The couple, who was traveling in a two-wheeler, stopped by the sugarcane juice stall that was put up in the open adjacent to the main road. They wanted two glasses of sugarcane juice which was served with a pinch of lemon and ice cubes. The couple enjoyed drinking it and appreciated its taste and flavor. Each glass was charged Rs.5/- which was something of a rock-bottom price as felt by most of those patronizing the stall. Saramma and her husband Gopan, the vendor couple, used a manual crushing machine to squeeze the sugarcane juice. Either of the two rotated the crusher manually while the other inserted sugarcanes inside the crushing head. The pure juice served without mixing any water was also served with a little salt and pepper powder, whenever specifically wanted by some customer. Many commuters passing through that route stopped at the stall to enjoy the delight of pure sweet sugarcane juice offered with all warmth by the Gopan-Saramma couple.



The couple did not have any children. They had a small piece of farmland and a small thatched roof house as part of their land. Whatever paddy cultivated there, by the two, barely served their one-time meal for one year. With a view to supplementing their earnings in order to meet and manage their other daily economic needs, the couple had taken to sugarcane juice selling for many years. They used to buy green sugarcanes from one or the other nearby sugar cane cultivating farmers. The sugar canes were bunched up in bundles and loaded on a wheeled trolley which was mounted with the sugarcane crusher. They pushed the trolley and walked 10 km one way to a junction in the nearby small town that was abutting the state highway. They bought a big slab of ice cube from a shop near the junction and kept it in the ice box. They were doing this business five days a week. During the off-season of sugar canes, they paid more attention to cultivation as well as working in other farmlands for making additional...