The Hindu : Kerala News : A ‘tamarind’ tinge to Kerala Toursim

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Monday, Nov 05, 2007
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A ‘tamarind’ tinge to Kerala Toursim

Abdul Latheef Naha

The KTDC’s budget hotel chain ‘Tamarind’ seeks to bring out the Malayali’s enduring passion for this fruit.

NEW BEGINNING: Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan planting a tamarind sapling in front of KTDC Tamarind Easy Hotel at Karipur on Sunday.

MALAPPURAM: ‘Tamarind,’ the new chain of budget hotels of the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC), seeks to identify the evergreen wood and its acidic pulp with Malayali life, says KTDC chairman Cheriyan Philip. “It is staple in South India diet and is popular and pervasive,” he adds.

Tamarind has several qualities that other trees do not possess. The wood is hard and durable.

It is used not only for coal but in making furniture and wood flooring as well. Its pulp, leaves and bark have medicinal applications. Tamarind is used as an Ayurvedic medicine for gastric problems. In some South-East Asian countries, tamarind leaves are traditionally used in herbal tea as an antidote to malaria fever.

“The tree and its fruit are so important that we cannot disassociate with it… they are inseparable in our lives,” said Mr. Philip, elaborating the reasons behind the naming of the KTDC hotel chain.

Tamarind is a shade tree as well. When the Tourism Minister planted a tamarind sapling in front of the Tamarind Easy Hotel after inaugurating it at Kondotty on Sunday, it sent out a symbolic message to the tourists seeking to explore the charm of Kerala. Tamarind will be an easy shelter for them – easy to book, easy to access, and easy on the purse.

Although native to eastern Africa and later introduced in tropical Asia, tamarind got its name from Arabic, said Mr. Philip. Arabs called this distinctively sour yet sweet ripened fruit as ‘tamar hind’ meaning Indian date.

In Telugu, tamarind tree is called ‘chintachettu’ and fruit extract ‘chintapandu.’ For Tamilians and Malayalis, it is ‘puli.’ And in Kannada it is called ‘hunase.’

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