How do you replenish a missing chunk of a region’s natural ecosystem? How do you remind the urban population of the ways lost, the foods forgotten and the work left to the margins? How do you revive a dying lifestyle? Well, you start from scratch. So finds Viswa Veda. On his part, he’s been trying to tip the balance in favour of the perilous palm’s continued sustenance. After palm seed plantation drives and online sale of nungu and pathaneer, Viswa is now embarking on a journey to strengthen the foundation of such efforts with robust training sessions — in panai thozhil, unavu and olai.
It’s all interconnected, as is the nature of things, begins Viswa. “We don’t have people to do palm work these days. If you want palm fruit or pathaneer or nungu, you need people to climb the trees. It’s because panai eris are on the decline that palm is also on the decline (and the lifestyle around it). The ban on toddy is an important factor in this plunge. So in future, when the ban is removed, we need people to get back to this work. And so we begin with the training,” he explains.
Aiding Viswa’s Panai Palli in this effort is the Thondaimandalam Foundation, with their backing of resources and raw materials. The training itself would be spearheaded by three skilled palm enthusiasts. For details, contact Viswa: 9884948045
Panai thozhil - Mark Williams
A panai eri by trade, Mark himself learnt the craft by watching the last few palm workers left behind in his hometown — Narasinganoor in Villupuram. The month-long training he is about to offer on behalf of Panai Palli might as well be the only one of its kind. And there’s plenty of ground to cover, he says. “It will be tailored according to the people who sign up for the training. We will teach them to climb trees, extract pathaneer (how much sunaambu it needs, how to prepare the paalai for extraction and such) and carefully remove nungu and olai. All of it,” he says.
But, juggling the strenuous palm work with the training is not going to be an easy task. Spreading the class too thin would mean he won’t be around to supervise the direct learning of each student. So the trick is to train four people at a time, ensuring they are able to follow the tasks one-on-one before the day’s work is done. The money is in the method, after all. “The idea is to get many people to climb trees. For only that can save the trade and those dependent on this,” says Mark, who will be holding these classes at a farm in Kundrathur.
Panai olai - Vaagari Victoriya
Beyond lessons on panai olai crafts, there is much more the palm has to offer and the upcoming sessions would be in search of these ideals, says Victoriya. “Life and nature aren’t two different things; one has to be within the other. In that context, palm is an important factor of life itself. Of the many uses of palm, we are able to utilise its leaves, olai, and create the things we need for our day-to-day life. Now, you can see palm as just that or as a way of life.
When you are using two leaves to weave, you can’t place them right next to each other. One has to be intertwined with the other, or they should be placed opposite to each other. Life is that way too, right? Opposites attract; a smaller pipe is fitted into a larger one to keep up the line. For those who see it as leaf plaits, it’s just that; for those who want more, there are these lessons,” she elaborates.
For practical purposes, there’s a lot that one can make out of palm leaves. From sustainable decoratives to everyday alternatives to plastic, this offers a range of products like cups, holders, baskets and a lot more. The training session will have something for kids and adults alike — the chance to explore the sturdy dexterity of the olai and create what they may out of it.
Panai unavu - Akila Gunalan
Akila’s moment of truth came when one of her kids returned from a kindergarten field trip to the supermarket and declared that she now knew where vegetables were manufactured. “I had watched my parents raise a garden, visited farms in the village and I knew these basic essentials. But my kids did not get that. So I started with a small vegetable garden in the house,” she recounts. From there, her cooking experiments began to take root when she tried to get her kids to like vegetables other than potatoes. These trials eventually got her trying traditional foods till her heart landed on palm.
“Even as a kid, I had only had panankizhangu; rarely, panai pazham. I was attracted to the latter. Some taste really sweet but they all leave a bitter taste in the end. Kids did not like that. So, I started using them in pastries. When given as paniyaram, puttu, cake and such, kids started liking it more,” she details. However, given that the fruit is only available post-September, the training sessions to come will focus on food made out of panankizhangu, pathaneer and nungu – be it halwa or adai or even khakra, and pathaneer cake. Olai kozhukattai will be the start of the season.