Teesri Kasam, Caning at School ... .. Bamboo !!!

 

My friends know too well that I do not see Cinemas much – ‘Teesri Kasam’ (transl. The Third Vow) starring  Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman was released in 1966 – its relevance to this post !?!

 

The eco-friendly wonder Bamboo !  - yet if you are 55 years young or more, most likely you will recount your experience, when you were thrashed with Bamboo cane at school, many a times, without even committing any fault !!  - Caning was common and in Hindu High School, some teachers carried strengthened canes and would thrash students coming late and other times !!   

Caning is a form of corporal punishment where an individual is struck with a rattan cane, often on the buttocks, hands, or back, as a sentence for a crime or a school disciplinary measure. While outlawed in many countries and prohibited under international law as a form of torture, it remains a criminal punishment in certain nations, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Brunei. No post on our school life !!    

Bamboo – is  flowering perennial evergreen plants in the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. Bamboos are the fastest-growing plants in the world, due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. Bamboos are of notable economic and cultural significance in many countries while it is even a food source in some.  Bamboo has a higher compressive strength than wood, brick, or concrete and a tensile strength that rivals steel.  Wikipedia states that its origin is from the Kannada term bambu, which was introduced to English through Indonesian and Malay !  

Is bamboo a tree or a grass? – has been the Q for Centuries.  Scientifically speaking, bamboo is not tree but grass. However, the Indian Forest Act, 1927 considered it as tree. Accordingly, cutting bamboo from outside forests and transporting it was made unlawful.  .. ..    For 90 years, bamboo was considered as tree. Its cutting and transporation was problematic.  In 2017, Shri Narendra Modi ji Government amended old law and categorised bamboo as grass.  

Despite India being the second largest grower of bamboo after China, it had to import bamboo from Taiwan even for sundry purposes such as making of 'agarbattis' (candlestick). There was a long-pending demand to amend the obsolete law. Finally, the amendment  came in 2017.    The Lok Sabha today finally amended a 90-year-old law and categorised bamboo as grass.  Following the amendment in the Indian Forest Act, 1927, bamboo stood  removed from the category of tree. Now there is no prohibition on growing or cutting bamboo trees even outside the forests. Lok Sabha passed the Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which brought  bamboo outside the definition of tree.  

As bamboo was defined as a tree under the previous law, its inter-state movement required a permit. Consequent to the change brought in by the amended Act, felling or transportation of bamboos grown in non-forest areas will not require such permits.  Replying to a debate on the Bill, Environment, Forests, and Climate Change Minister Harsh Vardhan said the amended law will enable farmers to cut and transport bamboo grown on their land outside forest. He said that it would not only help increasing the income of farmers, but will also generate employment in big number. Several industries including paper and furniture making ones  immensely benefitted out of the amended law.   

Here is a Video of an artisan – making bamboo products – somewhere in Hale Kiranguru village near Sriranga Patna, near Mysore, Karnataka: - https://youtu.be/K9Km6yrHeDI

 

Teesri Kasam (transl. The Third Vow)   directed by Basu Bhattacharya  was  based on the short story Mare Gaye Gulfam, by the Hindi novelist Phanishwarnath Renu.  

After nearly getting arrested, Hiraman (hero Raj Kapoor)  promises to himself that he will never assist any black-marketeer nor transport bamboo. This incident does cost him his bullock-cart and he manages  to get his two oxen away in time. He manages to save enough money to buy another cart, and is hired to take a woman on a 30-hour ride to a Mela. He subsequently finds that his passenger is an attractive woman, Hira Bai, and he falls in love with her - little knowing that she is a traveling dancer - and it is this attraction that will get him into a physical altercation as well as in the bad books of Thakur Vikram Singh.

 
Interesting !
 
Regards – S. Sampathkumar
25.8.2025