Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Wooden sugarcane machine appears in Navi Mumbai' that was published in Newsband

Wooden sugarcane machine appears in Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: The climate in Navi Mumbai is becoming hotter and hotter. At such times, the sugarcane vendors with their machines become a common sight. They are seen helping their customers quench their thirst.

Whenever summer arrives, there is a particular type of sugarcane vendors who are seen at some places in Navi Mumbai. Their sugarcane crushing machines are of most unusual type. The first thing is that the machine is made of wood. Another thing is it is not stationery and is able to move around the city.

This machine is made of babool wood and has two cylindrical logs. While the bottom half is sandpapered smooth, the top half has angular grooves carved onto them. The sugarcane is passed through the smooth portion, while the carved area helps the logs to rotate. Now this is a manual machine. The rotation is done manually and the juice is extracted.

This machine requires the man who does this job to walk to the other side of the cart to have the juice extracted. Hence these vendors prefer to have an assistant. One rotates the log while the other collects the juice and serves it. The juice is made more tasty by adding ginger, lime juice or chaat masala. The juice is chilled with ice.

One of these carts is found in Nerul. Another is found in Vashi too. The cart is found stacked with sugarcanes, glasses, water and ice. Some sugarcane vendors use disposable glasses nowadays. This sugarcane vendor is never found without customers thus proving that his type of sugarcane-crushing machine has a lot of demand.

Each glass cost around Rs 10. The sugarcane vendor manages to sell a good number of glasses by the end of the day. Not only the pedestrians, but also the motorists, stop and ask for the glass of juice.

This wooden sugarcane machine is designed and constructed by certain carpenters in Ahmednagar who specialize in making such machines. This machine costs between Rs 30.000 to Rs 35,000. The machine last for some months and then the owner of the machine has to go for a new one. The cost of the machine, like all the other commodities, does rise from time to time. The sugarcane vendor does make good profit. But he has to do investments too like paying for the sugarcane sticks and the glasses and his assistant and so on. But even after all these expenditures, the balance amount is found to be enough to make the sugarcane vendor happy. He saves a big part of the money for the other seasons when there is no demand for sugarcane juice. He makes hay during summer seasons.