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| Sunday, 29 September 2002 |
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Features |  |
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Looking for pragmatic solutions to getting... : High on devil's brew by Stanley Amunugama Six peasant youths from the environs of Meegastenna and Dombagasdeniya,
were admitted to the district hospital of Matale with advanced symptoms of
poisoning. They related the story that they had found a hidden pot of
toddy in a shrub jungle and had If we were to take Meegastenna or Dombagasdeniya as random samples we could with confidence arrive at a prototype of the prevailing temperance situation in the average Kandyan hamlet. There has been, and it seems as if, there is, at least from time to time a sort of insidious rapport between the custodians of the law and the illicit brewers. The village headman of a bygone era turned a half blind eye to the toddy tappers but they took great care to maintain an equilibrium controlling diplomatically the supply and demand, any excess was clamped down upon. As a breed they were concerned and patriarchal in outlook. Liaisons It is no secret that even today, from time to time we discern an ingenious liaison between the custodians of the law and the local illicit brewers. When the police, the excise people and the Grama Seva Niladhari fraternize with the illicit brewers, a vicious status quo prevails. The police and the excise men thrive, the illicit brewers prosper, legitimate taverns are stocked with adulterated pot arrack and in the village there is an abundant supply of affordable liquor at first hand, sold briskly in polythene bags in secret rendezvous serving as open air pubs, under spreading trees, rock caves, dilapidated buildings and such cut off places. They also foster clandestine toddy booths. When the fraternity is established as a going concern accommodating illicit producers it is alleged supply the necessary quantity of their brew and a scapegoat to be arrested and impounded, as and when the need arises, so that the police and the excise people have their required number of cases, the producers pay up the fine imposed on the scapegoat and everything goes on smoothly. It is sometimes possible for strong king maker illicit brewers to influence police activity. The need for exclusive drinking cartels then does not arise. attitude Much depends on the attitude and the action of the police. There are times when they are given a shot in the arm, times when they act with such gusto so as to cripple the illegal trade and bring to book unsuspecting participants. Under such circumstances when the supply sources are cut off drastically, the rural demand being constant, we can expect the emergence of drinking cartels and in the aftermath the production of spurious frenetic brews to meet the demand. The basic ingredients may well be sugar and yeast but in the process of brewing, to get a better "kick" are added among other things formalin, barbed wire, the carbon of batteries, snails, rats, and god knows what! These devils' brews are given connotative nick names which I believe mainly denote their reactions, for the sake of edification. I shall mention just three of them. * Balukendiriya (the dog's whimper) those who consume this brew are subjected to a whimper like that of an ill bred pup held up by the scuff of its neck. * Hitapan machan (wait awhile chum) those who partake of this are never satiated. They would remain to take yet another drink. * Passa burul (loose buttocks) which acts as a purgative. In a period of crisis I have seen distraught peasants braving the distance lining up for a bottle of toddy at the town tavern to drink it down like beasts, amidst the smell of urine and vomit. They cannot afford a better drink or place. research reveals The health hazards resulting from the consumption of such muck is obvious. As a matter of fact the evils of alcohol are broadcast by moralists, religious leaders, temperance fanatics, prohibitionists, feminist lecturers, hypocrites who pay lip service only and others. Medical men and researchers tell us that alcohol destroys the brain cells, adversely affects the nervous system, causes cirrhosis of the liver, is harmful to diabetic patients and brings about delirium tremens, a special form of delirium with tremors and terrifying illusions, due to excessive consumption. Although temperance and prohibition may be desirable it must be noted that the drinking habit of men has persisted from the early beginnings. Today with globalization ostensibly leading to an interfusion of cultures and the trend towards the emergence of a world culture, we might without reservation, observe that no elite international dinner is complete without the accompanying wine list. The numerous recipes for shaking up a good cocktail, the invitation to cocktails, the practice of drinking toasts and the traditions tied up with drinking culture blazons out the legend "we have come to stay." Certain brands of liquor have become internationally famous. The whisky of Scotland, the vodka from Russia, we have champagne from eastern France, beer and hock the German white wine, that of Hockhein on the river Main. Rum, the spirit distilled from the residue of sugarcane from the Caribbean countries and different kinds of wine from the Mediterranean, where the grape vine is grown, connoisseurs could locate the place of its origin by its flavour. There is a palm wine in African countries, brewed and drunk in great profusion there and sake the Japanese fermented liquor fermented from rice. This list can be elaborated. However it should be borne in mind that there are still people and states which advocate total prohibition with rigorous laws and customs although at an international forum the teetotaller may well be the odd man out. magnitude We in Sri Lanka especially in our Kandyan villages have a long history of drinking, if not for the influence of Buddhism we might have had to undergo a period equal in magnitude to that which Britain underwent, specified as the period of the gin-mania caricatured by Hogarth. I remember with a sense of alarm the ruddy faced men with large distended stomachs called ra badas (toddy stomachs) who could draw in three bottles of toddy in one breath. They could have easily drunk the best of German beer drinking champions under the table. I also remember with a sense of nostalgia the pots of treacle with crusted sandy granules at the bottom of them on the duma (loft), above the primitive hearth of yesteryear. The oil cakes made of this treacle the atiraha the narankevun and the imbul kiribath stuffed with the treacle mixed with grated coconut roasted to a nut brown finish concealed in the centre of the pressed milk rice. The unadulterated pure tasting juggery the tiny jaggery balls made out of the residues scraped out of the pot after chocolate fluid juggery had been poured into coconut shells to set. experience In the feudal setup the jaggery makers and of course the toddy tappers were a functional group providing the needs of an integrated self sufficing parochial society. They excelled in their trade with the accumulated knowledge of long experience. They could classify the kitul palm by gender. The male tree was not worth tapping because it would yield little or nothing. The female tree should be cured with special care in the very special way suited for each tree. The yield would then be long and copious. They knew of effective charms to keep out troublesome bees, charms to shut out the evil eyes of men. The tappers knew of ways to enhance the "kick" by introducing certain herbs into the fermenting pot. They knew of secret Micky Finns. They also knew of effective poisons, so much so that even today the practice of the brewer drinking a cup before he offers it to another prevails to ensure its purity. There is a saying which implies that the kitul palm was held in high esteem in our kandyan folklore ape amma ge dorakada kitula wagei (our mother is like the kitul palm at the doorstep). What an elevated reverential position when mother is again classified as gedera budun (the household Buddha). Properganda In spite of the break up of the feudal system there is still to be found a coterie of knowledgeable tappers fast becoming obsolescent who are compelled to practise their trade in stealth and suspicion due to pervading social stigmas. It was only in last June that for the first time in the history of this village a young man was taken in for trafficking in drugs. The young man has pleaded not guilty, the village gossips tell us that the habit of taking drugs is catching on. Will the Kandyan peasant whom Robert Knox found fitting to be crowned kings degenerate into drug addict imbeciles. Is it not the time for us to address this plethora of rural temperance pragmatically. Our propaganda campaigns have had little impact on bringing about a state of effective abstinence. The inadequacies of our laws and our methods of suppression and corruption have led to the creation of market vacuums filled up by innovative devil's brews. We have refused to admit in our bigotry that a lasting demand for a freely available affordable less harmless drink (eg. Kitul toddy) has to be met, the denial of which pushes the naive Kandyan peasant easily into the clammy clutches of merciless drug dealers. |
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partaken of it. The village gossips
maintained that these youths had formed an exclusive drinking
"cartel" and that certain factions who had been denied admission
had through malice introduced the poison. This was in late April.
