( Boats carrying HUKH or drifted wood at Kraalyaar Rainawari ..Photo..1920.. )
HUKH , HATAB , KOSH AND STOVE......
“Bobu Ji hukh
chhuyi aamut. pataa mokalee . Buthee chhuyee krooth vandhaa” or “ Pandit Ji, Hukh has arrived for sale. It
shall be sold immediately. You have to face severe winters ahead.” said Ali Mohd Mattahaanz to my father.
And we
went to Kraalyaar Maar (canal ) and purchased about two quintals of Hukh(
drifted wood ) for the winter season. Hukh consisted of pieces of drifted wood
collected from rivers by a group of the boatmen and then brought to the city for sale
in big boats called Bahetch. Hukh Collected from Doderhaama near Ganderbal town
was marketed as special ‘Hukh’. It was used for burning in the kitchen hearth during
winters. It made the kitchen warm when burnt in Dhaan ( kitchen hearth ) by our
womenfolk. I would sit in the kitchen to have my food when my mother burnt Hukh
for cooking. She would also burn a stick of willow or some other timber along with Hukh pieces. we used to get a good
feeling upon seeing the Hukh burning in the kitchen. In extreme winters, we
would come to the kitchen repeatedly to fill our Kangris. The kitchen turned
cosy and warm with Hukh burning. Our ladies used to make charcoal from the
burning Hukh or firewood in the kitchen. They would keep a Leijj ( earthen pot
) with a lid in the kitchen. Very skillfully, they would remove burning coal
heaps from the kitchen hearth and throw them into the Leijj and then
immediately keep the lid over it. The burning charcoal would cool down and the
fuel so prepared would be used to make the afternoon or evening tea for the
family.
In so far as
firewood was concerned, its procurement from the government timber yards spread
all over the city was a tough job. You had to get up early in the morning and keep your Chendee ( timber
cards supplied to each family by the government ) near the window of the Zeun
Ghaat ( timber depot ) one over the other in proper order. Generally, milk
selling families supplied the labour force at these timber depots. A labourer
would carry 100 -120 Kg of timber log on his shoulders. Then he would suddenly
throw the log with a bang in the courtyard making windows rattle. Thereafter
the Tabardaar ( woodcutter ) would come and cut this log to pieces for ultimate
use in the kitchen. We would then carry the pieces for storing them at a safe
place. Hatab (timber from False Witch Hazel tree ) was
preferred stuff by the Kashmiris. I
vividly remember Kashmiris keeping a vigil on the arrival of Hatab at timber
depots to buy it. It produced quality heating fuel for the Kangris.
Another fuel
with Kashmiris was the sawdust popularly known as Kosh. They would use it in
Kangris and more specifically for boiling water to wash clothes. Every Sunday
we would use Kosh damchoola ( special mobile hearth made of iron for burning
sawdust ) for boiling water to wash clothes. It produced an irritating smoke.
The sawdust was also used in Kangris. For bathing, we had a special galvanized
iron Hammam which used to give instant boiling water once firewood was burnt
inside it. The wastage from Poplar tree wood sold by bandsaw mills was burnt in
this Hammam. The wood used as fuel was called Mocha or leftover ( scrap ) by
the bandsaw mills where sawing of poplar tree logs was done.
Electric
heaters were also used in the kitchen as everyone stole power with the active
connivance of the linemen and meter
readers. Every Kashmiri ( Pandit or Muslim) had some skill in this field. A
direct hook on the main service line or bypassing the electric meter or making
meters dead was a usual practice. Right from a petty trader to the top bureaucrat, power theft was relentlessly
practised. The field staff in the electric department made extra income from
this power theft. They facilitated this theft and provided all type of help to
the consumers in this area.
Many families
had kerosene stoves. My father had also purchased two kerosene stoves for our
kitchen. In Rainawari , Triloki Nath
Pandit whom everyone called ‘Treya Tsoor’ ( Treya the thief) and who reportedly had some
criminal past in plains of the country, had opened a stove repair shop in
Jogilanker Chowk. His shop was near the police station, Rainawari just opposite to the shop of Chuni Lal Watloo.
Chuni Lal Watloo had a small chemist shop where Pandits would sit for
gossiping. These gossiping Pandits made Chuni Lal Watloo lose all customers.
When new chemist shops opened in Jogilanker Chowk, Chuni Lal Watloo shifted his
activity to a more lucrative trade and started working as an agent of the
police officials in the nearby police station. Any person who needed police
assistance had to come to Chuni Lal Watloo's shop for direct or indirect help.
Now coming to
Treya Pandit's stove repair shop, every time I went with our stove to him, he
would just change the burner. He did it to all kerosene stoves coming to him.
For him, change of the burner perhaps solved all problems of a stove. He did so
even for minor blockages in the kerosene passage of the burners which could be
easily cleared by a stove pin. Perhaps he knew nothing else and also it made
him earn instantly. His customers paid without any argument.
My father
had also purchased a kerosene cooking stove that had thick cotton strap wick.
One could adjust the flame by raising or lowering the burning wick strap. This
stove produced strange bang like sound at regular intervals when put to use.
LPG cylinders in the kitchen is a late story.
To conclude
this write up , I add Lines from Padamshri Moti Lal Saqi’s Kashmiri poem.
"Koat
gatchhukh subahaai vaeni nai gaash ph'oll
Naag
joyi pyaath vothh na vaeni sandhyaai kaa'nh
Masheidi
mehraabus andher katiejun nendhar
Dhaan dalas
munz geill chha traavithh zeeth lar,
Kulleiy
laenjen sosaraai chenna vathharan gatchhaan
Koat gatchhukh
?"
( Moti Lal Saqi
)
"Where
shall you go so early? It is not daybreak as yet.
None has
yet come to perform *Sandhya with Spring Water,
Even the
swallows are fast asleep inside the *Mehraab of the Mosque,
In paddy
fields, *Gill Birds are still in deep slumber
Leaves of
tree branches have not turned restless as yet
Where
shall you go ?"
( Avtar Mota )
PS
* Rudy breasted crake is Gill in Kashmiri. It is like a house sparrow and
black in colour. Mostly seen around paddy fields. After harvest, it flies away
from paddy fields.
*Sandhya is the
daily religious ritual of Hindus performed at the time of two twilights or the
opening and the closing of the day. It is generally performed on river banks or
springs or any other source of fresh water or even inside their dwellings.
Sandhya was a ‘daily practice’ with elderly Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir
valley.
*Mehrab is the
decorative groove in the wall of a mosque, which marks the direction of the
Qiblah. The traditional Mehrab is a common element of Islamic mosque
architecture throughout the world. During the summer season, swallows would
make nests inside mosques, temples and residential houses in Kashmir.
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
