The women transplanting paddy bring a simple meal to the field, where they prepare the Dossakai - a small yellow cucumber (Cucumis sativus), together with Nimmakai Pacchadi (a lime pickle) and Rice. They also have two kinds of rice that they usually eat. The broken rice they’ll have on days without any strenuous work, since it digests easier. The whole rice according to the ladies takes 4 hours to digest, while the broken rice takes as long as 2 hours to digest. So, when they work they eat the whole rice.

The all-local meal

The lime pickle--Nimmakai Pacchadi--that they make usually stays good and lasts them for one month. It is made from red chilli powder, mustard powder, jeera (cumin) and methi (fenugreek) powder, mustard seeds, a small onion and some peanut oil. All the ingredients that they use are usually grown and processed around the village, except for salt that they buy in packets.

Ladies of Peddamadur village in Warangal district of Telangana, who we met during our Rural Escape Telangana in February, 2020, are singing in the rice field while transplanting paddy. Photo: Matylda Grzelak