Something Personal: 2017

Banana is one of the primary offering made to Surya Devta. We had no dearth of banana in our farms. In fact it is so abundant in our farms that last year we decided to lose most of them. Hajipuri Bananas is one of the more famous varieties of Banana found abundantly in the vast expanse of Ganga basin at Hajipur, near Patna. The simple problem we faced that Chhath Puja was now only two day away and the bananas were not ripe enough or fit enough to be offered in puja. The simple problem had a simple ingenious solution. The ground, big enough to fit in the entire banana offering, was dug up. Another hole was dug up near that trench. An underground channel was also dug up which was connected to the main trench. All the bananas were placed in the trench and dry hay was put upon it. Then the trench was first covered with a wooden slab. Later it was covered with earth. An earthen pot was taken and a whole was made in the bottom of the pot. The pot was filled with dry grass and dry dung flakes. Then the pot was placed upside down in the smaller hole. Thereafter the pot was ignited at the bottom. Heat and smoke from the pot goes through the channel and heat up the bananas. They were now left undisturbed for two days. Within two days they were ripe enough to eat and to put up for puja offering. In this dehati way the bananas were made to ripe without using harmful chemicals.

1. bananas hanging in our garden