Coconuts

Coconut palm

The train ride from Thrissur to Varkala was from a 2nd class AC seat. Not exactly a seat more like a little coffin size cubicle but very comfortable. My bags could go at one end and my legs could stretch out and i could even lie down with my feet up on top of my bags. The window went right to the seat level so when lieing down i could watch the scenery stream by. Coconut palms mostly. Millions billions and zillions of coconut palms dot the landscape of the southern india that i have seen. These are not weeds but cultural statements. This tree is all things to all people and every part of this tree has an important use.

The trunk is valuable, you see them saved at the side of the road to be picked up and soaked in the ocean for a year. They you have an impermeable building material for beams.

Of course the coconut itself is eaten. When ripe it is grated or chopped and added to all kinds of food along with the water. At Sreedhari when there are so many coconuts on the trees that they are scared one will drop on someone head they hire the coconut man to come and cut them down. These are the pictures to the right. Then the valuable coconuts are gathered into a pile and another guy is hired to pry off the husks with a stake in the ground. There is also a picture of this man. Now there are nuts in one pile and husks in another. The coconuts themselves yield the wonderful oil that can be cooked with and rubbed into the hair and bodyl

The husks are used to burn in cooking fires and they can also be soaked in the ocean for a year and the fibre is used to make coir. The rough rope on the guy climbing the coconut tree is made of coir. If you read the commodities column in The Hindu newsleter COIR is one of the big commodities that is exported along with sugar and rubber.

Of course the leaves can make thatch for roofs or used to weave panels for houses and when the green part of the leaves are cut off the spines are great for burning as well. you will see old women carrying these spines home on their heads.

A constant supply of food, firewood, rope and building materials.

Ghandi’s vision of India saw a country of a million villages. Each one self-sufficient. The coconut palm makes this self-sufficiency and culture possible. Of course the english colonization put a bit of a stall to this image but whatever India does become the coconut palm is part of the culture.