Sweetness and Curvature

 This piece on Sahyadri Grapes was a revelation to me. 

It appeared on on ThePlate, an interesting publication I had not come across earlier; the style of writing was chatty and engaging and I learnt a whole lot of things about farmer-producer companies that are setting new benchmarks for the production and export of fruits and vegetables.

I was particularly surprised to learn about the barriers faced by Indian exporters in getting their products cleared, especially in the European markets. While some of these barriers, such as limits to pesticide residue, seem quite sensible from the point of view of health and wellbeing of the consumers, some others seem completely whimsical, bordering on Euromyths. The EU, it seems, sets standards on the curvature of bananas and limits the sweetness of fruits imported into their common market.

What exactly are these standards? Why were they adopted?

Curvature of Bananas: European Commission regulation 2257/94 decrees that bananas in general should be “free from malformation or abnormal curvature”. Those sold as “extra class” must be perfect, “class 1” can have “slight defects of shape” and “class 2” can have full-scale “defects of shape.” This standard applies to bananas of the varieties (cultivars) of Musa (AAA) spp., Cavendish and Gros Michel subgroups.

Far from being a whimsical, curvature of a banana seems to be a good indicator healthy growth - the amount and sunlight the plant was exposed to during its growth phase, and the resulting distribution of hormones.

Sweetness of Fruits: The Brix scale is used to measure the sweetness of fruits such as grapes. Article 50(2)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs. 

According to the Plate article, "..the Brix content for grapes to Europe must range from 16 to 20 degrees, whereas the Indian palate prefers sugar content 24 degrees or higher". The relevant EU regulations however seems to set only minimum limits for sweetness, ranging from 12-14 degrees on the Brix scale.

There have been reports of export consignments getting rejected for exceeding limits on pesticide content in the fruits, but have there been cases where a rejection has happened due to excessive curvature or sweetness? 

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Why are bananas bent? - https://uniquetimes.org/the-curious-case-of-curved-bananas-why-are-they-bent/

* https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/bendy-bananas-why-are-they-staying-eu-rules-b1080788.html

* https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/05/12/to-properly-explain-the-eus-bendy-bananas-rules-yes-theyre-real/?sh=4bcf67a86fc9

* https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/fresh-fruit-vegetables/table-grapes/market-entry

* https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2023-02/FFV10Carrots_2021_e.pdf

* Measuring sweetness - https://www.refractometer.eu/scales-for-sweetness-measuring

* https://www.yara.co.uk/crop-nutrition/grapes/managing-grape-sweetness/

* https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52020XC0615(01)&rid=1

* Chaptalisation - process of adding extra sugar to grapes! - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaptalization

* https://www.freshpoint.com/news/understanding-brix-is-a-higher-number-always-better/

* APEDA Guidelines (2007) - https://apeda.gov.in/apedawebsite/Grapenet/regu_fresh_grapes08.pdf

* Banana export guidelines - https://www.corpseed.com/knowledge-centre/export-banana-from-india

Ananathashayana Vishnu

This must be one of the most beautiful sculptures I have seen of Anantha-shayana - Vishnu reclining on the 'endless' serpent, Anantha. 

One of the largest of these Ananthashayana sculptures is at the Padmanabha-Swami temple in Thiruvananthapuram, a city which itself is named after the deity. At the sanctum of this temple, the reclining Vishnu is so large that he needs to viewed through three separate doors that open into a dark, mysterious looking chamber lit by oil lamps. 

This particular sculpture is much smaller and it is carved on the outer walls of the Dashavatara Temple temple located, surprisingly, in Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh. Surprising because - thanks to the ravages of the Islamic period - it is difficult to find any sculptures with their noses and limbs intact in all of North India. 

Built on the banks of the  Betwa river, bordering Madhya Pradesh, this lovely little temple built by the Gupta dynasty around 500 CE, is now in ruins. For some reason, this particular panel is mostly intact. 

