Forgotten past - a little chatter

India is very rich and diverse in culture as everyone know. We were good innovators too. Even in olden times we got ways to use best tools to grind, sort, mill all the grains. These mechanical tools are forgotten these days. My post is intended to bring back all those good old memories of the forgotten past :-)

Ammi Kal (mechanical stone grinder) - First and foremost is famous "Ammi kal" which is basically a very thick granite stone that has been surfaced and a thick granite stone roller rolls on top to grind masalas (spices), chutney's etc. The items to be ground/crushed are placed in the bottom slab while people move the roller with their hands to grind/crush them. The chutneys or spices ground this way usually had some "extra" flavor in it. I remember there would be people coming on the streets shouting asking if your ammi kal needs to be resurfaced or made rough. They used to shout in their loud voices like this, "Ammi kuthardhu kodakkal thurardhu". In mid 90s, the ammi kal slowly lost its luster and got replaced by an electric blender/mixer that does the job with a press of button. Luckily till this date my parent's home has this ammi kal and my mom uses it at times though not regularly.

Kal Ural or Kuda kal or Aattu kal (Stone grinder) - Years back when we were kids, there used to be a big stone bowl shaped thingy with a small round pit and a roller like the one above sitting inside that pit, in almost everyone's backyard. It was used to grind batters for idlis/dosas/adai or vadai. My grandmother used to soak rice and dhal every few days and hand grind religiously in that stone grinder. She would keep moving the urad dhal with one of her hands and swing the roller into clockwise rotation or anticlockwise rotation. Idlis made with the hand ground batter fermented with no issues and were fluffy and soft. Those stone grinders called "Kal Ural" or "Aattu kal" in Tamil, used to be a part of everyone's household. Ladies never had to go to gym to do upper body strengthening or pushups or weights. Their arms went naturally stronger with this equipment. Now with time constraint and stress we lost this wonderful equipment to what we call the current day "Wet grinder" which is again a push button electrics.

Yendhiram - India is a land of agriculture. The countries produces a lot of pulses, grains. seeds etc. Each family owned some piece of land and did a self sustained life. Now in-order to process these grains what they used is a again a type of stone grinder which had 2 heavy round stone slabs with a hole to put the grains in and a wooden handle on the top slab. The bottom slab stayed still why the top slap was rotated (holding the wooden handle) to crush the pulse or grain to hull them. It was how women in the neighborhood and family also socialized. They used to sit with this chore in the mid afternoon after lunch and do it all the way until evening while singing songs, telling stories etc. During my school days one aaya (helper) used to come to our home to husk moongdal and urad dhal. She would usually start the process in the morning and take a break for her lunch and a coffee. By evening most of it will be done. The husks were used as a fodder for cattle. My brother and I used to sit with mouth opened to watch this whole process. I have even used it a couple of times. I tell you its very heavy and takes 2 people to do this chore. Imagine how stronger the arms would get. This tool is called "Yendhiram" in tamil meaning "machine". We have given this to grain mills now that are commercialized and forgotten them.

picture sourced from internet

Muram (winnowing basket) - Muram or winnowing basket looks like a flat tray or dust pan with no handle. It is typically used to remove stones or dust or husk that are still mixed with grains/seeds. They were usually made out of bamboo. The grains or seed mix is first layered in this pan, the mixture is fanned and thrown into air. Wind blows away the lighter chaff leaving the actual grain behind. In old times it is usually the job of old ladies in the family to do this work while younger ones attended other chores. I remember when I was young, my grandmother used to grind paper and apply it on the basket. This is usually done to protect the basket from any pest infections. This again was a kind of workout for the ladies during those no gym times.

There are more like brass uruli (brass vessel) that cooked authentic foods, kalchatti (soapstone saucier to make special dishes like sambar, kootu kinds), eeya chombu (a heavy vessel with an alloy of tin and zinc used to make rasam in), man chatti (clay pot) that cooked the best fish etc.

With this fast paced world, we are all in a hurry. We left all these treasures behind and run to gyms or look for personal trainers. These equipment used to be the trainers those days. Our kids get to see all of these in museums or if luck would prevail in their ancient villages. Isn't our duty to bring back all those good that were part of our very own society. Lets start thinking about it. Till then Enjoy!

Uma