was breeding season. In the picture, you can see dozens of tiny baby crabs tucked under the mother crab’s apron. Seeing this, we decided to let all the crabs go.
Since a dip in the lake was off the table, we figured we could at least clean our teeth. So, we picked some daatun sticks from the tendu plants nearby and started chewing on them—easy.
And so we began our walk back home. Along the way, we spotted another chind tree. This time, we decided to try some of its fruit. Without missing a beat, Dipali started pelting stones at the branches, hoping to knock a few down for us to taste. As we reached home, munching on the chind fruits, we began preparing lunch. With tora ready for the sabzi and dal and rice cooking in the pressure cooker, we realized one thing was missing.
Right then, Dipali mentioned with perfect timing that she had some dried chapda back in the kitchen. Chapda, a type of ant, is famous in the region for its unique flavor, especially in the legendary chapda chutney. So, we decided to make some of this chutney as the perfect accompaniment to our meal. Dipali took out the traditional wooden pestle and mortar, commonly used for grinding ingredients. She started by crushing the dried chapda ants, then ground dried red chilies with a pinch of salt, mixing everything together until it was well-blended.
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