The Forgotten Cutchi Memon Customs of Bygone Years

was obliged to make the first cut on the animal,
delegating the rest to any other person, usually to a
Mullah, experienced in slaughtering according to the
Shariah prescriptions. It was also customary to sun dry
a portion of the meat to preserve for future use.

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PART V
HABITS AND HOBBIES

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10.0 HABITS AND HOBBIES

10.1 Food Habits

Cutchi Memons were essentially vegetarians. Non-
vegetarian food was consumed mostly on festive
occasions and when special guests were entertained;
rarely as a daily routine.

Normal breakfast included Mani (Chapati) or Chilla
(Pancake) or Parattha (Varvari Mani) taken with Malai
(Cream) or butter and dal or cooked vegetables. Eggs
were used only with French bread (double roti)
bought from outside bakeries, although they would
occasionally go with Mani.

Lunch comprised of
Mani, plain rice or
pulav, vegetables, dal,
and curd. Dinner was
eitherMani, dal and
vegetables or Khichdi.
Masalo, (green
coconut, small onions,

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red chillies, garlic and ginger ground together like
Kerala Chammanthi) was a favourite side dish for
Khichdi. Occasionally dry prawns were added to the
ingredients as a seasoning. A Tansri was used to eat

semi loose khichdi (paankhi
khichdi). Adding fresh warm
ghee on khichdi was a must.
Khichdo, hard khichdi made of
rice, mong dal, potatoes and
winter vegetables was an alternate choice.

Fish or mutton was never the principal dish, it was
only a supplement or side dish. Biriyani was reserved
for very special occasions like marriages and Eids. For
other functions like Chario, Moulud and Ziyarath Ghee
rice (Amso Khao) – mutton curry combo was the usual
menu. Eating Mani made with garlic leaves and
sprouts (Lassan ji Mani) was a weekly fat reduction
scheme during winter for many families. Garlic sprouts
were grown at home.

Food was never wasted. Left over Mani would be
soaked in milk overnight and made into Malido

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next morning. Malidao is a traditional sweet
confection of Afghan origin, made out of leftover
parathas or rotis, by crumbling and pounding them
coarsely and stir frying them with ghee, sugar, dry

fruits and nuts.
An item which has ceased to be a staple food is
Mutthiya. Different kinds of Mutthiyas were made
with a variety of green leaves like spinach and palak,
dry fish or meat for gravy.
Traditional sweets made at Memon houses included
Nankhattai, Dum Roat, Gudpapdi and Lola, all of which
have disappeared from homes and found a place in

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bakeries where their namesakes of inferior quality are
sold. These snacks were the favourites of children and
used to be made in quantities and stored in airtight
tins for days together. Fried vermicellis (Bogeyl
Sewyun) and Seero were favourite supplements to
breakfast.

Eating together both at home
and on common functions was
considered a blessing. Until
about 1960s four or six
persons eating together from
the same plate (Khumcho or
Thhalo), and drinking water
from the same tumbler was the norm at dawats.

At the same time, women at home or at a dawat were
not expected to eat before men hadeaten, especially
before the head of the family shall have taken food.
There again the mother-in-law had the precedence
over the daughter-in-law and the senior most lady
over all other women.

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Servants were the last to eat. There were servants or
poor relations residing for long with the families who
were considered as family members for all other
purposes were allowed, on festive occasions, to join
other members, if only they were eating from
individual plates.

10.2 Chewing of Pan

Taking Dhana-Somph-
Khopro (Colloquial-
Topro) mixture after
food was common
with all ages. Pan after
a meal was essential at home and at every function.

Except very young boys and girls everyone was
accostomed to chewing Pan, with or without tobacco.
Arecanuts of various descriptions – tender, raw, ripe,
dried, diced, flaked, scented – were available and used
according to affordability. One of the ingredients was
specially prepared lime (Chonn), white or scented with
Kantho. Beedas with katha, and scented and enriched

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with spices and sweeteners was a rich man’s privilege;
while common people were content with simple pan,
white lime and raw nuts. Tobacco was added as an
intoxicant. Varieties of tobacco were
available – highly priced Yappanam,
common man’s Vadakkan, scented and
sweetened with jiggery. Every house
and every establishment had thokdanis

of brass, bronze,
copper and enameled.
Thokdanis were available on
rent for functions. Pan Kotni-
Okrli made of Cast iron or
carved in stone blocks was a
common place item in every
house where there were old
people for whom pan was to be pounded into
chewable lumps. Incidentally, the chewed pan was
used effectively to bandage cuts and bruises. A
Pandan was a common sight with every house,
business place and every chain chewer’s hand.

