Most of our cities in India these days get their milk supplies from their local Cooperatives. In Odisha it is called OMFED (Odisha Milk Federation). It was not so during my growing up days back in India. We had to depend on our local GAUDA meaning "The Milkman", a caste or section of the society who are primarily milkmen - in the business of raising cattle, supplying and distribution of milk. Sometime it could be the GAUDUNI or the milkmaid.
Either way, there was no concept of getting 100% pure milk. If you are lucky you might get it in less adulterated form compared to others. Even the most honest milkman or milkmaid would mix some water. Like gold, the milk would never be 24 carat, its purity depending upon the person's degree of honest dilution.
Adjacent to the BJB Flats (now called Apartments in India as British legacy has changed to Pax Americana, so Flats are called Apartments these days in India) in Bhubaneswar where we used to live were the government quarters of the class IV employees. Most used their front yard to fruitful use - farming fruits, vegetables and kept cows in sheds in their backyard to supplement their income.
I was 11 or 12 years old at that time. After finishing my regular gully cricket, my task every evening was to trudge a furlong to one such dingy residences to fetch our daily quota of milk. This particular Milkman was known to be well versed with our ancient scriptures. With an impressive voice he could readily recite couplets from BHAGABATA and PURANA from tip of his glib, loquacious tongue. Rumor had it, he was blessed by Lord Krishna, the Hindu God from his own caste and his black cow delivered the sweetest milk in the town.
My mother had immense faith in him, flattered by him addressing her as MAA (mother) and touching her feet most mornings when she would venture out to pluck flowers. He would tell her how privileged and fortunate was he to serve a SASAN Brahmin from Puri, regarded as the best among the Brahmins of Odisha. It was impossible for my simple mother to have an iota of doubt on the milkman of such impeccable, lily white character.
A pious man of such stature would never do the mundane act of diluting his well accrued good Karma by diluting the milk with water while he sold to his gullible customers. Even thinking on those lines would be a sacrilege.
Or so we thought. One fine evening as usual I reached the cowshed, swinging the classic white, metallic cylindrical container by its thin metal string tied to the top. In the twilight hours inside his shadowy cowshed, in dimly lit lantern light our milkman showed me his empty bucket to me to remove any iota of doubt from my mind that it contains any water. He placed his bucket under the cow's udder and started milking. To the unsuspecting me, it still didn't go unnoticed that he was surreptitiously tilting his milk bucket and stealthily pouring water into it from a dirty LOTA (pot) hidden in a dark corner.
After I got back home, I narrated this to my mom who dismissed it as a figment of my imagination. A few days later I contacted fever and wasn't in a position to go, fetch milk. My uncle who substituted me also saw the same and almost got into a fist fight with the milkman, who never admitted of any wrongdoing and resorted to the usual GALUAMI (The Odia term for stubborn refusal to admit). His hypocrisy exposed, we eventually switched to another milkman. But this incident reminded me of what the American President Ronald Reagan said - "Trust but verify". I learnt it the hard way.
It explains the popular Odia idiom KETE PANI MISICHI (how much water is mixed) to ascertain the degree of manipulation made. It is best seen in gully cricket matches where at least 5% score is added by the scorer to the ultimate tally. If a team scores 100 runs, it could be actually 95 or even less.
Like milk a little bit of adulteration here and there never hurts. I have heard how tiny pebbles were ideal mix for rice, grinded brick granules for Chilli powder, dried Papaya seeds for Black pepper and so on. It probably explains why Gold is 22 carats.
#autobiography
