Common Salt and Varieties

Since there was no airport close to my dad’s hometown, we always took the train to visit his family in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. I always picked the berth closest to the window and spent the journey staring out at the passing landscape. As we left the confines of the big city, the landscape would change from lush green hills to sandy deserts. Along this part of the western coast, we’d see large spans of flat land, divided into big squares. Some held water and others mounds of white, dried salt. These were the salt pans of India, where the water was cordoned off and left to dry to produce salt.