Visiting the 1000 year old temples around gadag, I saw a family in a village, involved in lime making. Lime in south India is added to beetle leaf and areca nut and chewed and either swallowed or spitted out. Beetle leaf, areca nut and lime chewing is done after a meal. It cannot b e considered as part of the meal nor dessert!
The lime eaten with the beetle leaves is a white powder; if it's processed it's pink and smells fragrant as something has been added to it. Lime was sold in tiny 2 inch long tins when I was a kid.
Below is the lime making process which I discovered only now!
Above is the 'lime rock' brought in from the fields or where-ever it's found. I am fascinated that villagers with little or no formal education, can identify these rocks as lime bearing! I am sure this knowledge is handed down from one generation to another but it still fascinates me that someone without knowledge of English, without access to information from books, internet can find these things and recognize their worth and what to do.
Below: the rocks are manually hammered by the lady in this family into smaller pieces.
Above is the kiln in which the lime is heated along with coal or burnt with wood.
Below is the finished lime powder which can be used i.e. eaten. This lime is also used to whitewash walls in mud huts and homes.
Above is the kiln with steps to walk up to it and pour the broken down lime stone to be heated.
Below you can see the top of the kiln. There is a fire in the last picture but for some reason it does not show up in this uploaded photo!
The family kindly let me take photos. I explained that I would put it in my blog but they had no idea what I was talking about! I doubt if they have seen a computer in their life.
This was a learning and discovery experience for me.
If one walks around India, one can see that there is so much treasure lying around on the surface of the earth in India! One should have the ability to recognize it and use it.
My mother who is from Sira taluk spoke of gold mines run by the British when she was a kid around Sira. The huge quantities of gold from that mine she saw as a kid. The honest supervisor who did not touch a single gram of gold and the ease with which he could have got away if he had!
I have heard tales of ruby laden rocks found by villagers in their lands in Karnataka around Tumkur district.
And of course the discovery of diamonds by villagers in their fields even to this day around villages near Golconda in Andhra Pradesh.
The discovery of such things from Earth by poor villagers is something so exciting and romantic, I love it! I wish I could find something like this!
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