Winnowing fresh rice that has just been harvested

This is Anil's mother, Ms. Bhatteri. I was privileged and content to spend a day with Anil's family and take pictures of them. His mother never ceased working while I was there and she taught me how to do things, difficult things for me, that she did routinely everyday like winnow the rice as she is doing in this series of photos. I loved the way she got the rice to come up off the basket in a disk shape and was able to achieve that effect a few times. It was easiest for me to help by picking out the small stones and chaff.

I wrote in my journal that day: "When we got to Anil's village we decided to walk the mile, or so, to his parents' house but within a minute ran into his mother who was out shopping. She is about my age and very beautiful. Her hair is a silvery grey and her eyes have a wonderful luster. It was too much not to take her picture with the shop keeper (it was a beautiful portrait) but I sensed cultural tension and didn't take the photo. However, when we got to the house, she was totally at ease and let me take several pictures of her doing her daily routines. We just kind of hung out there. Anil's sister picked some mangoes and his mother sliced them with her corn knife. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop eating the mango. We also had pomegranate, pineapple and limeade that was out of this world."

"It rained and we sat on the porch joking and talking for some time about farming. When the rain let up for a bit we went across the road to see the garden Anil's grandfather keeps. It's amazing. He has a tiered system like Surya's, stacking plants up vertically to make use of the land, with ginger on the "ground floor", pineapple intermixed, then limes, lemons, and oranges, and at the top are bananas. He also has several varieties of squash and vegetable greens. He uses the squash, with their broad leaves, as weed control and they work quite well. In fact, his weed control is brilliant for this climate and his production ratio, for a plot that's a little more than 40 meters square, his weed control strategy is astonishing. His corn was sparse--there may be nitrogen issues, or maybe too much iron, but it looked good for an organic practice.


"The afternoon was magical for me, with the first heavy monsoon rains, the sweet smells from the rain, the long walks through the fields, having the lovely and leisurely intimacy with Anil's family, the food, the colors and the light; the deeper immersion into Nepal--it was all simply wonderful." (end of quote)