What is in a beedi (bidi) Indian cigarette?

Question: “What is in a beedi (bidi) Indian cigarette?”

Why Do I Care: While buying cigarettes in a local shop in Little India, Penang, Malaysia, we stumbled upon packs of beedis. We used to smoke beedis in Chicago back when we were teenagers, and haven’t seen them since. In a cloud of nostalgia, my buddy bought a pack and we smoked some. It became clear, that these were not simply made of tobacco, but some other leaf that we couldn’t identify. We asked ourselves is there even tobacco inside? There was only one way to find out; write it down and look it up.

Answer: According to Wikipedia, beedis are made of a little bit of tobacco wrapped in Tendu leaf. Although they are smaller, they contain more nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide. Part of the reason for this is the Tendu leaf in non porous, so there is less air mixed with the tobacco. The Tendu leaf is high in these carcinogens as well. I also read of the struggle of the Tendu leaf farmer. They struggle.

Conclusion: Personally, I could take them or leave them. No pun intended. I prefer my good old rolled up tobacco, but the price is right here at 1 ringgit per pack (about 30 cents), compared with 11 ringgit for a pack of my tobacco. Worth the switch? Maybe to fund the continuance of my adventures.

Links:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/bidi.html

http://www.jstor.org/pss/4373760

http://images.google.com/images?rlz=1C1CHMB_enUS347MY350&sourceid=chrome&q=tendu+leaf&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=8xeaS_meKNOvrAe9ovDRCw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CBwQsAQwAw

Who Calls a Harmonica a Mouth Organ

Question: “Who Calls a Harmonica a Mouth Organ?”

Why Do I Care: Here in Penang, Malaysia, at a guesthouse called 75 Lodge, there is a steady stream of long time travelers and eccentrics. One older man, we’ve dubbed ‘The Aristocrat’ for, well, his self declaration that he is an aristocrat, sat down while I was playing my harmonica and told me to ‘stop playing my damn mouth organ’. Mouth organ? Who the hell calls it a mouth organ? He comes up with all kinds of outdated terms I’ve never heard of in his refined British accent, but this one I objected to. At any rate, it went into the book, and now it’s answered here.

Answer: Googling ‘mouth organ’, I found a stub of a Wikipedia article basically explaining that the mouth organ is a greater umbrella term for any instrument that you blow into. Another site said it was a synonym for the harmonica. That’s about it.

Conclusion: I’m still unconvinced. Then again, ‘The Aristocrat’ is an old man born before the internet, or computers; probably before dictionaries were even invented. I will continue referring to my harmonica as a ‘blues harp.’ Then again, I’m from Chicago and we love the blues.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouth_organ

http://thesaurus.com/browse/mouth+organ