As 51-year-old Yamini grapples with the scandal and sophistry of her recent past, she stumbles on true artistry in an unsung corner of a gur-maker’s village. In a short story written exclusively for Verve, Gouri Dange explores the workings of a human mind thirsting to erase a deep hurt
When yamini woke to her 11.45-p.m. phone alarm, she could hear the three men moving about quietly in the dark. She swung her legs off the rope-bed that they had given her, reached for her camera, and sat up. Jogen was already halfway up the first khejur (date palm) tree, and calling out instructions softly to his two apprentices below, to watch carefully how he planted his feet for the ascent. In the dark she could see only the brighter blue checks of his lungi, doubled and tucked above his knees and between his legs.
There were 10 more trees, which he must climb in the next half hour, his sickle tucked into his waistband, a fine clay-collection pot on a rope tied across his shoulders. yamini watched as he secured himself at the top, deftly cut three perfect zigzag cuts in the light cork-like part where the bark meets the palm fronds. He then slung the clay pot on the stick that had been lodged there at the beginning of the season, and adjusted the lip of the pot to rest against the cut. From here, the thin sweet sap would begin to drip, as if by appointment, at the midnight hour; the clay pot would fill in three hours…and the khejur tree would have spent its sweetness for the night.
It will then be boiled, very early in the morning, in giant vats, and cooled into golden mounds of jaggery the nolin or patali gur. Jogen will repeat this cycle every night and early morning, till the tree gives of itself, only through three months of winter. The gur will find its way to the towns and the big city nearby. Occasionally, someone from quite far away will discover this sweet seduction, and will be changed forever. A visiting French chef had become enamoured of it. He had created a Patali Pana Cotta and commissioned yamini to photograph the gur process for his book.
This story is from the July 2016 edition of Verve.
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This story is from the July 2016 edition of Verve.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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