KOLLAM: If you are planning to make a dish using bottle gourd, then you should know this. The outer layer of the vegetable should not be peeled off and thrown in to the waste basket as it offers a possibility of music. The outer layer of rip bottle guard can be used for making Veena, Tamburu and Sitar. Aneesh N Raj, resident of Komalam Dwaraka in Anchal is behind this possibility. Aneesh was working in a multi national company and he quit that job to become a farmer. He has also won the 'Hitech farmer' award this year provided by the department of agriculture. His farming methods include Poly House, aquaponics, hydroponics and wick irrigation. He has a vegetable farm in the 25 cents of land near his house. He has also started fish farming.

A calabash, bottle gourd, or white-flowered gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, also known by many other names, including long melon, New Guinea bean and Tasmania bean, is a vine grown for its fruit, which can be either harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, or harvested mature to be dried and used as a utensil. When it is fresh, the fruit has a light green smooth skin and white flesh.

Gourd shells of different size and diameters are needed for different types of stringed instruments. While big sized gourd shells are used for tamburu, smaller sized shells are used for sarod and sitar.