The saltwater tea drinkers of Phalodi.
The landscape of Rajasthan has a rather vivid imprint on every mind that has ever seen it, thought of it. Wavering sprints of the warm sand almost like a coarse velvet blanket, the striking beams of sun piercing throughout, veils of red, pink and orange charting distances in the scorching heat, camel heads bobbing in the neverending expanse of the majestic Thar. One Earth describes the premise of the desert as one of the most inhospitable ecoregions in the Indo-Pacific region.
Miles away from the hustle of urban civilization, the town of Phalodi- also known as the Salt City, is spread over a considerable scope of the Thar. Owing to the nature of the terrain and the saline depression in the northern region of the Thar, Phalodi is one of the major salt trading hubs in Rajasthan, that still uses camels as a mode of transport. With the scarcity of water and evergreen plantations, the locality has a large population of seasonal crop and senna farmers and cattle herders. The women of the town have created a rather enterprising life for themselves, with the help of their craft techniques and farming abilities. Moderately populated with people belonging to various cultural sects, the life in Phalodi exhibits an ecosystem of its own. In the early days of June on an assignment to document the conversations with the locals about their day to day to the small town of Phalodi for Women Serve, in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, came a rather astonishing occurrence to light.
Upon visits to the local houses in the district, the team was greeted with tea, a rather common trait of all Indian households, beyond the borders. Dark brown, overly sweet and brimming with affection, this tea was made out of salty water. With the lack of freshwater supply and the inaccessibility towards the same, the population that lives in the mud houses and deeper parts of the Thar uses salty water drawn from wells situated kilometers away, to suffice the needs for basic human survival, and otherwise. What’s more surprising than this unusual base for the tea, is the fact that the locals have learnt to live with the adulterated water as an unwavering part of their lifestyle.
While the reiterated and important commentary of social and ecological storytelling takes the center stage every now and then, there has barely been any accounting of this rather whimsical occurrence for the world to take a note of. The Kashmiri Noon Chai is one preparation that consists of salt in it, but as a voluntary inclusion for specific reasons. The saltwater tea of Phalodi came as a natural occurrence in the lives of the people and has ended up staying put. With the taste buds seasoned for the unique yet astonishing preparation over the years, the people of Phalodi have accepted saltwater tea into their lives like any other necessity.
