Lakdi Charukh - A Manual Sugarcane crusher

glass of cool, ginger flavoured sweet Sugarcane juice satiates the summer thrust on a blazing afternoon. This thought immedietly conjures up the mechanical electrical crushing machine tinkling with ghungroos, to extract juice. With industrialisation seeping through in every day life, the use of various modern gadgets and machinery to make human life easier makes manual labour negligible.

Its good to progress and evolve with time, but things should not simply die away to disappear without a trace or record. India knows its past only because it was recorded on stone, palm leaf writings, created out of clay or cast in various metals.

We are proud of our history, only because we can trace it to thousands of years and do not have to spend our resources on knowing our past, like financially developed countries do.

Children will always be fascinated by the basics of making or creating things, rather than seeing high speed production machines churn out exact copies of product after product.

My friends abroad tell me that their children are surprised to know that basically cloth can be handwoven on handlooms.They think cloth is extruded out of huge textile mills, like they believe money grows in ATM.

Coming back, outside Cadbury - the road that leads towards Vartak Nagar one gets to see this unusual contraption in todays time. On enquiring I was told it is known as the 'Usacha Lakdi Charukh' in Marathi.

This is a small individual business owned by two sisters living in Shivai Nagar,Thane.
Ms. Pratibha Wagh has a physically challenged sister. They have together invested Rs. 10,000/- to buy this wooden sugarcane crusher for their independant livelihood.

This 'Lakdi Charukh' is constructed from the wood of the 'Babali' tree and is made in Pathardi, Ahmednagar. The carpenters in Ahmednagar need a months time to make this machine. One can see the two solid pillars carved out of the treetrunk having twisted grooves that precisely merge into each other smoothly, to crush the sugarcane and throw out the juice.

This has to be manually turned around in circles to move the intertwined grooved pillars and does not need electricity.

Infact Ms. Pratibha Wagh's uncle told me that this machine though hand-crafted in their village, is rarely seen even in their area. As now, there are huge sugar factories that have no use for this kind of 'Charukh' which will soon be relegated to the past !

As told to Thaneweb.com