Guest guest Posted September 7, 2007 Report Share Posted September 7, 2007 It is a shocking fact, but it is true, that the process of manufacturing the silver foils which cover sweets and paan, is not a process you would like to read about.It will make you throw away the sweets covered with this foil. Here is a brief outline of the process. The varakh-makers select animals at the slaughterhouse. Each animal is felt for the softness of its skin before it is killed. This means that a substantial number of goat, sheep and cattle are killed specifically for the industry. Th eir ;skins are soaked in filthy, infested vats for 12 days to de-hair them. Then, workers peel away the epidermal layer, which they call jhilli, just under the top layer of the skin in a single piece. These layers are soaked for 30 minutes in another decoction to soften them and left to dry on wooden boards.Once these are dry, the workers cut out square pieces 19 cm by 15 cm.These pieces are made into pouches called auzaar and stacked into booklets. Each booklet has a cover of thic k l amb suede called khol. Thin strips of silver called alagaa are placed inside the pouches. Workers now hit the booklet with wooden mallets for three hours to beat the silver inside into the ultra-thin varakh of a thickness less than one micron called '999'. This varakh is then sent to sweet shops. A lot of more details about this process, incuding the original article, are available at http://groups.msn.com/LordKrishnasdevotees/general.msnw?action=get_message & mview=0 & ID_Message=575 & LastModified=4675557802095227039 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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