Page 4 - Lesson Note 1

leaves from the branches to use them for brushing the teeth. They considered
brushing unnecessary because the hot tea could effortlessly wash their mouth
and they thought that animals like the tiger never brushed their teeth.

Marriage gifts are meaningless without the sweet bread known as the bol, just as
a party or a feast loses its charm without bread. Not enough can be said to show
how important a baker can be for a village. The lady of the house must prepare
sandwiches on the occasion of her daughter‟s engagement. Cakes and bolinhas
are a must for Christmas as well as other festivals. Thus, the presence of the
baker‟s furnace in the village is absolutely essential.

Feast- a large meal, typically a celebratory one
bolinhas - another name for coconut cookies
Bread is an important part of the Goan culture and it is evident from its presence
at every important occasion. From sweet breads at marriages to sandwiches at
engagement parties and cakes and coconut cookies at Christmas as well as
other occasions, makes the presence of a baker in every village, very essential.

The baker or bread-seller of those days had a peculiar dress known as the kabai.
It was a singlepiece long frock reaching down to the knees. In our childhood we
saw bakers wearing a shirt and trousers which were shorter than full-length ones
and longer than half pants. Even today, anyone who wears a half pant which
reaches just below the knees invites the comment that he is dressed like a pader!

Bakers were known to have worn unique knee-length frock dresses typically
known as „kabai‟. In the narrator‟s childhood days, he had seen them wearing
shirts and pants whose length was shorter than the usual ones. It was a part of
their identity so much so that even if someone wears that trouser length now, he
is said to have dressed like a baker, or „pader‟ as was said in olden times.

The baker usually collected his bills at the end of the month. Monthly accounts
used to be recorded on some wall in pencil. Baking was indeed a profitable
profession in the old days. The baker and his family never starved. He, his family
and his servants always looked happy and prosperous. Their plump physique
was an open testimony to this. Even today any person with a jackfruit-like
physical appearance is easily compared to a baker.