The dwindling numbers- traditional profession under threat – rendermam (toddy tapper

The 'Goan Treasure' feni, brewed by Madame Rosa Distillery, Goa is participating at the prestigious International Spirits Challenge 2009 (ISC) event in London. The event, dubbed as the "Oscars of the liquor brands", will give `Goan Treasure’ international exposure and recognise its quality. The event will give the Goan Treasure brand the opportunity to be discovered in the UK and elsewhere in the world. But on the ground in Goa, the situation is quite different, in the face of urbanization many toddy tapper families, tapping coconuts are giving up the business for lack of hands to help in the trade, one of them is Jack Silva from the Coastal village of Benaulim. Goa produces two types of feni’s-coconut and Cashew.

Dominic  Alfonso  of Dominic shack at Benaulim village is hard pressed every time Russian Andrei demands a bottle of Coconut Feni – Goa’s favourite liquor. For quality conscious Dominic, giving the guest the best is his motto , but given  the dwindling number of toddy tappers in the coastal village of  Benaulim - just two do business- he is left with no choice but place an order with each of them for Feni.

But the ‘render’ (toddy tapper) doing business in the village frequented by a large number of foreign and Indian tourists will all be a thing of the past in another couple of year’s time.

Fifty-three year-old Jack Silva, one of the two toddy tappers in the village has all but decided that he has two more years left in his business and that’s when he will decide to hang his katti- a very sharp sickle like tool made of metal. He has been carrying out his daily chores for the last forty-three years, starting off as a ten-year-old, come rain or floods.

From the sixty-odd coconut trees which the family tapped a couple of decades back, the number has dwindled down to just fifteen, to the current day. Silva lays the blames the lack of labourers for the fall in numbers of coconut trees tapped by his family for toddy.

“Earlier it was easy to find people who could work for you. We had three of them. But now we cannot find any. It was difficult for one man to climb sixty trees, three times a day. So we decided to cut down on the numbers. In another two years time I will quit as one cannot continue beyond the age of fifty-five in this dangerous and demanding work. No one from family will continue the profession.”

The labourers who were hired locally from the villages or from the neigbouring villages came searching for jobs through the word of mouth messages send through different  relatives and friends and fellow toddy tappers.

In the last few decades, with the local supply drying up the toddy tappers scanned the remote areas of Sanguem and Canacona Talukas in their pursuit for labourers, but without much success. The Sanguem and Canacona local toddy tappers preferring to work closer home.

And if the All Goa toddy Tappers Association of Goa word is being taken into account most of Goa’s official count of Coconut Feni is to be taken into consideration, then Sanguem Taluka tops the bill in production of the much sough but slowly diminishing Coconut feni.

And he does not thing the tourism bubble has affected his trade.  “I continue to tap trees which I had been doing as a child. There has been no much impact in the form of cutting of trees in Benaulim village to make way for hotels till now.”

As and when Silva decides to call time it will bring to close another colorful chapter of a ‘rendermam’, singing and whistling his way up and down the tree to the tunes of the popular old Goan folk songs. Each one with his own pitch whistling to a different tune to create a symphony, besides cheering, jeering and a lot of slang too.

The way they twist their bodies between the lower palm leave and made their way up onto the crown and perched on one of the upper palm leaves.

And it will be a day when the tools of the trade of the render ‘katti’ “duddinem” or “duddkem” made of dried “coconduddi” (gourd, vegetable), which is now replaced by plastic jars, “colso” earthen pot to collect the “sur” or toddy also replaced by plastic pots, the “gop’pe” strips or strands taken from the belly portion of the palm leaf, which are strong and flexible, too are replaced by plastic strands , the “damonem”, a small earthenware similar to the “kunnem” , cooking vessel, the only difference being the opening was much smaller, will all be a thing of the past for Silva and his family.

And the “bhatti” or distillery were the principal of distillation and condensation is followed will face the axe making for a tourist guest house or another home for Silva and his family.

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How he works with his tools

The “kathi” is his prized possession and they would not trust anyone to handle it, they really took utmost care of it. “Duddinem” is used to collect the “sur” from the top of the tree and emptied in the “colso” kept at the bottom of the tree.  “Gop’pe” were used to tightly bind the “poai” or the shoot which yields “sur” and the “damonem” placed on top of the tilted “poai” to collect the dripping “sur”.

Life for a “Render” began very early in the day, they usually started work as early as 5.30 AM, when they use to go to their “Batti” or distillery, strip themselves bare except for their traditional attire the “kashti” a red and white checked loin cloth looked more or less like a string bikini of today. The first duty use to be sharpening their “kathi”.

The “Render” climbed each tree three times a day - morning, afternoon and evening; morning and evening they collected the toddy and in the afternoon to clean the shoot “shov” The first thing that they did once they were comfortably perched on the top of the tree was, embed the tip of the “kathi” in to the belly of the palm leaf for it to remain firm, then pour the “sur” from the “damonem”  into the “duddinem”. Sometimes they would blow into the empty “damonem” which made a peculiar hooting sound, then carefully place the “damonem” in between the palm leaves, clean the “poai” and then hold it with one hand and cut off a very thin slice of the top portion with the “kathi” with the other hand. Most of the trees had average three shoots . Once done, they would climb down with the “kathi” and “duddinem” in one hand and the other hand tightly clasped around the trunk of the tree, slowly but surely dragging down their feet on to the “kampam’s”; this routine was followed religiously twice a day, come sun, wind or rain.

HOW FENI IS DISTILLED

There would be a huge earthen pot (bann), now replaced by copper pots, placed on an circular hollow elevated surface with fire wood underneath, the pot was connected to the condensing pot called “laounnie”  replaced by an alluminium coil in the present day, in a small water tank. The “sur” after fermenting for about three days would be poured in to the “bann” and the mouth sealed with a circular piece of soft wood which was further fastened to the “bann” with strips of cotton cloth mixed in anthill mud paste so that no steam escaped, at the other end of the “laounnie”, the precious drops of “feni would drop in to a special utensil called “buianv”.  This process would last for 4 to 4.5 hours. This first distillation was called “mod’dop” which has strength of 14 on the alco-meter (grav), two “mod’dop’s” redistilled gives the actual coconut feni which has an average strength of 17 to 18 on the alco-meter (grav). This process also takes about 4 to 4.5 hours.

It is a tedious work, the fire has to be monitored and kept under control all the time. The water in the tank too should be kept on changing to maintain a low temperature ideal for condensation. If these two are maintained properly the end produce will be more and better. That’s “coconut feni” !