Keep cool with grass

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Keep cool with grass

Saturday, 14 June 2014 | Trisha Mukherjee

Keep cool with grass

Khus, the traditional coolant, is being gradually replaced with other substitutes like cheedhi ki lakdi ki ghas. By Trisha Mukherjee

The temperature was 40 degree celsius in Delhi and the fan above my head was not working. Neither was there an air conditioner in the room. But, it was certainly one of the coolest places I have been to in the city this summer. I was at Mohammad Rashid’s khus godown in Madhu Vihar.

Khus is a native Indian grass which has traditionally been used as a coolant in Indian households. largely used as evaporative mats and screens, the dry air cools as it passes through layers of wet khus. Cultivated in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the grass is transported largely across North India during summers. With the air conditioners contributing incessantly to the pollution, one might want to give the traditional khus mats a relook.

Using khus as a coolant is not new in Delhi. It dates back to the times of Mughal rule, when the electric fan was on its way and the idea of an air conditioner was too far-fetched. And today, with perennial power cuts, these new inventions are not really much of a relief. Khus mats and screens are as much a respite from the soaring temperatures today, as they were for the kings back then. As I sat amidst piles of dry grass and took in the pleasant aroma spread in the room, Rashid explained how a khus screen works, “The paddings are soaked in water and nailed to the windows. As the dry air passes through these wet paddings, it has a cooling effect, with a sweet aroma diffusing in the air. The air cooler also works on a similar concept.”

“With the increasing income of people, air conditioners and coolers have certainly become popular but there hasn’t been much of a difference in the sale of khus mats and paddings. After all, without electricity, the ACs or coolers are useless. Considering the loo that has been blowing this summer, combined with the frequent powercuts, the sale of khus mats has only increased,” said Bunty, who owns a cooler shop in Dwarka. He also added that khus mats and screens are economically more feasible than coolers.

“The burgeoning demand for the grass during summers, however, has resulted in an exponential rise in its price over the past decade, making it unaffordable. The hitherto khus wholesalers in Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Vikaspuri, now deal with the sale and purchase of a substitute of khus called cheedhi ki lakdi ki ghas,” informed Rashid.

A khus padding which costs nothing less than Rs 100 is sold for merely Rs 30, when made out of this substitute. “While cheedhi ki lakdi may not be as good a cooling agent as khus, it is definitely better than the artificial fibres that a lot of dealers sell,” he added.

I was only wondering how the paddings are made, when Rashid suddenly squatted, sprinkled some water over the dry grass and started putting it into a sachet woven out of fine cotton threads. As he spread the grass evenly within the sachet, he said, “This is how we make the pads.” Apart from supplying paddings to the cooler shops, he also travels around the city on his bicycle with khus mats. “Once these paddings get old, they begin to rot, resulting in a foul smell, indicating that they must be changed,” he added.

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