Sowbaghya Wet Grinders

Wet grinders, considered to be India’s only product and engineering invention, has been manufactured which later spun-off into several variants. LMW and Pricol would commence operations later growing into a multi crore group. Some wealthy industrialists (notable example S.Karivardhan) with a penchant for tinkering machines and cars plunged into motor racing later making it the country’s capital.

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The Grinding Stone - is an acrylic on canvas painting of size- 24″x30″.

This is a grinding stone traditionally used in India to wet grind while cooking. With the invention of electric wet grinders, this stone is used less and less nowadays. But I can assure you, that ‘chutneys’ made by grinding with this stone tastes way better than if -ground in an electric grinder. I guess this is because, the food is press ground in this, unlike being cut by blades in an electric grinder.

“What is not made in Coimbatore?” asked N.S. Kumar, chairman, Yenyeskey Machine Tools, Coimbatore, who is striving to make the exhibition a success. “The people of Coimbatore themselves do not know the range of products made here. Wet grinders were first made here. Different types of textile machinery have their origins in Coimbatore.” If there was hype about Coimbatore being the second information technology hub in Tamil Nadu after Chennai, it is becoming a reality. After a delay of about 15 months, the first steps have been taken for the construction of TIDEL Park, Coimbatore (TPCL). It is a joint venture of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), the TIDEL Park and the Software Technology Park of India (STPI). The success of the TIDEL Park in Chennai has encouraged its promoters to build a second TIDEL Park, in Coimbatore, which will be a massive plug-and-pay building complex for IT companies. It will have three basements, ground floor and four upper floors, a total built-up area of 1,61,500 sq m. Bids have been invited for building this sophisticated complex with civil and allied works at an estimated cost of Rs.140 crore. The complex will come up at ELCOT’s Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for IT at Vilankurichi.

Wet Grinders are an indispensable part of south Indian kitchens. To make delicious “dosas”, or steaming hot “idlies”, the primary requirement is the batter. Wet Grinders are labelled so as they grind water, dal and rice and produce the batter used for preparing south Indian delicacies.

Few decades ago, electric grinders were still unheard of. People used stone grinders where manual work was involved to prepare the batter. A sample pic is shown below. Click on the image to enlarge.

Image Courtesy: songbirdgardens.co.nz

But times have now changed. People realized that simple mixer grinders were not powerful enough to handle rice, dal combination. Companies saw an opportunity here and the modern wet grinder was born. Every year new innovations and patents are happening in this field. The product that is being reviewed here is “Ultra Grinder” from ELGI industries. The picture is shown below. Please click on it to enlarge.

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