While all my soaps are handcrafted with passion, a few stir up strong emotions and deserve to be posted here. One such is a sample i made, a Soap i had wanted to make even before i knew the ABCs of soap making.
Coming from an agrarian community cows were an integral part of the household. Though the family has not practiced agriculture for the past 2 generations, "maatu pongal" , the penultimate day of Pongal is still celebrated with equal fanfare and fervor as regular pongal.
For me my memories of interacting with cows goes back to the holidays spent at my maternal grandparent's village- a beautiful, beautiful ( once) village on the meanders of the River Amaravathi.
The river was literally a stone's throw from the house and in the still of the night we would sleep into the lullaby of the river gushing by. In the morning we would accompany the cows as they set off to graze, to pastures that had to be reached by crossing the river.
Fishing and a dip in the river was a mandatory ritual we never missed. Drinking water was from the springs that we dug using our hands, on the river bed.And then would come the exciting part of cleaning the "kattu thari"/ cowshed.
The calves were left to our care. It is probably my growing years were spent with cows, i have never been squeamish about handling cow dung or cow urine.
As an organic gardener i have made Panchagavya so many times. And the soap was an exciting first time..
It does bring memories of the glorious years when animals were treated with fondness and care, the days when they were not exploited, artificial insemination and hormone injections were unheard of.
It does bring memories of the glorious years when animals were treated with fondness and care, the days when they were not exploited, artificial insemination and hormone injections were unheard of.
The days when the cow was really considered part of the family rather than a money making "machine".
