Some flavours can’t be bottled or bought, they must be made in a fleeting moment. With a piece of live coal and a spoon of ghee, everyday food in Rajasthan becomes layered, and smoky. This is dhungar, a technique that turns limitation into art.

Between noon and five, when cooking feels impossible and the air stands still, this is often all one can bear to eat: long, thin strips of melon or cucumber, salted or dusted with red chilli. It is a snack of necessity but also a little feast, an abundance drawn from a land presumed to lack.

In the scorching Thar, a twisted little bean just made it big. Sangri’s upcoming GI tag marks a victory for tradition, ecology, and its fierce protectors. Read on to know why it matters.