Random Click: Foods of India in a Truck

I found this display at a mall in Bangalore, that led to the section of different snacks and savouries from different parts of India. The colors and design were so attractive that I immediately clicked a snap.

But there is more to this display than merely the cutout of a truck and vibrant colours. Why a truck? Why so many colours? Why is this the best representation of the diverse yet integrated India?

To understand, you have to know that India has 29 states and each is so distinct in its cultures, customs, language and cuisine that you might witness a different 'India' at every state. And trucks, after the Indian railways, play an instrumental role in moving goods from one part of the country to another. Not surprisingly at present there are more than 1300 trucks per million population, whereas the utilization of trucks is more than 70,000 kms per annum!

Trucks carry vehicles and clothing, sometimes people too (that's another story) but most of all they carry food. From essential grains to popular snacks, they connect India and help carry the taste of Maharashtra to Bengal or Kashmir to Karnataka. 

On the roads, you will always find trucks, sometimes much to the dismay of other vehicle drivers, because of the irritating roadblocks they tend to cause. But peek into the life of these truck drivers, some five million of them, and you realize that their life is that truck. For days and months they are on the road. Sometimes going to remote areas where there is not even a road. They are away from their homes, from their family all round the year and it is a a very harsh and dreary life. So they decorate their truck. They paint it in vibrant colours. Give a makeover with flowers and festoons, ribbons and parandis (hair accessory worn by many Indian women typically in the Northern parts). And invariably have a great phrase painted on their rears. Yes, you can actually have a fun-filled road journey in India if you only watch the rear of the trucks and read what they have to say. 

All Indian Trucks have much to say. Thank you The Dream Traveler for this image.

Trucks therefore represent India and food like no other.

Digging in into the packet of snacks that was especially brought from Madhya Pradesh to me in Karnataka, I thank the truck driver silently and look at the apt display once more. 

A World of Wonder

Age – 2 years

Place – Birthday at the Sasan Gir National Park

“Look, the lion is acting exactly like a doggie, rolling over, wagging its tail!” he said squealing in delight at the sight of a wild lion 200 m away from the safari jeep.

The guide quickly admonished, “Bacche ko chup karaiye. Janwar bigad gaya to?” (Ask the kid to be silent. You know not what might occur if the wild animal gets angry.)

Age – 4 years

Place – Neighbourhood park

“Aunty, he is always looking at insects and lizards and flowers and stems. Tell him I don’t like lizards,” complained one of the girls.

Age – 5 years

Place – Back home from school

“See what I found today – a round stone, a red leaf with not a single spot of green and...you won’t believe it, a dead butterfly!”

Age – 7 years

Place – Home with a visibly stumped friend

“Don’t you know metamorphosis? A caterpillar changes into a pupa and then to a butterfly. I have raised many at home – a yellow, a black with white spots, a blue one. You give the caterpillar tender leaves to eat everyday and they get fatter and fatter until they can’t eat anymore. That’s when there is the cocoon and soon a butterfly,” he explained.

Life as we know it in the last seven years, has centered around bugs, soil, mud, flowers, pebbles, stones, nuts, pine cones, pigeons, sun birds, mynas, frogs, snails and sometimes even snakes. Not surprising, you would say, for someone whose first words uttered were “ban-dar ma-ma!” after spotting a monkey on a tree. Not surprising, you might again add, for someone whose parents are passionate about nature and wildlife too.

 

But while, nature had been a part of our lives in that off & on sort of modern way where urban living leaves you with a choice of a weekend eco-getaway only, the birth of our son and his nature fancy has in reality brought back in us what perhaps got buried under the pile of chores - the capacity to wonder. 

Wonder at the seed that bursts into first two then tens and twenties of leaves growing into a plant. Wonder at the ant that separated from its comrades goes berserk locating the correct trail to the sugar mound. Wonder at the sun rays and the dust particles dancing in it.

No moment is dull. No day devoid of an adventure.

“A pigeon has laid two eggs under the AC, yippee!” or “Did you notice? There was just one shoe flower yesterday, today there are five!” or “I think I will follow this ladybird today. Want to see what it does all day.”

And then there are the questions…

“If plants give us oxygen, how do people in deserts breathe when there are no plants?”

…and the amazement…

“Mumma, a bhaiya from a big class at my school did not even know about sting rays!”

…and the art.

So yes, through the eyes of our seven year old we are on an unending and fascinating nature journey everyday.He does not know about climate change and dying forests and drying rivers as yet. That knowledge will come, surely in another few years. And hopefully by that time he will know how to heal the man-made scars that have distorted the planet he loves so much. 

For now, he lives in the world of natural wonder and gives us grown-ups a chance to turn many many caterpillar to butterflies – lest we forget.

This post is one of the entries for Nature's Friends for http://www.kissan.in/