a response to solar cooking in india

i saw dr. a.jagadeesh's article in the april 2000 edition of solar cooker review. i have been a regular user of solar box cooker for the past ten years. i reside in the south-west indian state of kerala where it rains heavily for many months. yet my enthusiasm for solar cooking has not been dampened by the rains.

i am not in agreement with dr. jagadeesh on some of the points he has made. firstly, he implies that one has to stand in the hot sun to cook food in the solar cooker in the open. the fact is otherwise - one does not have to stand in the hot sun. the green house in the box cooker is what makes it so versatile and leaves you with time to attend to other chores.

the second point he makes is "no meal is served without fried curries in south india." "nobody wants to use two cooking systems, one for frying and another for boiling." this is not true. most curries are just boiled and you do a final operation of tempering - sputtering herbs like mustard seeds, cumin seeds, dry red chilly, asafoetida etc. in oil and adding it to the curry - which takes a minute of ones time on a conventional oven. some dishes may require direct frying in oil - but here again the frying is mainly required of the masalas - i.e. spices usually in conjunction with chopped onion/tomato to make a kind of gravy. whichever cooking system is used the frying has to be a separate operation. anyone who uses a pressure cooker - and this means the bulk of the middle class in india - uses it only for boiling. the frying is a separate operation, done before or after the boiling, for converting the boiled materials into a complete dish. having to use a conventional oven to do a little bit of frying cannot outweigh all the advantages of a solar cooker. it will be more fair to say that one has to have a conventional oven because a solar cooker cannot work on days when there is no sun.

alongside these so called deficiencies of the solar cooker let us also mention its advantages. which other system allows you use an oven which is on all the day time into which you can pop in any thing any time and see it done in 1-2 hours. which other system lets you attend to your other chores without a care and return to it to get your food piping hot? which other system is versatile enough to boil water, dry things, roast nuts, can fruits and bake bread? and pray, which other system does all this for free?

the improvisation you can do with the box cooker is simply fantastic. the solar cooker is at the very least a daley thompson (decathlon) if not a michael johnson (sprint).

i also do not think as dr. jagadeesh suggests that the best and most simple approach is to use pre-heated water (50� to 60� c) utilizing solar energy in cooking. such a use besides being burdensome and inconvenient reduces the solar cooker to being a hand maiden of the conventional cooker and does scant justice to the potential of the solar cooker. if he is referring to using a solar water heater for this purpose where you will get hot water on tap, let us remember the cost of a water heater is 10 times that of a cooker - and that too after the subsidy on the water heater.

while i agree that it will be desirable to evolve sturdy, cheap and light weight designs the existing design of the box cooker is not so unworthy that one needs to wait for the 'ideal' design to arrive on the scene. the available solar box cooker is by itself a good work horse. there is also an intangible element in associating with the solar cooker which has to do with ones mental make up. solar cooking is spiritually uplifting. the very idea that the sun can cook for you and that too using a device that is so ridiculously simple makes you realise the fool that you have been to have neglected it for so long. at any rate i have become so used to solar cooking that i feel quite unhappy on a day that i cannot use the cooker. i am trying out extra boosters held in place by lab type retort stands to deal with marginal weather conditions.

the real cause of the decline of solar cooking in india is that with the abolition of subsidies in 1994 in all except two states in india, solar cooking has been left in the lurch. the irony is that all other solar devices except the cooker are pampered with subsidies over and above income tax benefits for businesses (but not for private use), not to talk of the heavy subsidies going into fossil fuels like diesel and kerosene. there is no promotional activity other than lip service on a generous scale. the real need is to demonstrate solar cooking to small groups of people, preferably by people who use it themselves and look for basic conditions for it to take roots - such as availability of space and sun and a certain privacy and security, and favourable circumstances at home, such as some one being available during the day who attends to the kitchen. obviously solar cooking will not work in the slums or in high rise buildings where access to sun may be difficult or for families where all the adult members go for work. but india is a vast country with 1 billion people and there are millions of households where it will work.

frustrated at the lack of attention being paid to solar cooking i have just finished writing a book which i have called making the most of sunshine - a handbook for the common man in which i have tried to evoke an interest in solar cooking. it is under print. now that this preoccupation is off my back i hope i can devote some time to popularising solar cooking at least in my neighbourhood for a start. i am looking for likeminded people in this effort and am happy to report some success.

s. narayanswamy
j-7, jawaharnagar
trivandrum 695 041
india

snswamy@md2.vsnl.net.in