Did you know these indigenous fruits & veggies? | #239
+ the worst Bollywood names 👀
Hello Friends,
While preparing yesterday’s dinner and fighting back the tears (it was the onions, we swear!) a thought occurred to us - most Indian curries today require tomatoes, onions and maybe even potatoes - none of which are really indigenous to India.
We went down the rabbit hole of searching for vegetables and fruits that are uniquely Indian and some interesting stories about them. This week’s newsletter will hopefully make Indian vegetables great again.
Things we learnt this week 🤓
Vaadiraja Thirta (b. 1480) was a saint who offered Hayagreeva Maddi—a mix of Bengal gram, jaggery, ghee, and grated coconut—to Lord Hayagreeva, a deity with the head of a white horse. The horse would nibble some Maddi, leaving the rest for Vaadiraja—sacred leftovers, if you will. One day, jealous devotees poisoned the Maddi. The horse hesitated to consume it but after Vaadiraja’s prayers, consumed the entire Maddi, leaving none for the saint and promptly turning blue. Vaadiraja, heartbroken, had a dream: Hayagreeva explained the poisoning and prescribed a curious antidote—brinjal. The saint was given seeds to pass to the Brahmins of a village called Matti, near the Udupi Temple. After 48 days, the brinjals were harvested, cooked, and offered to Hayagreeva, reversing the poison. This variety of Brinjal came to be known as Matti Gulla - Gulla, sphere in Tulu - referring to the spherical shape of the brinjal. Unlike brinjals which are purple in colour, these are green and make for a delicious ingredient in sambar. Even today in Udupi, the tradition of offering the first crop to Lord Krishna endures.
The Kachai Lemon, hailing from the hills of Kachai in Manipur, is not your average citrus—it’s a fruit with a zest for distinction. Small, vibrant, and unapologetically tangy, this lemon boasts an exceptionally high ascorbic acid content. Revered by local communities for its medicinal properties, it’s been a natural remedy for everything from colds to digestion woes. Its bold, aromatic punch has also earned it a Geographical Indication (GI) tag. Every year, the Kachai Lemon Festival celebrates this citrus celebrity, turning the humble fruit into a symbol of agricultural pride. After all, when life gives you Kachai lemons, you don’t just make lemonade—you throw a festival.
Lemon Party Prayagraj is currently in the news thanks to the Kumbh Mela. Read more interesting stories from the Kumbh Mela in our newsletter here. But Prayagaraj has another claim to fame - a guava that ironically it can call its own. The guava is not native to India, but the Prayagraj Surkha is an Indian creation. Also affectionately known as Prayagraj Sebiya, —it earns its name from the word “surkha”, meaning “red.” Its taste is deeply rooted in the fertile soils of Kaushambi district in undivided Allahabad. Here, in the Doaba region, around 300 hectares of land are dedicated to cultivating this fruit, where the unique soil composition are the secrets of sweetness of the guava. We leave the last word to the poet Akbar Allahabadi,
Kuch Allahabad mein samaan nahin behbood ke
Yaha dhara kya hai, bazooz Akbar aur amrood ke
(In the city of Allahabad, not much is of worth,
Except the poet Akbar, and the divine fruit, amrood)
From IWTK, with love 💌
What are some of the worst names in the Bollywood-verse? Watch for some terrible puns thrown in by Sai Ganesh.
Do you know what happened to the ‘Go Corona Go’ girl? Watch here.
Only In India 🇮🇳
It gets weirder with every sentence.
💟 IWTK