NO COST ENTERTAINMENT

 NO COST ENTERTAINMENT

Anything that draws attention and sustains the same can be rated as an entertainment. Any time – passing exercise which presents itself free of cost is ‘no cost entertainment’. To define it as entertainment the act must attract at least a few people, who temporarily suspend their work under the influence of ‘captured ‘attention, eagerly keep looking for the logical culmination of the ‘work’.

What is the work we are referring to here? The work is rather personal –in the sense that the person is seized of the stuff. Earlier we had ‘the stuff called snuff’; this time it is the stuff for stuffing. Yes, stuffing the stuff to mouth and go about munching it for several minutes. The act is ‘betel chewing’. Betel chewing has varying methodologies practised in different regions of our state. Betel chewing trend has dropped to low scale now-a-days, relative to what it was some decades back. Still it is a dominant social custom in villages of Kaveri delta region, though every other region also has the habit to varying degrees. The variation pertains to the nature or type of ingredients. The primary variation relates to the use of ‘tobacco’; some do not use tobacco while many use tobacco; there are also variants in the versions of tobacco used in betel chewing, Some use flat dried leaf of tobacco, some prefer ‘processed’ tobacco as dry shreds, some enjoy it in wet form with certain additives; still others use scented tobacco shreds popular as ‘panneer tobacco’ [not paneer anyway]. Be that as it may, betel chewers are personalities worthy of observation though not of emulation.

They have some common characteristics.

Generally, they are neatly dressed in spotless white; dhothi-clad , white shirt or ‘Jibba’ of ‘ larger than life’ dimensions and sport a fairly long gold chain that  sits relaxed over the sloping belly of the chewer. All these are peripheral manifestations of wealth. Richer among them are generally accompanied by an assistant who carries the betel + accompaniments freshly loaded everyday in a rectangular box –stainless steel or in Aluminium and neatly wrapped in a white towel. The assistant chooses to address the rich man as “Anna” though he is elder to the ‘Anna’. The unmistakable trait of the chewer is his basic practice of tilting his head backwards whenever he talks. It is a custom of safety to preclude the prospect of spilling the ‘Dracula-like saliva’ upon self, since for most of the time, his mouth is a mini wet grinder; He never asks his assistant to handover the betel box; his lateral look towards the assistant is signal enough to indicate the man’s urge for ‘fresh chewing’.   The assistant bends down a bit as he hands over the betel kit in all reverence. Despite, the ‘boss status’ betel chewers never ask their assistants to ‘formulate’ the items for chewing. Instead, they want to do it meticulously as per personal procedure of choice of material, the quantity and the volume of areca nut and that of calcium                    [Chunnam].

Honestly, what constitutes the no cost entertainment is our observing his rather methodic and lethargic way of assembling the ingredients, choosing the volume of matter for that session of chewing and the care he bestows on to the betel leaves before he cruelly bites them under the molar teeth. Like Lord Krishna the betel chewer harbours a mini world of ‘finely ground matrix of matter’ in his mouth.  My analogy has its basis in the fact that , it is not easy for us to have the glimpse of the contents in the mouth of Lord Krishhna or that of a chewer –for, the latter seldom keeps his mouth open for anyone to peep in. That his mouth is rich in ‘ground matrix’ is a logical inference from the bulged cheek that collapses to normal whenever the chewer  gets rid of the matter preparatory to either eating or for fresh chewing. As a part of their language, the chewers liberally pronounce ‘zh’ or ‘zha’ as they have to speak through the solid-fluid matrix of the oral content.

Morphologically, the chewers have ‘swollen’ tongue, the latter being immersed in betel-areca- tobacco ensemble. Their dentition [teeth] is frighteningly dark; not easy to have a precise count of teeth. A permanent tint of red adorns the edges of mouth of chewers. Whether or not they keep a pillow while sleeping, the betel box is near the head irrespective of where the assistant stays. These do not entertain us; that part of it comes when the chewer begins his hobby anywhere any time. That is the ‘no cost event’.

My calling it an entertainment is based on the curiosity of a cluster of boys and a few girls in the area, who make it a point to observe him in action. On most occasions a chewer chooses to sit –rather comfortably leaning over some rigid support. The fastest action by a chewer is when he quickly flings open the betel box and glances to see if every ingredient is in place. A bunch of fresh betel leaves are kept well stacked; the avid chewer does not prefer to fold the leaf until he does it himself. He just takes 2 or 3 leaves at a time and inspects each for surface cleanliness; leaves them on his lap – much like his children. He surveys the areca nut pool and picks out one. From underneath the box, he pulls out the nut cracker and with the nut on hold between the left thumb and index finger, he arranges the cracker to clasp the nut by the right hand and firmly and quickly slices the nut to thin pieces and manages to pool them on his left palm. Abruptly, he stops any further cutting; restores the tool to its hideout and locates a tiny container with a firm lid; quickly opens the lid and runs his right ring finger over the tightly packed calcium paste and retrieves a faint layer of white stuff on the right ring finger tip and by reflex puts back the calcium container into the box. His left palm still folded, betel leaves on his lap , calcium clad ring finger gently curved inwards to shield the calcium from drying up , chooses to speak of current affairs for a while. All eager onlookers are disappointed that he is lethargic.    In a minute or two he begins his deft handling of the art.

A caressing gentle swipe of betel leaf on the thigh of the chewer is a dexterous act by itself. He sweeps the surfaces over his fabric and only now folds the leaf vertically from end to end and gently pulls off the midrib from the stalk downwards splitting the leaf into 2 halves; pinches off the lower leaf tip and opens the leaf. By a gentle, careful sweep, 4 or 5 paintings of calcium onto back of  betel leaf occurs quick and the leaf is folded into a tiny cylinder and tucked between fingers of the left hand; the same sequence is repeated for the already chosen leaves. From the left palm, nut slices are dumped to his mouth and one after the other the betel cylinders are alternately tucked into the right and left molar teeth. With a semi open mouth, tongue slightly rlifed up, grinding starts; after a couple of mastication, he opens the betel box and takes out a small packet containing shreds of tobacco. Pulling out those shreds is another deft act. Using the right thumb and index finger he clasps a small pinch of tobacco shreds and pulls them out; they are entangled and more material emerges by entanglement. Like a cat with rat in its mouth violently jerking the head to destabilize the victim, the chewer too violently wobbles his right fist to break loose the entangled tobacco and succeeds; after securing the tobacco stock to its place, he quickly thrusts the tobacco to one side of the mouth.  Now he violently taps his right and left palms against each other to dislodge   traces of areca, calcium and tobacco  Any further grinding is in his closed mouth which keeps swelling by internal build up of solid-fluid matrix. In no time children vanish from the spot but keep watch to see if he repeats the chewing session later. It is the functional elegance that is entertaining- of course at no cost to any on looker.

Prof. K. Raman