Saturday, October 6, 2007

Besabab baat badhaane ki zarurat kya hai !!

Chicken soup for the soul series padhi hai? Acchha lagta hai padh ke, lekin ye bhi lagta hai ki ismein se bahut si baatein hoti kahan hain?
.
Main batata hoon ek sach.
.
Dec 2002: I was at Adilabad for two months. It’s a tribal area of Andhra Pradesh, very close to the Maharashtra border. PWG is very active, tribal life's integration in modern world is yet to become seamless. Population density must be one of the lowest. Languages spoken - Thoti, Kolami, and five other tribal languages, Marathi, Telugu, and Hindi (in that order)...... main tribe - Gond..... Some call themselves RajGond (royal Gond) as well. Main highways are excellent, the topography is mountainous...... village-roads are non-existent..... It’s India and Bharat story...... I was there for project work as part of my rural-management curriculum. Had support from one of my batchmate Ankita, and a senior, Ashish, who was a senior functionary in the government.
.
Ashish introduced us to Ravindra Sharma (fondly called Guruji). This man, in such a place, spoke to me in a Hindi that put me to shame "Aapki dincharya kya hoti hai? Aapke shodh ka vishay kya hai? Iska prayojan kya hai? Aapne vishraam kiya na! Agar sihran ho to mutthhi baandh lein, thand muthhoyon mein band ho jayegi!!!!"............ We were in an open hut and he was guiding 10 tribal men to make bamboo artifacts. He spoke to them in 3 languages, which I later came to know were Telugu, Kolami, and Thoti. People who know him say he speaks pure, whatever be the language. He is actually a sculptor, an artist of national fame. He, after making a good name for himself in the art world, established a Gurukul in his hometown Adilabad and started teaching the tribals the delicate art of converting coarse bamboo sticks to art works. If I had not seen them being made, I would easily have termed the ornamental entities as high class carvings of wood.
.
Guruji was a father figure there, so calling him by this name suited us well. There was a batch from NIFT, Hyderabad to learn bamboo work. Guruji felt awkward (a bit) with their metro-ish lingo. But he found a way out - he asked every one of them to be an apprentice to one tribal. Few tribals knew little bit of Telugu, and that was the saving grace. Otherwise, speaking to each other was a Himalayan task....... Human bonding at best was in force...... art was created when words didn't communicate.
.
And in the evenings, he finished the day (everyday) by actually opening Ram-Charita-Manas and reading one or two pages to the crowd gathered. He would then proceed by explaining its meaning in 3 local languages....... His arguments were never religious or entrenched in faith. He had tools from economics and science to explain everything. Things like, why was the caste system formed, why were few people asked to make utensils from baked-soil, why were YAGNAS organised and how it made economic sense. Why languages have different phonetic sounds and how an understanding of the same can lead to an understanding of the culture....... We had planned for few hours there. We stayed for 3 days......
.
Guruji’s father had migrated from Punjab 50 years ago. His wife was from Punjab . In India, you are generally welcomed and given royal treatment. Then you feel good. She didn't treat us royally. She allowed Ankita to roll rotis and let me serve Guruji and Ashish. I felt at home. If it sounds cliched, it’s because of my handicap with language.......
.
Second day morning: Guruji woke up and informed every one, by listening to 'gaay ka rambhaana' (i.e. by listening to sound of bugling made by cow), that she is about to deliver. It was the first time that we were to see it. Oh God, when the calf was born, Maaji bathed it in lukewarm water. I remember only once of having felt the same touch, when my nephew was born. I can still feel the softness on my fingers.......
.
The place (Gurukul) was in natural environs, and hence had snakes all around. I am very skeptical of reptiles, and I said so to Guruji. He advised - don't make much noise while walking because snakes don't have ears and your low-noise steps will produce such low vibrations that they will fail to notice. He had his head on his shoulders, and his heart at the right place. So logical, and so creative........ He showed us his statues and paintings....... No displays and no covers, they were just strewn around...... They were metal statues of Ganesha, Shiv-tandav, Farmer with oxen - so intricate and well-carved that you remember the stone carvinsg of Delwara Temple (Mt. Abu) and think which one has an upper hand; Oil-pintings of normal day life - so real that you hear a sound and look around to make sure somebody other than paintings spoke; Water colours of tribal life - painted when guruji was on desh-bhraman. My god, I haven't seen anything like that till now.......
.
I recommended many people there, and thankfully no body came back and said I am exaggerating. But Guruji doesn't remember me. He is growing old now.
.
What he remembers well is Rama's story in Awadhi, and his knowledge of languages is intact....... his cow's family has grown now to three, and NIFT students are now taught by tribal supervisors....... He still speaks to Ashish in the same SHUDHH HINDI. He signed off a recent conversation by saying, "Ye purabiya log (people from Bihar and West Bengal) sangeet ke rasik hote hain. Maine desh bhraman ke beech dekha, unke jeevan ki har lay mein ek geet hai, har kartavya mein ek sur mila hua hai, har kadam mein taal ki anubhuti hoti hai. Isliye hi wahan chinta nahin hoti....... desh mein kuchh bhi ho, garibi kitni bhi aaye, baadh aapki saari jama poonji baha ke kyun na le jaye.... agli subah wo phir muskura denge. Samaaj ka dhancha wahan mazboot hai, saahitya sabal hai, aur shayad isliye arthvyawastha kamzor. Woh geet nahin suna - O ram-e-ram, saiyaan daaru pee-ke unghalad khet mein....... naayika roti hui apne sasur se keh rahi hai ki mere pati ko dhund laaiye. Sood bahut chad gaya tha, to saahukaar ne hal waapas le liya........ Acche log hain ye purabiya, unke jaisa nazariya rakho to jeevan mast hai, sahal hai, sulajha hua hai."
.
Chicken Soup for the soul - In Hindi. Nahin!?

