Never thought that these two lines of the poem would come alive in my life. As a young woman, I heard it and wondered whether it corresponds with the real picture in any way. When we visited Little Runn in Gujarat it was an amazing experience to see that such people exist in flesh and blood.


Little Runn has a huge number of migrating birds, their being part of the scene renders it a magical touch where words fall short of describing the reality. They make the landscape colourful, it gets imprinted permanently. Mules too are seen in this area, very smart and handsome they look, but stay away from us. Photos may be clicked from a distance. Their number is increasing now.

There were a couple of makeshift shelters adjacent to salt pans, ground water was pumped into the pans and was allowed to settle to let water evaporate. We walked near a salt pan where snow-white crystals were formed and settled at the bottom. The pan was a few inches deep, salt crystals were visible. The man working offered us some salt, we were thrilled to see it in the natural and maybe in the purest form. It always reached us in the iodised and powdered form,( we all City dwellers are used to iodised salt in the flowing powder form by now, we hardly use crystal form salt ). The expanse around us was an uninterrupted space, there were barely a few shrubs and no grass. Probably the soil had a lot of minerals and the climate was dry and hot in the summer.

Two makeshift shelters were built, and two families stayed there through the harsh winter and unbearable summer. The temperature probably touched or crossed at least 47 degrees Celsius; people talk about mercury rising to 50 degrees Celsius, too. They stayed there for almost seven months. During the monsoon, the entire area was underwater, halting the whole process. Looking at the present situation, it is a bit difficult to imagine the picture, but it is the reality.

( We Punekars, find even 40 Celsius intolerable, usually, pre-monsoon showers come to our help, so this was totally beyond our imagination )

In any direction one views, there is no sign of vegetation or any other human existence. Uncultivable huge stretch of surrounding land up to the horizon was the only reality. I requested the young woman to allow me to click a couple of photographs of her home, to which she happily nodded. There was one more young woman with her healthy daughter, whose face was beaming with joy. For a moment the child hesitated, but with the mother's permission, she too joined the photo frame. Her husband too accepted our request. The lady I met first was Khushi, her husband had been to the nearby village to get something. She has been into this lifestyle for the last 15 years, after her marriage. None of them finds their lifestyle strange, of course, they are working for someone who owns the business of salt, maybe providing salt to a big brand.

I had read a lot about the lonely and difficult life pattern at salt pans, where ageing is very early and causes many life hazards or health threats. Surprisingly, these people showed no signs of risk exposure. Solar panels helped pump out groundwater, turn on lights at night, and charge cell phone batteries.

A tanker regularly provides clean drinking water and water for daily use. This was a point when I asked a very silly question, don't they feel scared staying all alone? Khushi smiled, she was confused and couldn't understand the propriety of the query. That deterred me from asking other questions, feeling it could add to more meaningless quizzing.

The child was happy and contented as any other child, playing and moving around fearlessly, our driver pointed out a far away building where children of salt pan workers are introduced to some educational skills. The building looked like a toy building as it was a very distant place. The two families were happy leading a life of hard work and staying at an alienated destination. I dared not ask about their plans for the future of their children, about their idea of entertainment ( which is an inevitable component of the city life thought process, many feel that the week-long work is so exhausting, so they deserve some interesting change ). Their dedication to such a working style mesmerised me as if it were worshipping some deity. They seemed to be satisfied, there was not even the smallest note of dissatisfaction. When the gentleman held a fist full of salt to us he seemed to be proud of his work that it turned out so well. A little ease of living caused by solar panels which they thought made their work less complicated was perceived as a boon. Sunlight and probably heat generated, is an abundant source of energy.
These unknown and unsung heroes make our cuisine tasty, we don't even know how difficult it is to procure it. It is because of this fact, that they probably swear by salt for integrity.