Some
years ago I met a cousin of mine who was a lorry driver with two daughters.
When I congratulated him on giving a good education to both of them which
landed them in very decent and well paid jobs he told me "Akka (sister) it
was not easy ... with a single earning we managed the show how to lead a frugal
life. You know there were times when we could not even afford proper vegetables
and my wife used to cook either Murungai
(drumstick) leaves or the fruits for days together."
I
was sad that the family had to get along with such meagre food. As young
children we too used to murmur and mourn over the repeated use of the various
parts of the Murungai tree in the cooking whenever we visited the village
during the summer vacation!
We
were living in Calcutta for about ten years and unlike Chennai the fish and
vegetable markets comes alive early in
the morning and unlike Chennai it was the gentlemen of the family who evaluated
and justified the quality of the fish
and bargained over them. Apart from this wonderment (of male dominated shopping
for fish) another revelation for me was
the murungai. I was astonished at
the heaps of the creamish white murungai flowers and the very tender of
murungai fruits filling the market and the demand for them equalled that of the
fish!
Back at Chennai the land of murungai we
were on a visit to St. Anne's convent at Vettuvangeni. The time was around eleven
in the morning and the mother superior invited us for a cuppa. In the centre of the dining
space was a big vessel containing some watery hot soup. I was curious . "This is drumstick leaf soup
my dear...." The superior quenched my curiosity! Heart in heart I wondered " Can't the
convent afford some nice juice to energise the nuns who rushed from their
various work place during the short morning break instead of this measly soup? Should they be so miserly?
"
I
visited one of my friend's house unannounced and there I watched in wonderment at her little
girl straight from school in her uniform with a plate full of drum stick pieces from the sambar (dhal gravy) relishing it to
her heart's content by chewing each piece till the last bit of juice oozed into
her system! "Poor child, my friend could go for good snack instead" I
was upset!
But
I needed great lot of personal learning to the
recognize the value of frequent use of drumstick in the village, the
drumstick leaf soup on the convent's dining table and of those pieces of
drumsticks on the child's plate and say
a 'mea culpa' on the unnecessary pity I had for my cousin's family!!
And here it goes:
For
so many years, the thrice a year, my blood test which we took for granted as a
routine exercise was not giving the right indication this time. My RBC count fell below normal and we were
taken aback. On the advice of a research doctor in pharmacology, I reluctantly
started consuming drumstick leaf soup and lo behold after a week's consumption
the blood analysis revealed that my count hath indeed climbed up!
Moringa
Oleifera, the name derived from our own murungai tree, a native of the southern foothills of the
Himalayas contains more than 92 nutrients, 46 types of anti-oxidants, 36
anti-inflammatory agents as well as vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B4, B7, C, D, E,
and K. Another amazing benefit is that, since it can retain high concentrations
of electrolytes and minerals, it allows the body to remain internally hydrated
even in very dry conditions.
This
apart, the leaves can provide us with around 125 per cent of our daily
requirements of calcium as well as 61 per cent of our daily manganese needs;
given that these two minerals have to be taken together for better absorption,
the leaves majorly enhance bone and teeth health.
The
very high iron content, 24 times higher than spinach, makes the murungai a
strong ally against anaemia!
It
is no wonder that the tree is known as the "The Tree of Life, Mother’s
Best Friend, The Miracle Tree, The Auspicious Tree."
Whenever
I travel I used to wonder why the slum areas
flourish with murungai trees and wonder of wonders they seem to
proliferate in these locales so much that they bear hundreds of these luscious
long green beauties than in any other region !!
Is it nature's balancing bounty of
supplementing the poor man's diet?!!
I
would love to end this thesis on murungai on a very interesting and highly
nutritional note
Fidel
Castro, the past president of Cuba who passed away recently, is known as the
connoisseur of 'fine food and good wine' enjoyed the murungai soup. When he was
down with stomach ailment considered to be cancer 2012 he credited his recovery to murungai. He had
got his aides to bring him drumstick seeds from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and had
them cultivated for his daily diet and called the plant the “miracle” from
India.
The
combined wisdom which made our ancestors
grow a
drumstick tree at their back yard ensure nutritional security, the
perception of the mother superior and my friend to carry through this ancient
wisdom to this modern day astounded me
and even though I have a few murungai trees at my backyard never once in my life I thought that I have a
treasure trove for good health at my beck and call.
p.
s:
Like
everything else in life moderation is
the essence in this heath giving tonic.
To
give lusciousness to the cooked fruit
please don't remove the outer skin when cutting it into pieces. The
taste is in the outer skin!
