What was the symbolic meaning behind the wheat and the flour in the story where Baba drove away the cholera epidemic?

In the narrative from Chapter 1, the wheat and flour carried a profound symbolic meaning beyond their literal forms. The villagers later explained that the wheat Baba was grinding was not just grain, but a representation of the deadly cholera epidemic that was plaguing the village. The act of grinding the wheat in the mill was a symbolic act of destroying this 'enemy.' Consequently, the flour that resulted was not for consumption but symbolized the ground-up, defeated form of the disease. By having the women throw this 'flour' on the village boundary, Baba was symbolically casting the epidemic out of their community, which, according to the story, caused the disease to recede immediately.