TORINO: For North Easterners at the Indigenous Terra Madre it was quite a welcome surprise to be told that winter timings have started since midnight of Saturday October 25 and therefore the clock is set back by one hour (daylight saving). They woke up on a Sunday morning, hurrying up to reach the Lingotto Frierre venue of the ITM and Slow Food Convention only to realise they were one hour early.
Italians don’t believe in putting up clocks everywhere as we do in India. Hotel rooms have no clocks. Neither does the hotel lobby or the dining room. People eat leisurely savouring every piece of food. On Saturday, Joel Basumatari, a London-trained chef and hotelier based in Dimapur, cooked at the ITM kitchen along with famous ITC Hotel chef Manjit Gill.
The duo cooked alu tikkis and alu parathas amongst other delicacies for the visitors to the ITM. People went gaga over the food. The moment word got around that Indian food was on sale there was a literal stampede.
The lovely coloured Ryndia stoles on exhibition at the NESFAS stall were most appreciated by Italian women who know style and texture. They pleaded that the stoles be sold to them but were told that would be possible only on the last day. Fashion designer Daniel Syiem stole the show. Women just loved his designer clothes on display. “If Daniel had set up a stall in Torino he would have made a killing,” said an Italian fan of his who visited the NESFAS stall every day since Oct 23.
A visitor from Scandinavia was most enamoured by the Khasi arrow and insisted that NESFAS sell that to her. On Saturday, NGO leader from Jaintia Hills Roibha Sayoo spoke about food and farming as a subject of well being as long as the production remains community-led and is not turned into a commercial enterprise. She informed the audience about the 100 plus varieties of rice that grow in Jaintia Hills alone. The different rice species are on display at the NESFAS stall.
Ms Sayoo is working closely with NESFAS in their attempts to recover and conserve the indigenous rice seeds and will be playing a key role in the ITM 2015 to be held in Meghalaya.