Jeera is a phenomenal spice whether it’s a seed or ground up.

It makes water better.

It makes rice better.

It makes chaat better.

It makes just about any shaak or gravy better.

Or cumin as most people call it.

For all that talk Wh@t5@pp uncles have about the ancient lands between the Indus and Ganga rivers. They never want to talk about trade and economics. There’s a reason empires wanted to conquer us for our flavors and fabrics.

Granted it likely came from the eastern Mediterranean or the Levant, not our beloved motherland. It’s so old that it’s been found in the tombs of pharaohs.

But the subcontinent is where it was massively cultivated, integrated, and exported the plant. Granted I’ve heard them argue their culture is even older.

Both Ayurveda and cuisine found uses for it. Jury’s still deliberating on the medicine part, but we all agree it’s tasty.

Not just us, old timey Europe as well.

Both Dioscorides of the Greeks and Pliny the Elder of the Romans write about it being common but also of India being a major source of it (can’t read Greek or Latin so unable to validate, working on the latter but it’s a slow process).

So much love for jeera around the world now that’s it’s incorporated in just about every masala packet you can buy at the grocery store.

Meanwhile I get the pleasure of having to interact with a different J!r@ almost every day.

How much economic activity has been lost to developers, testers, product people, and managers swearing at Jira.

It’s great when a spice has many uses, doesn’t always end as well for productivity software.