i'm sitting in an internet cafe on park street in calcutta. i arrived this afternoon after an overnight train journey from raipur and i already love this city. after a shower, i have been taking an evening stroll along the main shopping drag and really feel like i'm in a city that isn't too far away from a city in someplace other than india. i guess that is hard to understand if you haven't been to india, but those who have (and especiall who have been to calcutta) will know what i'm talking about, i think.
suffice it to say to those who are not familiar with calcutta: yes, there is poverty (and the street i am on also goes by the name mother teresa street) but calcutta is also a highly cultured and easy-going place, filled with bookstores and poets and crumbling old colonial architecture.
my trip since my last email has truly been an experience of a lifetime. i'm afraid i just can't write about diwali in the village and do it justice at this point. but i took lots of photos, and i'll definately post some of them once i get back. but lets just stay that the village i was staying in was like something out of central casting for "atmospheric indian village that makes you long to leave the city (at least for a few days)". a clean place, very small, 2 kms walk through the fields and a dirt road to the nearest bus, with little winding lanes of mud houses, painted white and blue. uday's family and the whole village welcomed me, and tried as much as possible to include me in the innumerable pujas that occured (which included getting a smudge of cow dung on my forehead at one point...).
on tuesday, we all left the village (uday's family only comes back for the holidays and otherwise live in bhopal or raipur) and once we reached the local "big" town of rajnandgaon, i got on the absolutely oldest bus i've ever been on for a four hour ride to kawardha, where i would be met by sunny from the bhoramdeo jungle retreat. the ride was not the best, given that the glass in my window did not exist and once the sun goes down it gets very chilly in chhattigarh this time of year. the lights on the bus also went out about 45 minutes before we reached our destination and we had to very carefully make it into town being led by the lights of an obliging motorcycle.
i was greeted at the bus stop by sunny's very cheery and chubby brother sanjay, who was in town for the holidays and usually lives in ahmedabad where he runs a water purification business. sunny was waiting by the car --- as skinny as his brother was chubby, but just as cheery. off sunny and i went in a jeep, out into the country, where a fire was waiting out in front of the bungelows. had a delicious dinner, a shower and gratefully fell into my double, full-length bed (having spent the past fur night sleeping on a charpoy --- otherwise comfortable, but about a foot too short for me.)
slept late in the morning and finally made it out of bed to see the maikal hills surrounding me, an ancient crunbling hindu temple in the distance, cow bells tinkling in the fields next door, and an omelette and fresh fruit waiting for me in the open-air dining room. (also something to be grateful for: i had been eating rice for breakfast lunch and dinner.)
that day i took it easy: visited the main part of the bhoramdeo temple complex with sunny --- dating from the 14th century, i believe, and having erotic art similiar to khajurao --- though much smaller... just one temple in the main part. after another delicious lunch, and a bit of time lazing about reading amitav ghosh's excellent "sea of poppies" sunny delegated sanjay with temporary guide duties, since a forestry official had dropped in for lunch at BJR. so off we went on sunny's motorbike, through the beautiful countryside, with sanjay telling me tales about how he and sunny used to ditch school and go swimming in the river when they were kids.
we went to a small vegetable market which was not too interesting, since it was not a predominantly tribal market. but the ride there and back was lovely and sanjay very funny!
that evening, sunny and i sat out by the fire and had a beer and talked about big issues like what is important in life: doing good, living simply, enjoying what you do. he's a great guy, who does a lot of work helping the tribal people who he considers to be his dear friends. he started out as a guide at kanha national park after he finished school and then started BJR 3 years ago. he has quite a nice set-up for himself... all he is missing is a bride --- someone who could be a true partner with him in his work, so (like half of kawardha) i'm putting out an APB: anyone know a nice indian girl, caste no bar, who loves nature, tribal people, entertaining foreign tourists, helping others, and having a good time while doing it? please let me know if you do... he's not only nice and funny, he is quite cute.
the nest morning, got up for breakfast at 8 and then we set out in the hills... beautiful teak forests and gorgeous views. we had lunch at the home of a doctor in a village about an hour's motocycle ride away from bhoramdeo. a lovely family, who work with several "tolas" --- the small settlements of a few houses that the baiga tribal people live in --- as well as with the gond tribals who are more assimilated into the "regular" indian community. we visited the primary school where the doctor's son teaches --- the kids were excited to see me but also completely speechless that i was there --- and then headed on to a local haat or once-a-week market.
not much to see in terms of what was being sold: mostly vegetables. the baiga do not have the same artistic traditions of many of india's other tribes... they are known as the gentle people of the forest, with a great knowledge of the natural world and a resistance to farming with plows, as that would be the equivilant of cutting your mothers' breast. but they themselves are often works of art: women sport beautiful, simple tattoos on their faces as well as their legs and arms (baiga women wear knee length saris) and men wear their hair long and either tied in a side-of-the-head ponytail or wound up in a knot right above their forehead. people at this market, which was being held in a good-sized town, were friendly and generally outgoing --- and often eager to have their picture taken and delighted to see it on the digital screen. sunny oftens brings people copies of their photos and one elderly woman who was incredibly striking looking (don't know if she knew that, but she had the look of a woman who had been a great beauty in her youth, so she probably did!) insisted i take her photo and insisted i give her a copy --- and kept insisting until she was completely reassured i would not renege on out agreement!
we got back to the retreat at about 3 and i lazed about reading and listening to music on my ipod and enjoying the sunset and then the stars... then sunny and i sat by the fire again and had a beer and i told him about habib sahib and the naya theatre (he had never seen their work but of course knew of them). dinner by the fire... and then to bed.
the next day we also set out around 9 for the countryside. about an hour and a half journey away (through lovely little villages and past beautiful scenary) we reached a haat that was really in the middle nowhere. we got there early. only a few merchants had arrived... but eventually people started coming... some of them literally walking out of the forest... after watching for a while, we drive down the road a bit and had a picnic underneath a big mahua tree (a flowering tree with a raisin like fruit which is used to make tribal liquor). then back to the market, which had now gotten going. the people there were different than at the previous market... much more shy, much less a part of "mainstream" society. i unfortunately made a lot of little children cry just by showing up...
it was really an incredible experience. beautiful people --- and gentle people.
back on the bike and back to the retreat... only to have to reluctantly pack and head into town. first we stopped off at sunny's house where his mother fed me (of course) and he and sanjay showed me their neighborhood. and then off by myself in a car with a very trustworthy driver for the 3 hour jounry to raipur to catch the train.
train journey was fine, except that i had the worst berth in the 2nd AC car: upper berth right by the door and a few inches under the AC vents! at least an over-ACed american could handle it.
Made friends with a young woman who is an officer in the air force and we had a quick lunch in howrah station before going our separate ways... and then, here i am. sad to have left the peace of the country... but i am a city girl and was thrilled to be walking along the bustling streets this evening. tommorrow, as much sightseeing and shopping as i can fit into a day and then a flight to agartala on monday to join up with the troupe.
now i'm off to find some dinner...
m
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