Quietly snuggled, deep inside central Tamil Nadu, lies the small town of Pallapatti, about 35 kms from Karur city. Roadside idli stalls scatter the narrow lanes, posters featuring the favourite politician of the season can be found stuck on almost every public property, and one shall find tender coconuts on pushcarts just as often as one can spot a coconut tree. The countryside atmosphere at Pallapatti is pretty much the same as any other small town you’ll stumble across anywhere in Tamil Nadu. And yet, Pallapatti’s characteristically unique demography has always made it stand out.
Pallapatti consists of a overwhelmingly homogenous population with 99% of the town’s folk being Muslim. No other town of this size in the entire state has a Muslim majority.
And with Ramadan in full swing, it is quite interesting how the people here have managed to observe the holy month amidst the unique circumstances we all find ourselves in today.
The Tamil Nadu government announced a state-wide lockdown one day before the Central government did, I.e., on 24th March. While it did take a while to understand the workings of the supply-demand chain in a small town like Pallapatti, residents over here learnt to settle down under the stringent lockdown measures pretty quickly.
But like most small towns, it was the small-scale businesses that took the worst hit. Even though most families here, have bread winners living in other parts of the state and country, almost 60% of the population over here survives on small-scale local businesses that cater to the residents within the town. And with businesses shut for over a month, desperate times called for desperate and rather unique measures.
With robustly, active WhatsApp groups that act like the local media, numerous advertisements started circulating regarding suhoor(pre-dawn meal had during Ramadan) and Iftar meal delivery services once Ramadan commenced. And the most popular service that found a lot of takers has been the Iftaar rice gruel catering service.
While Muslims living in different parts of the country have different Iftar delicacies, here in Tamil Nadu, mashed rice gruel with lamb mince called Arsi Kanji is the most popular dish to break one’s fast with at Iftar. Arsi Kanji is in fact so crucial to Tamil Muslims during Ramadan, that it’s been an uncompromising custom for Mosques here throughout the state to distribute it on a large scale to anyone and everyone.
Most of the times, wealthy Muslim families take turns to sponsor each day’s Arsi Kanji and then the local mosque authorities distribute it right before iftar. But with mosques shut, many residents over here in Pallapatti saw an opportunity not just to continue the tradition but to also turn it into a smart business idea.
Many families have started selling Arsi Kanji and other Iftar related meals like pakoras, vadas, spring rolls, samosas etc, made at home and home deliver it to clients following social distancing norms. Orders are placed over WhatsApp and payment is done through online pay services like PayTm and Google Pay. This way most small scale business families have tried to turn the COVID-19 tide over in their favour.
With the state government announcing on Saturday, that it will further relax lockdown restrictions in non-containment zones, small businesses here in Pallapatti (the town is classified as Orange Zone currently), have something to look forward to and hope to come out of this lockdown in good spirits
