Field trip to Smimoga - Arriving in Bhadravati 28.02.08

After a day at the bus (8 hours) and miles of beautiful countryside and other picturesque scenery, I arrived in Bhadravati. I am still in the same state Karnataka, but I am now in the Shimoga region - also known as the breadbasket of Karnataka. The lush jungle-like forests and the many rivers and waterways, makes it a good place to be a farmer. Rice, arecanut (aka Betel nut), cotton, maize and ragi (Finger millet) are the major crops cultivated here. In the region we visited, farmers grew mainly arecanut. The arecanut tree resembles the coconut tree, and I got some arecanuts from a farmer we interviewed, not to mention the taste session I had in front of 5 farmers. The nut is meant to act as a mouth freshener. You chew it together with a leaf, some tasty spices and some lime. I have to say the taste was okay, but to chew on a nut that was so hard I felt like me jaw was going to brake any minute, the red tongue afterwards and the bits in between your teeth - not convinced ill be a regular chewer… Great to see how the refinement process worked and to see that it is requiring little water, leaving enough for almost everyone in distributary 22 (the 1 river arm out of 2 we have focused this particular study on)

I said goodbye to a friend on the bus - Anna Pourna, a beautiful old lady who eagerly chatted with me for two hours. Although she spoke in Kannada, and I spoke in English, we seemed to be getting some information across. I have picked up a good deal of the language now, and everyone is so appreciative of this effort. It makes it easy to break the ice between my somehow different presences in their everyday life. Me, Avi, Harish, Umesh and Cavita (the 5 of us are in charge of this survey together) had dinner at a local diner. I will be eating the local food where the plates are clean (good indicator of the standard of the place) but will stay clear of drinking the water ironically. The hotel was dreadful, but a warm shower is worth paying for. Cant wait for tomorrow.