Book review: A picture book on heirloom rice and the people who grow it

Mint

2 days ago

Ranikajal, jeeraphool, sonpiya, kanakchampa and kalamdaani.
Imagine your kitchen cabinet, neatly stacked with jars labelled with rice names so lyrical that you could cook up a poetic feast to suit any palate — a pulao with kalamdani maybe, or kheer with sonpiya. But this imagery seems too utopian at a time when heirloom rice varieties are nearly disappearing from our plates. That's where Anumeha Yadav's illustrated book, Our Rice Tastes of Spring, comes into the picture. Besides creating awareness about the variety of indigenous rice grown in our country, it also offers lessons in resilience of the adivasi community in Jharkhand growing them, and their pursuits in preserving the soil and heritage of the land for a better tomorrow. The book is meant for children, but everyone should read it to get an understanding of what it means to eat clean and local in these times.
Some of the questions that Yadav raises are about ways in which food shapes the lives and traditions of the indigenous people. What does it mean to eat nutrient-rich rice? Who decides how farming communities should cultivate their land? She brings forth some important points about food sovereignty, and the complex mechanism of our foodways that are largely governed by policymakers.
The author makes a conscious effort to spotlight the benefits of these ancient rice varieties and their interactions with the indigenous food cultures through lucid storytelling, supported by beautiful imagery. The detailed sketches by Spitting Image, particularly of the lush panoramic visual of the village caught in the daily humdrum, spotlight a community living in harmony.
The experiences that form this book have been gleaned from more than a decade of Yadav reporting from the Chotanagpur region in eastern India. The author noticed how farming communities struggled to keep up with the pressures of a new food policy such as monocropping. Her travels and consequent interactions with villagers in Odisha and Jharkhand revealed interesting insights on food security, including the importance of growing traditional rice without fertilisers, and the environmental impact of adopting certain farming practices. Since then her work has been published in several Indian publications. The impulse to pen down the experiences in the form of a picture book, which resonated with the village communities as well as the young audience, came about when she became a parent.
ber of The story is set in the picturesque village of Sohar in the Chotanagpur region of Jharkhand, where a little girl named Jinid and her family cultivate paddy crops to produce different varieties of rice such as ranikajal, jeeraphool and kanakchampa throughout the year. Once the grains are harvested, her mother uses a dheki, or wooden pounder, to remove the husk (from the paddy). Every morning, the kids patiently wait for their mother to turn the grains — red, black, brown and purple — into treats such as arsaa, a festive sweet, and hadiya, a fermented rice beverage meant for the older folk. Little Jinid pays close attention to her grandparents' stories, who tell her about their ancestors, how they collected the best seeds, and observed nature's cycle and soil behaviour to cultivate them with care. Their conversations give away the mood of the village life—carefree and rooted in nature: 'Noichi-dhaan [a type of paddy] is so fresh and delicious"; 'Yes, doesn't it taste like spring?"; 'The seeds provide grains for us and the birds".
But life takes a turn when a stranger comes visiting one day—a suited man, who manages to persuade the villagers into growing modern rice cultivars. 'See, these seeds will produce Revolution Rice, which is uniform and easy to sell," he says while distributing pesticide pouches. Soon the new seeds and chemicals wreak havoc on the roots poisoning the organisms that keep the soil healthy, and causing imbalance within the eco-system. The villagers are not convinced and notice how this new variety does not have the taste, aroma or distinctiveness of the rice they have been used to all their lives. The man returns with newer inventions and promises, but this time the villagers collectively protest: 'Our seeds protect us. They are the source of the rhythm and strength of our everyday lives."
Reading Our Rice Tastes of Spring along with my seven-year-old boy has been an enjoyable experience, albeit a tad challenging in parts as he has little to zero understanding of the topic. I realise how setting the context right at an early age is crucial for young readers, especially those immersed in urban life. In a fast-paced lifestyle powered by conveniences of modern dietary choices, we often fail to underscore the value of our traditional foods. The book also reminded me about the incredible work that farming initiatives such as Amar Khamar and OOO Farms are doing to revive and reconnect with folk varieties of rice in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat respectively.
At a session to discuss the need to protect wild foods held in Mumbai last weekend, I got talking to Shailesh Awate, the passionate co-founder of OOO Farms, who has been championing heritage rice, among other produce, for the past few years. He told me there is a reasonable shift in consumer habits when it comes to choosing traditional varieties of rice over modern hybrid ones. On my way back home that evening, I was reminded of Yadav's joyful characters, Jinid and her family, who add a touch of optimism and sense of hope to safeguard our wealth of native rice.
Book details
Book: Our Rice Tastes of Spring, Anumeha Yadav
Published by: Red Panda, Westland Books
Price: ₹299
Number of pages: 30