Kwai Plantation....their livelyhood

This is beetlenut or supari or kwai as it is known in the local language here that you can see in the first picture and the trees from where you get these nuts is shown below. They are tall palm like trees .Kwai is the source of income for most people living along this side of the Indo-Bangla border in Meghalaya.Each plantation would be either auctioned in lakhs of rupees or the fruits will be sold directly in the market by their respective owners making a turn over in lakhs. Here in the picture the ladies are sorting them out in different sizes as different sizes carry different price tags and packing them off in gunny bags. They say the kwai/supari from this areas are much sort after . The ones that can be seen in the picture are the seasoned ones...meaning they have been soaked in water for a period of time and then sold. The freshly plucked variety has a very strong taste,andwhen taken gives u a warm feeling and if one is not used to it,can hit real hard and cause a tightness in the chest thus making it difficult to breath. Am not fond of it but once in a while in the bitter winter months i do take one to warm me up.