Certainly it does.
Only, not many Indians know it. Olive grows in India, as a wild plant, with no commercial value here, it will soon disappear. Kerala coast had dealings with many foreign immigrantis, ranging from Jews to Arabs. The Portuguese came much , much later. Probably the Arabs brought the plant here. It still grows in the coastal homes, in the family back yards, as a shade giving plant, nothing more, it gives no earnings to people here.
Picked up a ripe karakka fruit from a house few blocks away, and ate it. Arabic namse for olive is zaithoon, do not know it is connected to zaith, or oil in arabic. By any chance, does it mean oil giving fruit? In malayalam, coconut oil is called velichennna, which mean light giving oil. One point of time, lamps were lit is coconut oil.
Back to arabs - if arabs brought olives to india, why didn't we call it, zaitoon?
Meanwhile let me say something about figs.
In Hindi, it is anjeer,
In Malayalam it is athee
In Arabic it is atheen! see the connection here.
I just weighed an olive picked up from the nighbourhood. It weighed just 5 grams. Normally there are oives bigger than this one, probably commercial varieties weigh up to 10 grams.
Added on 22nd OCT - Olives are flowering this month, may be in a month or so, there will be fruits to pick.
Guess what, the forest department is asking for kaarakka seeds. so whether kaarakka is used commerically or not, our forests will hold few as samples.