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10.3 Smoking

Smoking Hukkah was popular until
the advent of cigarettes. A hookah
is a single or multi- stemmed
instrument for vapourizing and
smoking flavored cannabis,
tobacco, or sometimes opium,
whose vapor or smoke is passed
through a water basin before inhalation. It was a
luxury of the rich and a matter of courtesy for big
businessmen to offer the clients a puff or two on the
hukkah. Poorer people used Beedis. Even though
certain ladies are said to have been smoking beedies,
more as sputum relieser, smoking at home was
neither popular nor encouraged. Smoking Dattura
leaves and flowers was, however, acceptable as a
treatment for Asthma and chest congestion and
occasionally for its psychoactive properties.

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10.4 Learning Qur’an :

Learning how to read the Holy Qur’an was compulsory
for all the boys and girls. They were ceremoniously
initiated at home by a Moulavi as soon as one reached
the age of four. Beginning to learn the alphabets,
beginning to read the Holy Qur’an, attaining the
capability to read upto the end of the first Juzu and
completion of the entire 30 juzus were the four stages
that were celebrated with a Fatiha, Sadqa and poor
feeding. Interesting enough, neither the parents nor the
Moulavi were keen to teach the meaning of even
important surahs; possibly because neither of them
were acquainted with meanings or cared for the
understanding of the scriptures. The general capability
of reading Qur’an for Sawab was sufficient
achievement. Most of the boys and all girls were taught
to memorize surah Yaseen and the small surahs of the
last half juzu as they were required to be recited during
Salah. A miniscule number developed into hafiz-e-
Qur’an able to memorize and recite with proper
intonation. The learning process started at home and

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continued at Madrasas for the boys until they finished
and girls until they were seven, at the most. Most of
them would have already finished much before that
time, as they were doing regular daily revision at
home. . The mother or an elderly lady at home took
charge of the girls' continued reading practice.
Ustad Bi's were also engaged wherever family
members' help was inadequate both in terms of
time and quality. For sure, every girl did master the
reading of the whole Qur'an, while the boys might
have dropped off.

While the boys received their training in the Salah
from other male members or Ustads, girls were
trained at home by the mother and other elder
women. Training at home was generally tuned to
the contents of Tarteeb - Salaath, which taught basic
Kalimas and tenets of Islamic beliefs besides Duas
and Duruds.

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10.5 Literacy:

Barring a very few, Cutchi Memons, both men and
women, were practically illiterate, except to the
extent they could read the Holy Qur’an. Men in
business could make correspondence in Gujarathi as
they learned that language from their parents or
uncles. Writing in Cutchi language using Gujarathi
script was limited to writing letters to family members.
Accounts were maintained in the Gujarathi system in
the earlier years but were changed over to Malayalam
as engaging managers and accountants from local
people became necessary to deal with the local
businessmen. Slowly writing in Gujarathi and the
learning of that language totally perished, even by the
first decade of the twentieth century.

Nevertheless, there were women upto about 1950
who could read the Noor Namo and Tarteeb Salaath in
Sindhi language, akin to Cutchi, and explain the same
to the children. Their knowledge of Islamic faith and
beliefs was well founded within the frame work of
these two books, which were somehow lost in the

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later years. A few people in the later part of the
century had also equipped themselves with Urdu.