On the foreground are six standing figures. Three to the left are armed male warriors displaying their heavy swords - heavy, broad-tipped battle swords drawn  for action. However the remaining three are unarmed, an look completely relaxed. The lone woman on the extreme right has an elaborate hair-do and seems to to be striking a pose, waving to the onlooker.

Above them is Vishnu reclining on the Anantha serpent, looking serious and meditative on his lotus-bed. His consort is gently holding up his ankle while she delicately tweeks his toe. Behind her is Shiva with a cobra wrapped around his neck like a muffler. A lady with a scar on her left breast, stands next to him with a mace (or is it a musical instrument?). On the top-most panel are six smaller figures, all seated on something or the other - a bird (swan or peacock), an elephant, a lotus bloom, a bull (seats two) and an unknown guy trailing along.

Who are these gods? Why is Brahmna depicted here in deep meditation on a lotus, with what seems like the carcass of a cow on his shoulder and chest??

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REFERENCES & LINKS

Deogarh - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deogarh,_Uttar_Pradesh

Ananthashayana Vishnu - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anantashayana_Vishnu

 

On Diminishers and Illuminators

An interesting talk by David Brooks: 

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LINKS

* Thornton Wilder and The Angel That Troubled the Waters: A Plea for Physician Healing - "...Without your wound where would your power be? It is your very remorse that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men..."

* Michael Gerson on Depression - https://unitedbrainassociation.org/2019/03/28/the-importance-of-coming-out-bringing-mental-illness-into-the-light/

Ramah, Ramou, Ramah!

Last week marked the political re-inauguration and 'consecration' of the Sri Rama temple at Ayodhya. 

While I am still trying to understand the complex ways in which this event was built ground-up from the community-level across most of north India - the house-to-house campaign with the "akshath", the all-day langar (community kitchen) that was set up across housing societies with live broadcast of the events taking place in Ayodhya that day, bright orange flags fluttering everywhere...it did bring back memories.

At school Sanskrit had been a compulsory subject for a few years. I hated it - especially because it brought down my (already pathetic) grades. We had to learn by rote a table with the various usages of the name, "Rama":

It was drilled into our heads so well that we could recite it anywhere, anytime! The only thing I never understood was why we were learning this. 

A few months ago, while trying to understand my mother's fascination for Sanskrit shlokas, as well as the ease with which she memorised poetry in complicated meters (eg., Shyamala Dandakam of Kalidasa), I stumbled on this YT series from the Chinmaya Foundation - Sanskrit for Shastra Study by Ved Chaitanya. 

This turned out to be fascinating. For the first time I began to understand why I had learnt Rama-Ramou-Ramah decades ago! 

I have not even reached half-way through this 53-session series but each session is nicely paced out. While in 7th grade perhaps my Sanskrit teacher did tell us that the Rama-series represents 'nominative cases for masculine nouns'. Even if she did I would not have understood. Thanks to this series and to CIF, a new, exciting world is opening up now!

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LINKS & REFERENCES

* Tricky Words (The Telegraph, 2024) - https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/tricky-words-changing-idioms-changing-meanings/cid/1997041

* Chinmaya International Foundation - CIF - https://www.chinfo.org/ 

The first session (1/53):

Locavore

The yummiest Kachori's are sold in the back lanes of Khari Baoli. A small eatery in Khajuraho served the the best dry-mango pickle I have tasted, and some of the nicest meals I have had were served in tiny, family-run eateries in Kyoto...

Good food is often underrated, and very often served far from the world of frenzied reviews, tik-tok videos and reels. It often reminds me of Joshua Bell, one of the finest musicians in the world of western classical music, who once went busking as an experiment. At the busy entrance of a metro station in Washington, he played his violin for nearly an hour - six classical pieces from Bach, Massenet, Schubert and Ponce. Hardly anybody noticed, and even fewer stopped by to listen. From the people who did not recognise him he got about $20 in change. The very next night, he played at a fancy music concert where each ticket cost about $100!

