What is your favorite drink?
The text discusses the evolution of drinks in India, emphasizing traditional beverages like sugarcane juice, lassi, and nimboo-paani, which were common before tea and coffee gained popularity. The introduction of tea by the British, especially through the CTC method, made it widely accessible, leading to the emergence of masala chai. Despite this, the text critiques the modern trend toward unhealthy packaged foods and aerated drinks, highlighting their detrimental health effects and environmental impact. It advocates for a return to healthier, traditional drinking options that reflect India’s cultural heritage and nutritional needs, urging a conscious shift in dietary preferences for better health.
Amidst verdurous campestral a traversing road insinuated slithering huge serpent. People working in fields and women folks busy with household chores were the usual but beautiful sight. The road with sparsely mechanised vehicles, was mostly used by village people and bullock carts. It was the common rustic ambience, more than six decades ago.
Travelling on these roads gave an elevated feeling. The intermittent sight of jaggery preparation with the intoxicating aroma of boiling sugarcane juice in huge pans over a large makeshift furnace added to the rustic beauty. The fragrant vapours of boiling syrup used to be tempting. Children would swarm around the oxen-driven cane crusher holding saucers and tumblers in their hands to get freshly extracted sugarcane juice. They would get it without cost, as they were children of the village and hence considered family members. Sometimes they added curd into it to add variety.
Tea had not been common. People used to take cane juice, or Sherbet made by dissolving jaggery in water mixed with curd. These were the most common drinks.
The drinks refresh and energise an individual. Being situated on the Tropic of Cancer, in India climate is hot and humid. Winters are not so harsh in the plains of northern and Southern India. Drinks are aplenty; people enjoy drinking it to get a refreshing break.
Tea which was uncommon until then, had started making inroads into the lives of people. It was becoming frequent but in the rural areas, it was still not in vogue. In cities, small grocery shops used to display small paper sachets of tea. The sachets contained one-time useable tea leaves enough for four to five people. It was cheap and the best choice. Making Sherbet had started to be considered “backward”. Tea was insidiously encroaching on the lives of people. Those who were not capable of bearing the stint of alkaloids contained in tea started adapting and later became addicted to it.
British East India Company introduced tea in India. Large tea plantations were established in Assam and Darjeeling.
Initially, tea was limited to elite class. With the introduction of CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl), tea became reachable to common people. The street tea vendors, “Chai Wala”, made it common. As Indian people are fond of spices, they added crushed ginger, cloves, and cinnamon, brewed with tea leaves and mixed some milk to make “Masala Chai”. Nowadays, it is most common in India.
Tea is native to China. Legends have it that in 2737 BC, while boiling water in a forest, Shen Nung, the emperor, saw the change in colour and flavour of water as some wild leaves fell into it. The concoction tastes good and energetic. Later he researched and found some medicinal properties in tea leaves.
The seeds of tea leaves were taken to Japan, and centuries later, they became a monopoly item of the British East India Company. The tea in an Indian Avatar has now occupied a prominent place.
Like tea, another beverage that is widely consumed in India, especially in the Southern part, is Coffee. Similar to tea, coffee also has foreign roots. Believed to be originally belonged to Ethiopia, the coffee stimulates the senses because of the Caffeine presence.
Before these beverages were popularized, several other drinks were popular in India. “Lassi” is one among others. Prepared by churning curd and sugar into a thick running consistency, garnished with dry fruits and fragrant rose water, “Lassi” is a refreshing drink. It is widely consumed in Northern India, especially in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Drinks prepared from curd include buttermilk and Chhachh. They are good for the stomach and have a cooling effect.
Besides these, “Pana” is prepared in running consistency by the pulp of boiled raw mango mixed with spices consisting of black salt, and roasted and ground cumin. Soothing, tasty and healthy, “Pana” is consumed during the summer season. It helps ward off the effect of “Looh“, the hot, westerly wind that lashes the plains of India.
One such popular drink is “Nimboo-Paani”. It is prepared by adding lime juice to cold water and mixed with digestive spices and is consumed both as salty and sweet. It is also good for health and is taken in the summer.
The drinks, including those that have not been described above, are used in India according to the weather conditions and their soothing effects on the stomach. They are healthy, tasty and easily available at a reasonable price. One drink that needs to be mentioned is coconut water. It quenches thirst and gives nourishment as well. It is often seen in coastal areas of India, including Tamilnadu, Kerala, Goa, and Maharastra. It is now available in cities in the northern part of the country as well.
India has a rich cultural tradition of giving water to the thirsty. We believe in “Atithi Devo Bhavah” (Guest is like God). Feeding the hungry and providing shelter to the needy has been our convention. Popular monarchs constructed roads, planted fruiting trees along them, and rest houses with wells at regular intervals to ease the difficulties of travellers. Indian ethos looked upon these charitable deeds with high esteem. Water was never a saleable commodity.
With the market expansion and growth of cupidity, water has been made a saleable item. Multinational companies flooded the Indian market with unhealthy packaged food items and drinks. Wafer chips, Finger fries, Burgers, and lots of aerated drinks also called cold drinks. High in sugar and salt contents packaged food items and aerated drinks are not only unhealthy but potentially dangerous as well. Their carcinogenic effect instigates pernicious health problems. Riding on the waves of aggressive advertisement campaigns and marketing, they are selling unhealthy products for excessive human consumption. Ironically, people feel elevated consuming them and gulping “cold drinks”.
Companies manufacturing aerated drinks or “cold drinks” rely heavily on groundwater. This causes a fast depletion of groundwater. Paradoxically, in a region where water is scarce, “cold drink” is easily available. The ubiquitous presence of cold drinks and hanging packs of wafers can be seen everywhere.
In the mad race of minting money under the veil of “Value addition”, edible products are losing their nutritious value that too at a higher cost. Adding the cost of health hazards and their treatment, the cost soares even more high. This is the type of economy being preached and promoted! Is this the economy the nation needs?
Preserved foods have limited shelf life because of the chemicals they use as preservatives. Besides, it loses its natural consistency, texture and colour. Added colour, flavour and sugar made them unhealthy. The natural ways of preserving food, like sun drying and smoking, are considered less economical because they are labour-intensive and time-consuming.
People need to shift their dietary preferences from unhealthy to healthy food and drink. India is a gifted nation. It has plenty of fresh fruits, grains and seeds to consume. Indian drinks are time-tested and are consistent with the physical condition of the nation. Prudent thinking helps choose healthy food and drink, the best and only options to lead a healthy life.
Food is life; it is its essence. For a healthy, agile and fit body, healthy food is essential not junk foods. It is rightly said that a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Our food and drinks should be healthy and balanced, not guided by the aggressive advertisements of multinational companies. We need to be conscious not only for us but for our children as well.
Shouldn’t we?
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