It is Jack fruit season, I am seeing many those pull carts loaded with those thorny fellows. I just can not resist the temptation to buy and eat them. Yes, I am an ardent lover of that golden fruit.
Uncle Kini lives in a place called "Cherlai" a small town in Kerala. I also hail from that place. It is part of Kochi. This place is equidistant from Mattanchery, where one of the very few Jewish synagogues ( only one? I am not sure ) in India located, and Fort Cochin, where Vasco de gama church and Dutch cemetery is located. Needless to say Mattanchery is a melting pot of many cultures and traditions and peoples, Gujaratis, Marathis, Konkanis et all. Kini and I belong to GSB Konkani, our ancestors had migrated from Goa, centuries back. We have a Thirumala Devaswom Temple, constructed centuries back in Cherlai.
Uncle Kini also loves Jack fruit. But he prefers the raw one. Like Mango we call a "raw mango", let me extend the same logic here. Kini likes "Raw Jack". Once the Raw Jack is brought into the house, he cuts it and removes that white sap, sticky liquid - as a waste. He takes the kernel (middle stem) out, cuts into small cubes like paneer and makes curry. He takes each Raw Jack babies and removes the seed from inside, again for curry. He removes the thin membrane covering the seeds - as a waste. He removes the skin of the seed - as a waste. He uses the seed again for another curry. He takes those white strands carefully, sprinkles some salt on them, dries in sun, for future consumption as fryums. He removes thinly those thorns at the most outer part of the Raw Jack - as a waste. The fleshy layer beneath those thorns he uses again for another curry. At the end of the day, the 10 Kg Raw Jack he brought, he consumes most of it. Wastage would be a minimal quantity of 500 grams or so.
Two role models clearly emerge out in this whole episode.
The Raw Jack. He is so useful. Every part of his body is of some use or other to others. Can't we be of good use to others? Can't we change our behavior to achieve that?
The next role model is Uncle Kini himself. He has a decent income. He runs a restaurant, people who know how to make idlis and those who don't know also, all come to his place. Those idlis have a Kini touch. But, still Kini will find a way to consume 95% of that Raw Jack. That's because he learnt a good practice from his ancestors, who were forced to practice that due to the new environment they got migrated, they had to survive in those tough circumstances in that alien place. That good practice is make good use of available resources. Waste not - Want not.
You can also strive to live like Uncle Kini, optimize and then optimize. But then, spare a few of those seeds of "Raw Jack". Those few seeds are needed by Raw Jack himself to keep his legacy continuing - to have a few young ones.
Uncle Kini lives in a place called "Cherlai" a small town in Kerala. I also hail from that place. It is part of Kochi. This place is equidistant from Mattanchery, where one of the very few Jewish synagogues ( only one? I am not sure ) in India located, and Fort Cochin, where Vasco de gama church and Dutch cemetery is located. Needless to say Mattanchery is a melting pot of many cultures and traditions and peoples, Gujaratis, Marathis, Konkanis et all. Kini and I belong to GSB Konkani, our ancestors had migrated from Goa, centuries back. We have a Thirumala Devaswom Temple, constructed centuries back in Cherlai.
Uncle Kini also loves Jack fruit. But he prefers the raw one. Like Mango we call a "raw mango", let me extend the same logic here. Kini likes "Raw Jack". Once the Raw Jack is brought into the house, he cuts it and removes that white sap, sticky liquid - as a waste. He takes the kernel (middle stem) out, cuts into small cubes like paneer and makes curry. He takes each Raw Jack babies and removes the seed from inside, again for curry. He removes the thin membrane covering the seeds - as a waste. He removes the skin of the seed - as a waste. He uses the seed again for another curry. He takes those white strands carefully, sprinkles some salt on them, dries in sun, for future consumption as fryums. He removes thinly those thorns at the most outer part of the Raw Jack - as a waste. The fleshy layer beneath those thorns he uses again for another curry. At the end of the day, the 10 Kg Raw Jack he brought, he consumes most of it. Wastage would be a minimal quantity of 500 grams or so.
Two role models clearly emerge out in this whole episode.
The Raw Jack. He is so useful. Every part of his body is of some use or other to others. Can't we be of good use to others? Can't we change our behavior to achieve that?
The next role model is Uncle Kini himself. He has a decent income. He runs a restaurant, people who know how to make idlis and those who don't know also, all come to his place. Those idlis have a Kini touch. But, still Kini will find a way to consume 95% of that Raw Jack. That's because he learnt a good practice from his ancestors, who were forced to practice that due to the new environment they got migrated, they had to survive in those tough circumstances in that alien place. That good practice is make good use of available resources. Waste not - Want not.
You can also strive to live like Uncle Kini, optimize and then optimize. But then, spare a few of those seeds of "Raw Jack". Those few seeds are needed by Raw Jack himself to keep his legacy continuing - to have a few young ones.
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