Recently I had been to my native village for taking part in the death ceremony of the senior most person of our catchment; he was a relative of mine who left to a different world at a young age of 101. His siblings and junior brothers were there who have well crossed seventy. Sitting beside my father I had the privilege of hearing few of their statements and the discussion so enamored me that I decided to skip my early-evening siesta (which I am seldom entitled to) courtesy the heavy and nutritious meal of fresh farm vegetables and country-grown cereals. My father and the senior uncles (indeed they would be uncles despite that age) started discussing of the old times when they were staying in joint family. The italic-sied term should be read as five brothers, their wives, a score kids and few grandchildren. Some of the facts simply amazed me; what a life was then led and what are we leading now
Four pairs of bullocks: Two houses in the village then had 4 pairs of bullocks. I simply cannot fathom the amount of labour it would undertake to maintain them; here I am not getting into the physical tilling of the land as was the practice then. Each of the houses housed the richest families of those times in the catchment. During those days all the houses were almost the same, the people wore almost the same cloth, cosmetics was unknown; each had access to almost the same number of coconut and mango trees, cash was not required; the only differentiating factor was the number pieces of land, the number of cows and the pair of bullocks. These two families each had a veteran whose first task in the morning was to give wet rice to the most-errant bullock in his clan so that it confronted the most-errant bullock in the other’s clan. What a way of showing supremacy! I still managed to continue listening without fainting.
11 pieces of land: My own grandfather (as was told by one of the uncles) had 11 pieces of land (prior to consolidation) spread across almost 2 miles from his house. He was OK with the arrangement of dragging the bullock pair during cultivation days from one piece to the other. So much so, he was so addicted to the pieces that even when the land was barren, he would visit these places everyday barefoot. My father tells me that he never remembered his father even falling ill; leave aside bedridden.
Joint family: Let me not repeat the length and breadth of the joint family. Imagine each one of them eating the same food; which was typically rice (dry or wet depending upon the times) and with just some lentils and one item of vegetables. If an errant kid had some specific taste, then he or she had to arrange for that by himself / herself. While the adults almost never ate together, the kids were typically huddled up together because they were more systematic with respect to time. They were uniformly discharged at the same time from school, if there was a visit to the fields, it would be together, if it was mango time then all would be at the orchards at the same time, if fish was being caught some day then all would be inside the pond at the same time; et al. Imagine the camaraderie that these kids would have generated! In small pecked family size of even 4 today, we seldom have our food together and if at all we have the tastes and choices would be varied for each.
Rotation of bonded labour: This joint family also housed few pairs of bullock and cows. The family had 2 people exclusively to cater to their requirement. The cleaning of their living area, tending to their grazing in the green meadows, taking care of medication and parenthood, milking them were their primary jobs. The best part was when any of these people absented; the job was given to the kids. A cousin of my father quips in mentioning that he loved those days as he would have access to some extra milk. Till date, I always mention that my father and some of my uncles can write better English than me even though they heeded to these acts and never made it to English medium schools. What’s more, this clan that I mentioned has produced teachers, bankers, engineers and many post-graduates absorbed in different institutions.
There were some more discussions on cash, duels and barter which may become a separate article altogether. Some people of our generation who have been in villages or have come out of them may imagine the times I am talking but the ones junior to us, the so called never-been-to-a-village type can never fathom these scenes. Very recently my father mentioned me that a chap who had just passed out from NIT Rourkela was surprised to learn that rice never grew on trees; he always thought rice (not paddy) grew on some trees in rural India ready to be plucked. It’s time that all urbanites give their kids a taste of rural India at times. What’s more they are most welcome to my village which I cherish going. Thankfully my kid, who actually is a kid, is fascinated by the paddy fields, the sunflowers, cow milk, fishing, ponds and the orchards.
Well all these took place in the family get-together before the beginning of the tenth day rites. How the gentleman in question crossed 100, what were his secrets of longevity and why I mentioned young at 101 is a different story altogether.
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