Audible Weed Walk – ep.41 “Time for Pandum, time to start afresh: what can be done?”
Today is an incredibly special day. Yesterday we had Eid, today Akshay tritiya. It is the day when river Ganga is said to have descended on earth or the day Rishi Vyas had started authoring Mahabharata! But most importantly, it is the biggest festival of Bhil, an indigenous community in India. They celebrate Pandum, means ‘inauguration’, where they seek the permission of mother Nature to start using the forest produce – that sustains their lives and livelihoods. Gond tribal group celebrates Bijja or seed Pandan where they seek the permission of the saved seeds so that they can be planted. We also talk about the list of mostly wild weedy plants that are included as part of Kaba sura kudineer that are growing around us that we can actually eat – incorporate into a healthy wonderful meal or tea. From the list of Kaba sura, the pick of the week is a wild weedy plant called Cissampelos pareira – Velvetleaf or Vattathiruppi.