As a school-goer, I joined my father Govindan in the business of selling nungu. I climb up around 30 trees a day sometimes, to procure the palm fruit and padhaneer. The season starts in the month of Thai and extends for about six months. A single tree gives around 10 litres of the sap in two months. Our family shifted to Madurai from our native place Srivilliputtur in 1994 for business.
There are hardly 50 people left in the whole of Madurai who sell padhaneer. People prefer the nungu. May be, pathaneer has lost its charm thanks to the aerated drinks. I sell a glass of padhaneer for Rs. 10 and nungu-pathaneer for Rs. 20. I stock 20 litres in a mud-pot on a daily basis. Now, I earn around Rs.500 a day if the sales are brisk. On dull days, I get half that amount and end up wasting the sap since it starts fermenting after a day. During the other half of the year, I do odd jobs such as painting. My wife Thangeswari is a home-maker but she helps me in running the push-cart. I have a son and a daughter studying in primary school.
Every morning, my brothers and I go to the palm grove near Thirumangalam to collect the produce. Palm trees on private lands are leased out for a certain period of time and we are allowed to sell the fruits from them. We have been doing this job for the past three generations. We weren’t taught anything else other than climbing palm trees. But, I don’t think, we in a few years from now we will be doing this. The rural economy based on palm trees is on the decline. It is high time we find some other occupation.
