Entrepreneur Dharmen Momin from Meghalaya is reviving the traditional Garo practice of making karitchi, a local alkaline liquid that was once central to their cuisine but lost to cheap, store-bought sodium carbonate.
In the remote landlocked regions of India, especially in the hilly areas, salt was once an expensive and rare commodity. The Northeast had to rely on sea salt brought in through long and difficult trade routes, making it scarce and costly for the common people. Salt was a prized item in the barter system, often exchanged for agricultural produce, livestock, or other essential goods.
Due to its high price and scarcity, people sought alternatives to sea salt. In the Garo hills, one such substitute was sodium bicarbonate, traditionally made from the ash of dried banana peels and stalks — mixed with water, filtered and low-dripped through a special funnel to an alkaline fluid.
The end product, known as karitchi in the Garo language, was used in cooking to give food an alkaline flavour and serve as a replacement for salt.
Similarly, in Assam, this ash-based alkaline water was called khar, and it played an important role in Assamese cuisine. Karitchi and khar were not only essential for flavour but were also deeply intertwined with the culinary traditions of the region.
These substitutes, easily available in the natural surroundings, require skill to produce, and this knowledge was passed down from generation to generation. In this way, the people adapted their food practices to cope with the scarcity of salt, preserving both their health and overcoming the limitations of geographical isolation.
As a boy of 10, Dharmen Momin was captivated by his grandmother’s kitchen in Sasatgre, a village near the towering Nokrek peak in the Garo hills of Meghalaya. Growing up in the 1980s, he watched with wonder as she prepared traditional Garo dishes using karitchi.
It was an essential component of Garo cuisine, especially in the preparation of kappa — a meat dish cooked without oil and served with sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves.
As time passed, the simplicity and earthiness of karitchi were slowly replaced by modern convenience. Momin vividly remembers when his mother, like many others in the Garo community, switched to store-bought sodium carbonate, also known as baking soda.
“It was the early 1980s,” Momin said. “I had asked my mother to cook our local food using indigenous soda. My mother instead used sodium carbonate. It was as cheap as Rs 5 and sold as a white powder in the market.”
Also Read: Golden needles, purple tea: Women-led estate shines in Arunachal
The arrival of this commercially available soda soon overshadowed karitchi, a staple of Garo kitchens for generations. “Slowly, people stopped making karitchi altogether,” Momin recounted. “They preferred buying baking soda from markets in Tura,” he added.
Karitchi faded into obscurity. But Momin never forgot the ingredient that had once been so integral to his family’s meals. It wasn’t till 2015 that Momin, then a government employee, began exploring the idea of reviving the long-lost ingredient of Garo cuisine.
He wasn’t lured by it as a business. It was about cultural preservation and community health. Research suggested that the shift to sodium carbonate could be linked to the growing issue of anaemia among the Garo population. According to a 2018 study, 92 percent of Garo women were found to be anaemic, with the situation being particularly severe in the West Garo Hills, where 71 percent of the women had haemoglobin levels below 12.
Even government officials like West Garo Hills deputy commissioner, Ram Singh, voiced concerns, urging people to return to using their karitchi. “In 2019, Singh warned people about the harmful effects of market soda and encouraged the use of karitchi,” Momin said.
But reviving karitchi wasn’t as simple as telling people to switch back. The knowledge of how to make it had all but disappeared. Fortunately, Momin’s niece Witsengi Sangma still remembered the old ways. “Witsengi guided me through every process,” Momin said. “From cutting banana stalks to experimenting with it to get the right colour, she was there every step of the way.”
Momin’s brand of karitchi is known as Nokrek, and his company is called the Do Patchi Enterprise.
With Sangma’s help, Momin relearned the traditional method of making karitchi. The process begins in October, after the monsoon rain has ceased, and the banana trees are ready to be harvested.
Momin would cut down a thousand banana trees — both commercial and wild varieties — ensuring to strike only the trunk and not the rhizomes so that the plants could regrow. “Otherwise, it may lead to deforestation. I could have cut trees haphazardly and earned big money, but I want to do business without destroying the environment,” he said.
Once the trees are cut, the stalks are dried and burned to create ash. This burning process is slow and deliberate, with stalks stacked over a fire for one to two days, smouldering into the precious ash that forms the base of karitchi. “The slower the burning process, the better the quality of the karitchi,” Momin explained.
By 2019, Momin’s hard work had caught the attention of the Meghalaya Basin Management Agency, which awarded him a grant of Rs 3 lakh. He used the funds to cover transportation, packaging, and labour costs, ensuring that his small operation could reach more people.
Today, Momin produces around 80 litres of karitchi a month, which he supplies to a wholesaler in Tura. His soda is FSSAI-registered and licensed, selling for Rs 150 a litre. The demand is growing, not only in the Garo Hills but neighbouring Assam, other states in the region, and places as far as America.
Also Read: Kokum fruit juice tastes of success in Karnataka
“I make an annual profit of Rs 1.5 lakh with the current production, and I’ve invested Rs 50,000 from my pocket to expand the business,” Momin said. His dream is to increase production to a scale where he can supply karitchi across the entire Garo Hills. “I need to invest up to Rs 15 lakh and hire more labour to live up to that dream,” he said.
For Momin, karitchi is more than just a product — it’s a symbol of the Garo identity and a healthier way forward. As he carefully balances environmental preservation with business growth, his journey stands as a testament to the power of tradition in the modern world.
The lead image on top depicts Dharmen Momin preparing banana stalks early in the morning to prepare banana ash. (Photo by Aatreyee Dhar)
Aatreyee Dhar is an independent journalist based out of Assam.
