71/ 100 Red Spit Dogs
In Need of Stimulation
India is undoubtably a very colourful country. Everywhere you look there are ladies draped in wonderfully vibrant lengths of cloth. There are hand-painted signs composed of colours that no designer would ever choose but that are definitely eye-catching. The food is often colourful, the Hindu Gods are colourful, the men wear colourful head gear and, unfortunately, the walls and pavements themselves are usually pigmented with bright red spit.
Why is the spit red, you might ask. And why is there so much excess saliva in the first place? The answer lays with India’s addiction to the stimulant mixture called pan masala, or Gutka.
For as little as ₹2-5, about two to five pence, you can buy yourself a small sachet of ground ingredients designed to freshen your breath (allegedly) and give you a bit of a boost. The ingredients are varied but mostly include areca nut (often called Betel nut), slaked lime, cardamom and sometimes tobacco. When the areca nut is chewed with the lime it activates the stimulants within, giving you a boost to your energy levels and, sadly, your saliva production too.
The nut also turns the saliva red, and the lime makes it redder still. Since you have so much saliva to get rid of you have to empty your mouth of it regularly and it is spat out in huge quantities absolutely everywhere. In the photograph of the dogs you can clearly see some on the wall between them.
On several of our taxi journeys it was very common to see the driver, sitting next to his large bottle of water, chewing his chemical concoction. Every few minutes, whether stationary or not, he would open the car door and spit out onto the road, often whilst simultaneously fielding a couple of phone calls and wondering whether his chariot will actually fit through a gap that’s 35cm narrower than his car.
Pan Masala is not only available in a sachet. If you are feeling fancy you can go to a street vendor who will rustle you up a bunch of ingredients and give them to you on a folded leaf which you then pop into your mouth.
Aside from the obvious red spit adorning just about every wall and corner it really doesn’t do the chewers much good either. Apparently it is highly addictive, cancer causing and it even turns your teeth red and destroys them.
I’m definitely more of a siesta kind of person than a stimulant guy. Take a leaf out of the dog’s book and embrace the nap.
