Word: plantain
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...woebegone face of an Indian waif circled by three buzzing flies. It watches a family of Untouchables eating a nameless dirty mush, then joins a poor but caste-proud Brahman for a chaste meal of fruit and vegetables, arranged, as elegantly as a still-life painting, on a large plantain leaf...
Later that evening Nehru, and other men who would be India's new rulers on the morrow, went to the home of Rajendra Prasad, president of the Constituent Assembly. On his back lawn four plantain trees served as pillars for a temporary miniature temple. A roof of fresh green leaves sheltered a holy fire attended by a Brahman priest. There, while several thousand women chanted hymns, the ministers-to-be and constitution-makers passed in front of the priest, who sprinkled holy water on them. The oldest woman placed dots of red powder (for luck) on each...
Such was the straight-faced advice sent out last week by the Department of Agri culture. The department listed wild plants which can be put to a "useful purpose": lamb's-quarters, plantain, poke, purslane, wild chicory, dock. They all taste good with vinegar or cooked in bacon fat, said the department; they contain vitamins A and B, and iron...