History from the streets
The Hindu
Taran learns about the Portuguese influence in Goa during a visit to Chandor village.
Pao! Pao! Ten Rupeeessss!” cried the vendor, cycling along the narrow streets. Taran and his family were taking a break from the beaches of Goa, and were wandering about Chandor village early one morning.
“Look, Appa! Bread on cycles in cane baskets,” pointed out Taran.
“It’s a special kind of bread, Taran. It’s pao or pav,” said Appa, who always liked to use the culturally correct terminologies. Once, he was furious when he spotted a medu vada being called ‘lentil doughnut’ in a menu.
“Of course I know pao or pav…I love pav bhaji,” said Taran.
“It’s made with fermented toddy, which gives it a unique taste. But, perhaps, now everyone uses yeast. In Portuguese, Pao means bread and they are ones who taught Goans the recipe,” said Amma.
They bought some pao, and then Appa took a picture of the vendor after taking his permission. He looked at the image and seemed pleased, “I think Mario Miranda, the famous cartoonist from Goa, had a drawing of a man selling pao just like this.”
Taran was pleased with his fresh pao and began to eat. “Yum!” he declared.
In 2021, five women from Mayithara, four of them MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) workers, found a common ground in their desire to create a sustainable livelihood by growing vegetables. Rajamma M., Mary Varkey, Valsala L., Elisho S., and Praseeda Sumesh, aged between 70 and 39, pooled their savings, rented a piece of land and began their collective vegetable farming journey under the Deepam Krishi group.