Culture, by Prabodh Halde, Thane

Born and raised in Nagpur and currently residing in Thane, Maharashtra, Prabodh is positive and passionate.

Curd (dahi) is made by fermenting fresh milk. Using lactic acid bacterial, the lactose sugar in milk converts to lactic acid and curd is formed. Nowadays, ready-made curd is available in the market, but some people still make it at home.

In the curd-making process, a small portion of curd from an earlier batch, called virjan (in Marathi), jamun (in Hindi), or culture (in English) is added to fresh milk and kept out overnight. You get freshly made curd the next day. 

My wife always prepares curd at home, but once, 15 years ago, she requested that I get it from the market. Back then, buying curd from the market was not very common. 

I asked her, “Why we are getting curd from outside? Why not prepare it at home?”

She replied, “All our prepared curd is becoming watery or sticky.” 

I had her to show me the curd. Yes, it was looking watery, with no consistency. It even smelled a little off.

I said, “How you have prepared the curd at home?”

She replied that she always gets jamun (culture) from her friend’s place, but since this friend had gone out, she got it most recently from another friend’s place. It seemed this jamun had not given a good result. 

Interestingly, when you purchase curd from the market, you cannot use it as jamun, since it does not have the appropriate lactic acid bacteria. For starting the culture for curd making, you always need homemade, active jamun.  

My mother was watching this discussion, and she asked my wife to show her the jamun. Then she called both of us over. 

She told us that the jamun gives taste, aroma, freshness, consistency, color, and appearance to the curd.

She said, “Oh yes, the jamun is very important– it decides the quality of the final product. Though you need it in very small quantities initially, its purity is the most important part of curd-making. If the jamun is good, the curd becomes good.”

My wife and I were both stunned. It was a big lesson for us: in life, raising children in a pure way is so crucial to producing cultured adults. This lesson has helped us in raising our children Sragvi (daughter) and Siddharth (son). By God’s grace, both are humble and have learned the value of life. Simple curd-making at home taught us this. 

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(This story was prepared for an “Imagine Another World” online storytelling workshop held December 12, 2020.)

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