Cosmetics Homemade!

As usual this post is also nostalgic.
It is about how cosmetics were prepared at home without using harmful chemicals.About 50/60 years back south Indian ladies and girls used only bindi kajal and kumkum to beautify their faces,and these, they prepared at home.
My maternal grandmother was an expert at preparing the  black sandhu as it was called. Me, +my aunts and cousins used to watch her awestruck while she prepared it.and would be thrilled to collect the end product in coconut shells which each one kept for her exclusive use.
The procedure is this: On a summer morning,a fire wood chula would be lit at the open backyard.A big pan was placed on it and raw rice added. It was roasted till it became black.Then water added to it and boiled till it thickened to a syrupy consistency.
The final 'pagu padam'as it was called is very important and only grandma knew the secret. The shiny end product is then poured into receptacles and left to cool.
Here I must tell about the receptacles.They were coconut shells made smooth and shiny by rubbing against some hard surface.Each girl of the household had her own 'Sandhu Kottankachi' for her use.While using, a little water is added to make a smooth paste and applied on the forehead with a small stick.
The black bindi was my favorite when I was a small girl and I loved my grandma who took such pains to make it for us.

My grandmother also made kajal or eyeshade for us.The process was less strenuous but time-consuming.For making this a clean white cotton cloth is rolled into a wick. The wick is soaked in the juice of yellow karisalankanni leaves whose botanical name is indigofera tinctoria.Then it is dried in shade for two days. A copper pot is cleaned and freshly ground sandal paste applied on its outside and dried. A big mud lamp is filled with pure castor oil and the prepared wick placed in it.The lamp would be kept In a mud chula and lit. The copper pot with the dried sandal paste is kept on the chula and the lamp lit so that thick soot is formed on the pot. The process is done inside the house and in the night.Next morning the pan is removed ,the soot collected in a clean vessel and made into a paste using castor oil.The paste is transferred to small containers with lids for use? ☺Not yet.One more step is there. The containers with kajal are placed without lid in pure cold water overnight to remove any irritation it may cause to the eyes. Then they ate closed and are ready for use.

Now-a-days the bindi has shrunk to a sticker and the kajal to a pencil ready to use without a mess.
 But the grandma's love is missing☺here is the picture of the plant

The vendors fifty years ago and now

About fifty years ago I lived in T. Nagar, Chennai.I was a small girl and everything seemed joyous and funny. An old lady used to come selling aluminium utensils and ceramic wares.She used to call out 'jadi jadi' in Tamil which means ceramic ware.So we  would call her 'jadikari'. She used to wear a purple-coloured saree and a white blouse with sleeves upto the elbow.She never changed the colour of her costume. Her name was Mary, but to my knowledge no one called her by her name.She was referred as jadikari and addressed as 'ayah'or 'patti'.She came to our house whenever she was in that area.She would ask for drinking water,but my grandmother used to give her buttermilk which she took in one of her new vessels.Then grandma would have a chat with her about her family.Though our household was not in need of any utensil, Mary had her trick of pushing one or two to us by her articulation.A bundle of used cloths were traded at last for a ceramic jar or an aluminium 'dabba'.She was also given one or two rupees for her tea.Mary never complained about anything during her chat with grandma.She was always cheerful and happy about her job though she had to roam a lot in the hot sun.I liked Mary very much for her happy face and her innocence.

Another such vendor was a man hailing from Nellore  in Andrea Pradesh who used to bring ghee to our doorstep. He would bring ghee in a stainless steel container with padlocks.He would be carrying a small notebook with him and marked the quantity and the price of the ghee purchased on a particular date..He collected the money once in a month. A page was allotted to each household and the page number, he would write on our wall! As to his description,he wore a dhoti in the traditional style,with'kacham'..He kept a pencil on his earlobe to write the account.My grandmother would refer to him as 'Bogi' and the ghee he sold as 'Bogi' ghee. Later I learnt that 'Bhoyi' was an ancient tribe of Andra and the term 'Bogi' must have been derived from that.The ghee bought from him was used for making chapatis and sweets.

For our daily use with rice etc.butter was bought and melted at home.To sell this another vendor came.He hailed from Palani, the famous temple town of South India.He claimed that his butter was the best as it came from Rasipuram, near his place, which was noted for the quality of milk products.He too had the small notebook for entering the accounts and collected money once a month.This man, apart from selling butter was doubling as a "siddha vaidyar"(doctor).My grandfather believed in his treatment.
Once my grandfather became bedridden and the doctors lost hope about him, as he was suffering from an infection in his foot that he may not be able to walk for the rest of his life.This "vennaikkarar"(butter vendor)
acted like a physiotherapist and made my grandfather walk. He used to come daily, hold grandpa and make him walk all the time calling "Muruga, Muruga".Thus the butter vendor became a member of our family.

Apart from these three there where scores of other vendors who came to our doorsteps selling rice, tamarind, chillies and other essentials. They sold things which where of good quality and were cheaper in price because of direct procurement from the wholesalers. These kind of vendors are not to be seen now-a-days.
Today we shop only at big supermarkets., and even that has given way to online purchases. Surprsingly, we have turned around once and come back to the old timer's doorstep delivery! be it from Mary or Boyi or the famous e-commerce vendors of today!