Saturday, June 11, 2011

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time... In a faraway land... Some call it the 'boondocks' of India... There lived the Gonds. About 100 -200 kms from CFH, Raj nandgaon, nestled in the Maikal hills this ancient tribe lived their lives roaming naked under the sun, farming and gathering, hunting with bow and arrow just as their ancestors before them. Sunup, Sundown, Autumn, winter, summer, monsoon, sickness, health, life and death... The only contact with the outside world is the government trucks that bring them oil and the children that visit the nearby town and talk of the light that glows inside huts, the river that flows out of metal, talking through a box and the like....
Medically, they believe in the healing powers of the sun, fire, the elements and the more sinister arts of the local magician. Even the barber's wife is a advancement for them.
Then on rare occasions, people who look like them but dont believe in karma and speak about a strange god who forgives sins. They are sent from a very big village with a special house where more magicians practice, even a woman!! [;)] They speak about clothes, food, clean water, mosquitos and disease... Now why does a woman need help making babies?!!! She can do it all by herself!!! If she lives, praise God, otherwise it was written in her fate....
Now Sheela Bai jus gave birth two days ago. Tonight the spirits possessed her and wouldnt let go. The priest will not touch the evil woman so the 'white babu' was called. He told her husband to take her to his village for the woman magician to see. Thankfully today the tel gaadi will come so she can go on that. They reached a white big hut where the woman magician saw her and pricked her with many needles and gave her magic fluid. The gods came down and the spirits left. She will live and so will the child....

2 comments:

  1. You write really well.Arundhati Roy would be proud of your prose.

    AA

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  2. I guess i get it from Dada's side of the family...!! :)

    ReplyDelete