Food and music was on my mind when I read this nice piece on Chef Thomas Zacharias. A chef for over 15 years, after training abroad and serving in leading restaurants, decided to travel the forgotten corners of the world to seek out ingredients, techniques, food traditions, folklores, stories and food recipes, from farmers and indigenous communities. 

What are some of the perspective-shifting foods he's discovered? Young sweet-potato leaves in Meghalaya, Atam (sour-fruit) from Goa, Thaavu (wild fern) from Chalakudy river basin in Kerala, and fire-ant chutney in Jharkhand! 

Thankfully for us, this chef's discoveries are being presented online: The  Locavore - a platform for spotting sustainable food practices around India!

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Seth, Udbhav (2024): 'My trips taught me more than cookbooks ever did', Indian Express Eye, 7 Jan., 2024, URL - https://indianexpress.com/article/express-sunday-eye/chef-thomas-zacharias-indigenous-ingredients-9098402/ 

* The Locavore - https://thelocavore.in/ 

The Balkh Connection - Resurrection of Persian

A carpet from Balkh adorns our living room. It is a constant reminder old assignments with the UN in Afghanistan, of traveling long dusty roads lined with the relics of various wars, of bustling markets and lovely lilt of Dari language.

Dari is a variant of Persian widely spoken in the country. I had always imagined that the Persian influence on Afghanistan dated back to the reign of kings ranging from Cyrus to Nadir Shah. Today, while communing back home on the metro listening to an episode of the Empire podcast, I realised the extent of my naivety.

There was a time when the Persians ruled most of the territory that extends from today's Punjab to Turkey and North Africa. The mighty Achaemenid kings - Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes - ruled from Persepolis (559 - 330 BC), until the empire was destroyed by Alexander. Then came the Seleucids (312 - 62 BC) who were contemporaries of Chandragupta  of the Maurya empire in India; the Parthians (247 - 224 BC) and the  Sasanians (224 - 651 CE).

Then came a time when the conquerors got conquered. The endless wars between two great empires, the Romans and the Persians, exhausted both and enabled a new kid on the block, the Arabs driven by the zeal of a brand new religion, to colonise  Persia. Over the next 200 years, Arabic took over as the official language, Persian language, culture and religion got subsumed. Amazingly some of the most prominent Vezirs appointed by the Arabs were the Barmakids, a clan of hereditary Buddhist priests ("Pramukh") from the Nawbahar monastry in Balkh who had converted to Islam!  

One of the few holdouts was Khorasan, an area which is mostly the provinces o Herat and present-day Afghanistan. 

It is under the patronage of the Saffarid kings of Khorasan that Persian language survived. The poet, Ferdowsi started writing the epic Shahname under their patronage. However, by the time he finished his magnum opus, the Saffarids had been defeated by the Ghaznavids, and the new king Mohammad of Ghazni was too busy plundering India and did not think much of Persian poetry. 

It is Persia that owes much to Afghanistan - not the other day around!

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BUT-SHIKAN  बुत-शिकनبت شکن

This word, meaning "iconoclast", is an honorific adopted by many Islamic rulers in India. Sikandar Shah Miri, a ruler of Kashmir was called Sikandar Butshikan for the zeal with which he destroyed many monasteries and temples.

So the question is - does 'but' refer to icons of the Buddha?

A friend who loves Urdu poetry insists that the word comes from Persian. So did the ancient Iranians also take delight in destroying temples? Turns out that they did - hundreds of years before Persia was overrun by conquering armies from Arabia under the banner of Islam, it was Zoroastrian rulers who destroyed buddhist monasteries and temples in the Khorasan region!

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REFERENCES & LINKS

• Empire Podcast - https://twitter.com/EmpirePodUK/status/1747563631653396807 
• Buddhism in Iran - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_Iran
• https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/did-you-know-city-balkh-ancient-capital-bactria-and-centre-buddhism-and-zoroastrianism
• https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/buddhism-i
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Buddhists
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikandar_Shah_Miri