A homopteran and a pteridophyte breakfast

My field assistant and I had no curry to take along with rice the other day because we left really early (330 am!) to sight birds by sunrise to a site that was an hour's walk, so Army (that is really his name!) cut down a Pandanus plant and within each leaf were these stink bugs (Pentatomidae family, Order Homoptera) that he said we could eat, alive and whole! At first I hesitated, then put in one, tasted exactly like cinnamon, quite good actually, so I had few, no, many more! There is also another similar species that they find in the river below stones, Gandhi pok, he had brought that too, it was grounded with salt and chillies and he told me that some people are allergic to this bug. For days they end up sick and get hallucinations during the affected period. So I was a bit hesitant and just tasted a bit, I preferred the cinnamon flavour instead. This is the picture of the bug, so if you find one, you could pop it in!

The previous field visit too, we had gone into the forest with only rice sprinkled with millets. So my field assistant then (Nyelik) quickly materialised a banana flower and an edible fern plant. This fern called Dekia saag I had eaten it before, it is quite tasty. So after an hour of fire, we had this sumptouous meal.

Food is often a problem in field, so I tend to adjust to what’s available in the plate, or in the Phrynium leaf in this case.  Phrynium sp., which is found close to streams, is always the leaf in which an Adi bento meal is packed.

On another note, I saw this beautiful Oak leaf butterfly besides lots of other beauties. Will upload an exclusive butterfly post sometime.

Pasoh – the final cut

This post follows from the post titled ‘The art of selective felling’; this one is the last of the Malaysia visit travelogues. Wanted to post pictures of all of us in the last chapter. The toughest part of the entire course was this; to say goodbye to friends we had never met even just few weeks back. We came together irrespective of religion, country, in some cases language, different sense of humour and what not and we departed as friends for life. We all plan to meet somewhere somehow and travel…but there may not be another Pasoh-time with all of us together, probably there need not be…we remember the moments so well forever. Terima Kasih everyone!

Of pigs and men

Before the rice crop is harvested, men from select households in the village slaughter their pigs around the Naamghar or the community hall. I am often referred to as an Aying in the village which means a non-tribal. So being an Aying I wasn’t to be present in this feast perhaps but later I was given a large slice of meat which I gladly ate.

The next day as I was learning a bit of Adi language from my friend Gekut, I asked him why I saw some pigs in the Egin the toilet whereas others are free-ranging. Oh, by the way, the Adi rear their pigs in enclosure below their home.

Gekut told me that the male pigs are reared in the pig-toilets. So well, for two to four years all the male pigs have seen are the four walls around them and everyday few pairs of bottoms above them! The pigs that I have seen roaming around the village are all sows with their kids. So I asked Gekut why they don’t prefer eating the pigs that roam around the village and he said “Shee, who will eat them, these pigs roam around everywhere and eat all dirty things, better to eat clean pigs from our own Egin”! I will never forget this fact from now on! Also the time it takes for a male pig to fatten up depends on how many people live in a house; makes perfect sense! Also, these pigs are fed leftovers from the home meals, tubers (Kochu or wild yam) and chips of a palm species (Tassat) trunk. Perhaps the main reason for eating only the pigs from the pig-toilets is that they put on a significant amount fat, having not burnt it roaming around the village. Its a hog-eat-hog world!

The tale of two dinners and before and after

In October last week, I rode an rattly old Yamaha RX100 bike from Pasighat to Jenging to Ramsing (~225 km) with a large rugsack stacked behind me, a laptop bag in the front and a camera bag to the right. Most people on the way were wondering as to what I was selling! It was perhaps a big mistake but well I took the risk and enjoyed it too. The bike had just been repaired and I was not to travel faster than 40 km per hour speed; so it took me about 13 hours in total. A slow peaceful ride with the bike giving me trouble only five times middle of literally nowhere in the valleys below forested peaks along the Siang river. Just when I would wonder what would happen next, the bike would start and I continue precariously. Well anyways I reached Ramsing camp by 430 pm, met the DFO, Mouling national park and slept a well-earned sleep. Not many days go by like this! Next morning I got to Bomdo village.

This time around at the village, things were a bit different from the  last time; I had no person to cook and share a meal with and no firewood to cook food too, so a meal was a painful ordeal. I had bought an electric heating-spring stove from Itanagar, so now I cook using that but it takes a long time; an hour in the least to cook just rice! So I requested my friendly neighbourhood in the village to cook me breakfast and pack-lunch which I can carry to field so it will save me a lot of trouble and I could pay them for the meals. It worked very well for me; they cook me two meals and then I come back from field in the evening and cook my long and slow evening meal. 

Yesterday was different though; as I finished cooking my meal one of the villagers called me over to his place and asked me to get there immediately. I told him politely that I still need to eat my evening meal and then do some chores too. Anyways I obliged since it is extremely rude to turn down offers to come home in villages here. When I reached, he offered me rice wine which too I pleasantly obliged and after a mug or two, it dawned on me that he had me over for dinner! So he also set out sumptuous dinner for me; fish from the Siang river and rice. I ate very happily, drank another mug of rice wine and reached back my inspection bungalow where I stay. Then, watched a Chaplin movie just for some humour and then realised I should not waste my cooked meal and grabbed some to eat. When I took my first bite I realised it wasn’t cooked well at all! I felt really glad that I did eat some at another place. It was just luck that I was invited over for a meal before I even knew that my meal was not done well!

The day before we had a birthday party of a kid; the first year birthday. Funnily, when I walked into the home I was advised to cache my slippers in a place I can recover since its common here that people with old torn slippers walk out with new better ones, never to be retrieved! The old women sang together many songs and one of them is a really beautiful song called “Tayer gamcha”. The theme of the song is about a man being old enough to get married twice! Here, in the Adi landscape, it is a common practice to get married more than once; if you can afford it. The ex-Chief Minister (CM) of Arunachal Pradesh state, Gegong Apang from a nearby village Karko has married five times and has been the CM for 22 years.

Anyways, today is the day after and I had a good field time for the last four days and I had my dinner in one of the village homes too; rice and beans with a little meat.