Earthen pots remind summer is here

Gurbaxpuri

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Tarn Taran, April 29

Earthen pots used to store water for drinking seem a thing of the past now. But surprisingly, the business still continues with potters making the clay ghara and surahi, albeit in different designs to store water and people coming to buy them.

The change of habit over the years has made people prefer ice-cool drinking water, specially in the summer season, but there still are people who use water stored at body temperature. Ravi Kumar, a potter making earthen (Mitti de ghade) containers on the Sarhali road in Tarn Taran, has been in the profession of making earthern goods for the last 40 years. He said that 30 years back, there was hardly anyone who preferred water from the refrigerator. He recalled the days when people used to sleep under the open skies and filled the earthen pot with water from the hand-pump to quench their thirst and also to avoid throat infection.

Ravi said with the passage of time, there is hardly any house now without a refrigerator. He said the trend has badly affected their work and to make both ends meet, they had started making alternative items like gamlas (vases), bird nets etc. He said that a section still exists which prefers the earthen pot for storing water.

Ramandeep Kaur, head of a private school in Dhotian, who came to the shop along with her husband Yadwinder Singh, a resident of Kairon, said she provided drinking water kept in earthen pots which were kept outside the door of a classroom. Her husband Yadwinder Singh said he too prefers water from the earthen pots to drink because it is stored at body temperature. Nirmal Kaur from Jallewal village too was there at the shop of Ravi Kumar to purchase earthen pots.

Paramjit Singh and his wife Harsharan Kaur, residents of Amritsar who were on their way back from Patti, stopped at Ravi Kumar’’s shop to purchase earthen pots. They said they never consume cold water and water from the earthen pots helps keep many diseases at bay.

Dr Swaranjit Dhawan, Civil Surgeon, said he had purchased earthen pots because he still believes that water from these pitchers is naturally cool and helps prevent throat infections caused by drinking water chilled in the fridge or refrigerator.