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Colourful Vegetables
I love the fresh-food markets of India, with their multicoloured foodstuffs and smiling people. This one in the town of Usilampatti in Tamil Nadu offered a range of fresh produce.
One of the things I love about India – and which always surprises me – is the extent and beauty of the countryside.
As of April 2023, India was estimated to have overtaken China as the most populous country in the world. In spite of that, you can drive great distances through an agrarian landscape, where people are thinly scattered as they engage in labour-intensive farming activities and small industry.
We were driving on a small-group adventure across South India in a mini bus. Having toured Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry in the east for nine days (see: Weekly Wanders Tamil Nadu), we were en route to neighbouring Kerala in the west.
We had driven for about an hour, west out of Madurai (see: Life Colour and Crowds), passing large fields – both fallow and neatly planted – before we stopped in Usilampatti for a walk through the morning market. Usilampatti is classified as a ‘town’, even though it has ten times the population of my home town!
Any visitor to these pages knows I love markets – so I was very pleased with the stop and the chance to interact with the locals away from the typical ‘tourist sites’.
The terrain around Usilampatti consists of pocket of red clay, making the area home to small brickwork factories. We stopped at one to watch the labourers form up the clay for sun-drying and kiln baking. Our guide makes this particular cottage industry a regular stop on his tours, and had collected all our hotel toothbrush kits for the children of the workers. I was pleased to see that the children themselves were in school: literacy rates in this part of India are much better than the national average.
Join me exploring some ‘town life’ in Southern India:
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Scenes from a Bus : Mountains in the Distance
We are not far out of Madurai on India’s NH85 when we leave all traces of that ancient city on the Vaigai River behind. (iPhone 12Pro)
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Man with his Vegetable Baskets
It is barely 9:00am in the morning but the Usilampatti market is already hot and bustling. (iPhone12Pro)
Aubergines – Eggplants – Brinjal – Baigan
Whatever local name you give to solanum melongena, it is a staple in Indian cooking.
Baskets of Veggies in the Market
The colours everywhere are wild!
Bitter Melon – Momordica Charantia
This fruit is used in numerous dishes in South Indian cuisine.
Woman Fixing Flowers
Everywhere you go in India, you find flowers woven into garlands for temple offerings. It is the seated patience of the people painstakingly putting the garlands together that always amazes me!
Flower Stalls
There are a number of outlets selling garlands; they all look the same to me!
Fish Sellers
I don’t know if these are fresh or salt water; we’re a decent distance from the ocean or any sizeable lakes.
Boys in the Market
Men in the Market
The locals are all friendly and welcoming.
Market Corridor
Light and dark alternate wildly with makeshift shade covers in place to protect the produce.
A Man in the Coconuts
Fruit Truck
Near the main road outside the market, an opportunistic vender tries to capture passing trade.
Usilampatti Brickworks
A short distance down the road, we stop at a small brick factory, and learn how clay building bricks are made. This is a labour intensive exercise, and historically, working conditions in brick yards were very poor (see: The Dark Side of the India Economic Boom).
Rows of Bricks
Brick manufacture is growing as the demand for building products expands. Even a small factory like this one can produce 16,000 bricks a day.
Moving the Brick Forms
There is concern about the reduction in fertile topsoil as a consequence of brick production. It is hard and repetitive work: a slurry of brick mud is packed into a form, smoothed out …
MNR Bricks
… and stamped with a company logo before the form is removed and the bricks are left to dry in the sun.
Patterns in the Brickworks
I love the pattern the repeated bricks make. (iPhone12Pro)
Woman at the Usilampatti Brickworks
We thank the co-owner of the factory and take our leave.
Rows And Lines
Two hours later, the vegetables still line up in the field and the mountains around Uthamapalayam dance on the horizon. (iPhone12Pro)
Our little group continued west, climbing into the Nilgiri Mountains – part of the Western Ghats – and finally into the Cardamom Hills of Kerala.
More on that some other time.
Happy Wandering!
Pictures: 27January2023
