Paan or the betel leaf has a very important place in our society. Be it from offering it to the Gods or to offering to people after a sumptuous lunch or dinner it has its own significance. It is said to contain digestive properties and is also used as a mouth freshener.
These can be bought from any roadside dukaan. And we can find the spots or maps created by the paan chewers along every street, though it has considerably reduced in recent times. I remember in erst-while Bombay, the corners in staircases used to be the favourite places for paan-spitters and of late we see a lot of pictures of Gods or writings from holy scriptures to dissuade people from spitting.
In the City Civil Court Complex in Bangalore, all the walls are plastered with notices that anyone found spitting would be fined.
I found this site which has a good deal of info about paan.
This I picked from here
A simple Paan can be prepared in following way.
Betel leaf is washed carefully and then dried with cloth.
Mix spices such as cardamom, anise and katha with choona (lime paste), grated coconut, different kinds of supari (betel nuts) and small piece of various candies.
Add the mixture on the betel leaf.
Fold the leaf into a triangular shape and secure it by piercing a piece of cloves into it.
You can keep Paan fresh on ice with rose petals.
I have had a very bad experience with paan. When I was in School, I had participated in a parade of NCC,as is the practice, we were given our lunch and also on that day, in addition there was paan. I had eaten that and when we walked to Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore where the parade was to take place, I felt I was floating and felt extremely dizzy. It was my luck that it rained cats and dogs and hence the parade was cancelled. Imagine leading a contingent of floating and swaying cadets... I still cant fathom what was added in the paan and it gives me shudders to even think of that.
This episode was enough for me to stay away from paan totally, never to touch it except the once I tried it in Infantry Road's paan shop in the cellar of the Samarkhand complex recently. This Air-conditioned shop has a fine array of paan and lots of customers flocking in.
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3 comments:
ha ha ha ....swaying cadets ...ha ha ha ha !!!
Rama,
Once upon a time I had loved to have a paan after a heavy meal, but nowadays I can't think about it. Thinking of paan reminds of this. I had to go to the nearest Indian consulate office here, few years before. I took the address from my friend and with great difficulty reached the building where it was supposed to be. There were lots of offices in that building and no sign boards. But I still managed to get into the right floor, right office following the paan marks on the walls. Believe me. This is one of those which I keep telling everyone when we have talks about desis.
Just checkout the walls near the ticket queues in a cinema complex. The kind of modern art these walls have would really put us off!
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