9 comments:

Shilpa Bhardwaj said...

Hmm... I haven't read Chicken Soup.. first of all! But I liked your narration. I especially liked the NIFT episode and the way you ended the paragraph. At some places I felt you could have improved. For example when you say,
"He showed his statues and paintings....... No displays and no covers, they were just strewn around...... And my god, I haven't seen anything like that till now......."
You keep the reader wondering.. what the statues and paintings might be like.. I think you should describe them here... so that their greatness does not get blown up in the air with the dots you put after now.
:)

Piyush k Mishra said...

Anshul!!
Chicken soup to nahin padhi maine..to us se jod kar dekh nahin sakta magar haan yeh zaroor kah sakta hoon ki tumne kuchh yun likha hai ki sab visualise ho raha hai.Aisa lagta hai har cheez ko bahut gaur se dekhte ho aur samajhte ho.bahut hi interesting as well as informative.
Hmm Purabiya logon ki baat padh kar maza aaya.ha ha!!

Kumar Anshul said...

@Shilpa

Aapka sujhaav acchha laga. Kuchh nayi panktiyaan jodi hain blog mein. Paintings aur staues ke baare mein likha hai...... ab dekhein......

Amit Ranjan said...

Too good :-)

Shilpa Bhardwaj said...

Thanks Anshul... I read it again.. it has come out well.. one thing that RD Burman said and I believe in it... is that "Its not enough to create the tune of a song, you have to nourish it as well" This is true for everything... songs, poems, prose, relations, dreams.

So my two cents are... one should keep going over the piece of work again and again... look at it after an year and still if you think that it is good... that means... it is good.

:)
All the best!

PARICHAY said...

Kya likhein, taarif to sab log kar hi rahen hai...
Bus yeh bataiye Guruji ke kya haal hain and right now what is new in the ashram!!!
I can provide some technical guidance for setting up a community kitchen or solar kitchen in the Ashram. At a lower cost.

pallavi said...

hey...must say u've put all ur heart n feelings in narrating ur experiences...Very beautifully written...u seriously leave all da readers visualize wat everything actually must hve been...
GREAT JOB!!!!!

Harry said...

You have compared Guruji's work with the carvings of Delwara temple which generates the inquisitiveness to see those metal statues.
The way you have presented this anecdote helps one to feel and see it. I was at Gurukul from the first line................great going

Harry said...

I wondered why u didn't chose devnagri script for all Guruji's comment but i presume many of your South Indian friends then would have difficulty in reading that. Here they can understand a bit