Fading culture of Houk sun

Zahid Qayoom Bhat

Mohammad Shafi, along with his wife, was cutting some vegetables into small pieces. Then they spread these vegetable pieces all around the lawn and left them for drying.

Shafi is used to this practice since his childhood. “We dry vegetables and use them in winter because there is scarcity of fresh vegetables in winter,” says 70-years-old Shafi.

These dried vegetables are locally known as “houk-sun”.

“In early winter days, there used to be heavy snowfall in winters Kashmir valley. All the agricultural activity stopped. Jhelum Valley Road, now known as Srinagar-Muzafarabad Road was the only link for the valley to the outside world. This road was blocked as soon as snow mounted up due to which import of food items, especially fresh vegetables, from Rawalpindi was also stopped. Then people used these dry vegetables from November to March,” says 67-year-old Abdul Aziz.

“The dry vegetables also keep us warm in winter,” he adds.

The mostly used dry vegetables were Wangan Hache (dried brinjal), Ale Hache (dried bottle gourd), Ruwagan Hache (dried tomato), Gogji Hache (dried turnip), Vapal Hak and Hund (dried jungle herbs), Bumb (a long dried vegetable found in marshy lands) and Huch Palak (dried spinach).

Besides these dry vegetables, some cereals and pulses were also consumed in winters such as Wari Muth (black gram), Razmah Dal (red gram), Mong Dal (green gram), Matar (dried peas), Chana (gram), Grim Dal (beans), Makai Aout (maize flour), Kinke Aout (wheat flour) and even Huggard (a small dried fish).

The tradition of using and preparing these dry vegetables was very common in Kashmir and continued until next cultivation. However, things changed after 1947. Tribesmen from Pakistan attacked Kashmir. Jhelum Valley Road was closed and construction of Jawahar Tunnel was initiated in 1950. Kashmir was now connected to rest of India through this 2.5 km long tunnel, which became operational since 22 December 1956.

Transportation became better after 1960. Now fresh vegetables and other food items were easily imported into Kashmir. People here gave up the traditional practices and became very dependent on other states for their agricultural needs.

Besides, advancement in agriculture like hybrid seeds and fertilizers made the valley self self-sufficient to some extent

“From being self-sufficient we have been rendered entirely dependent on other states. We have turned ourselves from kings to slaves,” says Abdul Aziz a traditional farmer.