The princely state of Travancore was credited with
establishment of vernacular and English schools dating
back to the time Cutchi Memons arrived here. Boys
and girls did attend to these schools where they
learned the local language and arithmetic. As a
general rule, girls did not proceed beyond Class 2 as
by then they were 7 years or above and were forced
to stay home. Most of the boys joined around nine or
ten years of age and left the schools by the time they
reached the Preparatory Class, equivalent of present
5th standard, when they were 14 or 15, by then eager
to eager to earn their own living . Thereafter it was
Form I, where teaching of English language began ,
going upto Form VI (the eleventh year of schooling)
known as the School Final. The need to go all the way
up was not felt while Cutchi Memons were in business,
in large numbers, or were associated with businesses
as Dalals (Brokers), agents and servants because the
little knowledge they gained was more than sufficient

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for their survival. Yet a few of them did cross the
border to become lawyers, clerks etc. who had the
opportunity to deal with the British people then in
business or administration managed to pick up
English and that too quite well, without attending
any school.

Cutchi Memons invariably used Cutchi language at
home and for communicating with the members of
the community. Once they started to have a second or
third wife from the local Muslim community it was
imperative that they should use the local language
simultaneously. The women from the non-Memon
communities picked up the Cutchi language pretty
well and soon, though with some mixing and
distortion. The children in these marriages naturally
picked up the language in their mother’s style and
diction. Many of the original Cutchi words and phrases
as also the Cutchi proverbs were lost. The interest in
education that picked up since independence paved
the way for giving emphasis to the local medium of
instruction and the need to master that language for

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the students’ social interactions. The thought process
fast changed from Cutchi to the local language; there
being no established means of learning the mother
tongue, the local language received greater
encouragement, resulting in Cutchi slipping out of the
tongues of many, and majority or those who retained
it had some skewed version of it.

10.6 Tailoring and Embroidery

Sewing and decorating with embroidery of garments
for women, especially the bridal attire was a hobby as
well as a profession for the Cutchi Memon women
until about 1950s. The embroidery work, Bharth,
consisted of making patterns with coloured threads,
badlo, zari (Kasab, Kasav), salmo, sitara (Chamki), and
mukaish. While embroidery stands were used for
needle work, talli stands were used for knit work. Talli
work, besides being used to be stiched on to
garments was also used to decorate Kozis, pillow
covers, cushions etc. A few specimens of articles
made are shown below.

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Plain silver or gold wire flattened into thin ribbon was
called Badlo and the work as Badlo Chhandno. The
badlo wound around a silk or cotton thread as base
became the zari. Flattened bits of badlo cut in the
shape of a star, crescent or disk with a hole in the
centre was termed sitaro whereas tiny dots with a
raised centre was mukaish. While the art of Bhart
flourishes in Rajashan, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, it
has vanished absolutely from the hands of Cutchi
Memon women. (Incidentally, my niece Halima Bai is
running an outfit for zari work, in Thiruvananthapu-
ram, with workers hired from outside the state.)
Another widely practiced technique was Thalli
weaving where patterns were woven on a set of Thalli
equipment comprised of a pillow and reels and
spindles carrying threads and zari. Originally a Persian
technique, it was widespread in North India, including
Cutch. The Thalli culture migrated to Dubai and
Abudhabi and is sustained there as a tribal culture,
while it declined and decimated in India with the
mechanization of knitting and it failed to continue
with the Cutchi Memon community as the new

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generations were either not interested or because the
readymade apparel were more attractive and their
procurement cheap and effortless. Other hobbies
included knitting woolen socks and sweaters, making
bags and purses with beads which somehow
survived. At the same time doll making, making
decorative chains and frills with broken coloured
glass bangles perished. Moreover, certain other tasks
like making and re-making of mattresses, quilts,
cushions and pillows with silk cotton and old
clothes faded out with the rubber mattresses and
such other products becoming easily available.

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10.6 Vessels and Furniture

Modernization took away some of the beautiful
articles from Cutchi Memon homes. Some of the items,
besides those illustrated earlier, that are no longer in
use are shown below.

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 Inheritance of centuries old Kutchchi Culture.
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THE FORGOTTEN
CUTCHI MEMON CUSTOMS
OF BYGONE YEARS

Cutchi Memon customs were elaborate and the
people had enough time and resources at their
disposal to enjoy those customs and ceremonies.
Developments in lifestyles, shortage of time and
resources due to new demands on them coupled with
attraction, utility and ease of handling new devices
and processes compelled them either to modify or
abrogate them, or to totally abandon them.

Your comments and Suggestions are
welcome
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