Village Life: Summer 2012

As monsoon in India is late this year .... the pre monsoon clouds may bring some relief from the searing heat to the parching earth and the waiting people !!

Summer months of May & June is synonymous to heat and a common regional fruit harvest of 'Mango' (a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera) in northern plains of India. But this summer season the crop deluded all hopes & a year long wait.

+45°C temperature....immensely hot weather has hampered the working capacity of the farm-workers !!

Such is the hot weather that even a wild animal (Gray langurs: genus Semnopithecus) has to come near to a 'hand pump' for the need of water !!

May & June is also a month most favored for the marriage ceremonies as schools are closed for the summer vacation..and a sense of festivity rides high despite this severely hot weather !!

Village Life: On A Summer Day

A day starts with prayers & worshiping

Collecting green forage for cattle

Pottery work for the use of villagers

Consultations & planning for the day

Roasting pulse's seed (yellow pigeon peas) - a process in preparing indigenous Pulse for daily use as a protein food ingredient

After a hot day - a time to cook food below open sky, sort of 'meal around Bonfire' !!

#photographs dated 28th, 29th & 30th may 2012

Village Nights: The End Of The Day

I bid you fare, 'The Blazing Sun' for the fire & warmth to make our ground solid.......so that we stand firmly, unstuck & unsucked !!
 

And I bid you fare my dear 'Moon' for the astral rays....which brought us many golden dreams to share with the world !!
 

And 'Stars' of immense, thank you as staring at you made my own troubles & tribulation so trivial that I remained happy for my own 'Times' !!
 

'Darker Nights'; you swallowed me so many times but the mornings you left me intact on my own as I was, thank you so much.
 

And 'Dust' dear nothing to speak as we both are the 'Sons of Star', you are with me & I shall return unto thee !!

 

#first three pics thankfully borrowed from internet 

#dated:june 1st fri 2012

Village Nights: The Ghost Riders

In the middle of the night, if I let the reign of my childhood fantasies lose..I find my village boundaries full of 'Ghosts', 'Jins', flames from the burnt pyre long ago,'drowning dead' moving beside our pond and gradually disappearing in to the deep down water.
It sends me a deep spine-chilling shiver but tonight it is safe to talk from my cozy cot at this hour of the night.
 

Well....I take you to the eastern distant 'mango orchard' ....with an old 'Well'......where every midnight a Headless Monster moves to and forth with a naked sword...riding a horse...blood dripping all along the way. I never dared to go there but have seen moving...fiery...colored lights many a time. God knows what the truth is !!

Then if you move clock wise................a place where last rituals of human dead..... in our village is performed on the burning pyre....most often by the villagers. But every midnight brings another scene....sudden eruption of fire is mostly seen of fluorescent bluish tent. People call it something to do with the Phosphorus of bones left over, but it's an awful...when seen all of sudden..caught unaware !!
 

And the western side is an area of a big & dense 'Jungle', where a grand 'Bunyan' tree stands with lot many aerial roots....is said to be inhabitated by a 'Jin'. Some 30 years back in my childhood days...it has caused much distress to one of the young youth of our village......and as it was out of the bounds of all possible voodoo control....lives were lost, and since then....we never dared to go close to that tree.
 

And most interesting of all...the big deep 'Pond' just beside my house...has been the cause of drowning deaths of many kids accidently. Once as I was passing through the side of this pond....I saw a young girl moving in to the bank...I called her to stop...she did not hear me & vanished in to the deep down water. It was just the midnight hour of that day....
 

Ooooops....what's that ??
Something moving below my cot..pushing me up..
Oooooooh.....its bumpy force on my back....Ouchhhhh.....
Oh my God...........I am down on the ground...dust all around.................and my glasses ??
....hard to see anything in the pitchdark night....
Several unknown pigmy creatures with lot many appendages are trying to take me to.....
Ohhhhhh......awwwww....it's................... hurting.....s..o..r..r..y.........hard .....to talk any....m....o......r........e
S..h..a..r..e.......more.....i..f......I......survive...this..........MIDNIGHT

 

dated:may 31st thurs 2012

Village Nights: Moon Walkers

Immense sky....immense stars........ makes a sky-watcher's paradise, such is the life in village.
 

No electricity..no scattered light....no dust....a crystal clear sky & day temperature of 46°C down by 24°C is just fantastic to stare at the heavenly bodies..some known and a lot many unknown.
 

A resolution for the next visit with 'Android' based 'Google Sky' application....just point at and know the objects....suspended long....in our lasting memories of childhood....to converse with our traditional astronomical relative....'Moon Uncle' (चंदा मामा hindi)..and ask him for one more time:'How is my mom, Moon Uncle?...Does she remembers me' !! ( चंदा मामा  माँ  कैसी  है ? ....क्या  आती  याद हमारी उसको !! hindi )                                                                                          

Tonight I shall remain awake to hear her whispers..if any !! 

 

#dated: 30th may wed 2012 

#picture 1 thankfully borrowed from internet

#picture 2 shows moon phase as of 7th march 1952 at the village referred

Village Nights: The Plant Whisperers

Kahlil Gibran has said long ago that ''your children are not your children, they are the sons & daughters of life's longing for itself.''
 

And when I see an innocent smile on a child's face, I feel a hidden transaction....as if saying:                               Thanks.......!! Your 'Genes' have moved far ahead and that was all.... what nature needed from you !!
                                               &                                                          'Time is Passing By'....nay....rather you are passing by my friend !!
 

And as these smiles echoed all around, I could easily hear the silent whispers of the 'Peepal' (Ficus religiosa, is a species of banyan fig native to India) tree..............
IT'S WE ARE PASSING BY..IT'S WE ARE PASSING BY..  IT'S WE ARE PASSING BY........ !!

 

dated:may 29th tue 2012

Village Nights: With Multiple Worlds

Summer with burning sun makes just impossible to conceive the ideas of worlds beyond !!
 

But nights....amazing they are !!
Under open starry night, below some 'Neem ' tree (Azadirachta indica is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae)..when night deepens down, temperature too comes to comfort cozy level and then.... from some unknown corners of the dark night....comes the emanating smell zones....gradually drifting all across with us !!
 

And on these smell-waves are the figures floating silently near to me, passing through silhouetted bamboo shades beside the near by pond !!
 

This is the time when I firmly believe in ''Physics of Quantum Mechanics of Parallel Universes and Multiple Existence of Beings'' !!
 

The membrane of Other Universe is just near to me....I can touch it.. 

Lo.... I can converse with the figures inside them, they are known....they are mine..
Amazing but true, so far yet so near to us................ !!

 

#dated 28 may 2012 mon 

#pictures thankfully borrowed from internet

Village Nights: The Voices Within

 

The moon has moved to the western horizon....
Dogs barking at intermittent intervals..
Jackals howling in the near-by fields.
 

Drum-beat ( नगाड़ा hindi ), the most favored percussion instrument of Village-Drama-Party ( नौटंकी hindi ) is just on..blaring on a loudspeaker....may be in a night-long performance....which has just begun in some marriage-procession ( बारात hindi ) in some far away village.
 

And as sun-set is a nature's call to the end of the day....everyone is fast asleep by this hour of the midnight.
I am wide awake...lying on a cot...near the old 'water-well' (कुंवा hindi ).... below the grand old Bunyan tree ( पीपल hindi )....

staring at sky !!
 

No one to share with.. no Internet.... no Computer and not even the sleep which gives an opportunity to move in to the dreamy world.
 

Such is our world..the village....at this hour of the night !!

 

#dated: 27th may 2012 sun

#picture courtesy:shared from internet