Monday, February 06, 2012
Hi! Wasn’t there a wonderful book called “Chalice & the Blade” ? I do not recall author’s name. Do you? Have you come across it? It was about Matriarchal social system at
Isle of Crete; probably written by Salvador Allinde’s daughter, while in exile
in Europe .
You wrote saying I’m a good man for looking after tribal
kids. I am not really sure at all in crisis as to right course of action, at
least on my part. I’m not the leader
type so I lead by personal example, but linguistic, class & cultural
differences leave yawning gaps in our
communication, locally. One simple example comes to mind; something that happened last evening an hour or so before sun
set.
A girl of may be
sixteen, studying 10th standard at our school, living in village,
poured kerosene oil and burned herself to death, before her family could return
from farms & fields. She has a younger brother at std. 8th. with
us. Apparently an ex-student from our
school, from this same village, vacationing here from a job he is into at Bombay & she were in
love.
Any further details I do not now. The school was closed for
the day and all teachers went to her house for condolence; what I waned to know
was, ‘what did they say at the house ?’. Did they take side of the girl or did they
support the social view, ‘orthodox
people take care their daughters do not fall in love & all that’. Teachers,
incidentally, are opinion makers in our village society. They are most
educated, rich, well mannered, aware and probably higher class than most
villagers.
The news shook me to the quick; some said the boy must have
jilted her. I feel it might have been parents who’d have threatened her against
meeting her boy friend. I don’t know what should I do? I’m just waiting &
watching from my rooms….& writing to
you! … how silly really.
Love rahat
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Dear Jo,
Here are a few , (I won’t call them facts) details . The boy
and girl were caught in another nearby school function, being intimate/ maybe
just together alone in a secluded dark corner. The boy, not well off, with
ailing father, slumming in Bombay, and here at the village house old, poverty stricken relatives. They are ‘Kunbi’ a low cast
community and girl was ‘Maratha’ ; relatively higher cast. So it seems, the
girl’s folks went to the boy asking to settle them in marriage, but he
chickened out, not having money and support. The girl, in addition to this
rebuttal, was taunted and teased by other village women, it seems, (That’s the
one who got caught!) and was deeply hurt within. All this in quick succession,
life in all villages enjoys no
“privacy’. Every body knows everything about everyone else. So she thought it
is a life long stigma, an end of the road.
She actually put on dress on top of dress, some four layers;
gagged her mouth in case screams of agony escape & betray her; she soaked
all the layers of her dresses so that they will burn for long time. It seems
she stood her ground till the end. Only in the last few moments, it seems, she
dragged her body a couple of yards and she was completely burnt.
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Hi jo. During the course of the day, a couple of details
emerged. One that the girl had left a
suicide note in her school bag. She absolved her parents as well as the boy she
loved. The vernacular newspaper carried
a piece saying she had done poorly in mid-term exams, so she set herself
ablaze.
In a couple of days
/ nights from now; it will become
a full moon night. The moon already is
very bright & looking quite full. It
illuminates landscapes , rolling country walks and modest hills around in our
terrain. People do not use too much
electric lights, population density is very sparse. Most able bodied people are
in Bombay . Here population hasn’t risen in the past twenty
years. My friends come seeking solitude, silence & peace of mind. They say,
Rahat! Your village is like an open air sound proof studio!!
Most of us are free, non-commercial filmmakers and audio
freaks. They are amazed at the quality of silence here. Full moon nights and
days, as well as dark-moon durations are saturated with celestial power. The
Oceans are pulled up and as you know, viscosity and salinity of human blood is
equal to the viscosity & salinity of sea water. [not the dead sea water!]
. The blood, therefore, gets affected
and charged during those many hours. They could fall during any part of day or
night, although we seem to see and be aware of full moon only during nights
when we can actually see the full or the dark moon.
One nice evening call placed by my dear friend Tarun Bedi was
icing on the cake that was today!
Love rahat. [& rahat hopes he is not boring you Jo …
hogging your time & emotional energy’ tell him …]
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Hi! Jo…
I think the news spread about our 10th grader’s
self immolation. Others on facebook have
been asking me to meet her younger brother and console him. I do what I do here, as you know in the
absence of any ‘privacy’. When I sit on my laptop children crowd around me and
yours and Tarunji’s and Gabriella’s and a few others’ conversations are public
knowledge as it were. What I write to you and Gabriella I translate or children,
or they just look & learn as the letters form into words on my screen. I
notice it helps them learn English language as well. It’s better than reading a
book because here they know the story & are keen to follow each word
that my un-trained two, sometimes three
or four finger typing can form; that’s not too fast. My interactions with all
of you are known through out the school. Every one is talking about it at the
one & only grocer’s shop near by where all children go to buy some cookies, munchies; and where most, if not all
villagers have to come for their purchases. My views and reciprocally their
news gets around fast.
Then there this other collateral aspect as well. First of
all value of human life is no different, more or less than the value of any
other form of life; a cow, a stray dog, a mendicant, myself, the dead girl or
her living brother, a tree, river or a stone are all looked upon with same sort
of complacent equanimity. If there is something
specific between boy / girl child it is this. The girl is the ‘financial
deposit’ for another house, the boy shall attract money, an un-paid underling
for doing all dirty work in the house;
the boy shall remain ‘mom’s baby’ and shall inherit ancestral property. So prejudice
for male off-spring is embedded in ‘Patriarchal System’ of organizing family, private property as well
as the State / Governance ethos.
I shall stop now. Life has gone on since and time is
passing. I feel hungry, my lunch has been brought in from school mess by one of
our children who in his other hand carried my five Lit. Jerry can of water
supply & before it grows cold I am going to sit down & eat it.
Love rahat
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