Things you find only in villages

Looking for something to eat while waiting for bus at Pratapgarh??? Why don’t you try the latest brand of finger chips??? It is called Kurekur .

Kurekur is not available in cities like Mumbai and Delhi and it appears that a famous brand has lifted the packaging style of Kurekur to rake a big moolah :). You will almost mistake it for being that famous brand unless you are careful enough to notice the..err….typo in the name.

The bagheera (leopard) of Narhat

Update 1

While at Narhat village, my favourite timepass at nights was to gaze at lovely night sky…won’t be able to see it in so much glory once I go back to Mumbai. However, my happiness was cut short by a local who told that a bagheera (leopard) frequents the village during night to drink water..and apparently two nights earlier, that bagheera was roaming right outside the house where we were staying. A neighbor spotted the animal at that time.

The local however added that the bagheera is not a man eater..and only eats animals like goats etc. … and hence it was safe to venture out at night. Also, all the villagers sleep outside their homes at night and the bagheera doesn’t do any harm to them…and then, the local peacefully returned to his home.

Needless to say, as soon as the local went back to his house, we closed the doors… Me and my roomie didn’t dare to venture out that night to see the sparkling stars..Well, you do not want to be the first person to know that a bagheera has just turned a man eater..right???


Update 2

Two weeks later, I again went back to Narhat and this time I happened to speak to an old lady about this leopard. She nonchalantly replied that the leopard runs away when you scare it with a stick…I was dumbstruck by the callousness by which she was telling me all this...as if it was their way of life.

Village diary - Narhat, Rajasthan

I am currently in Rajasthan. Area-wise, it is the largest state in the country and boasts of very rich & colorful cultural heritage. Aravali Mountains welcome you to Jaipur while the western international border is a vast desert – called Thar.

I have been here for over a month now and it has been an experience. After spending initial one week in Jaipur, I moved over to a village called Narhat (1.5 hrs from Jaipur) and later on to a tehsil/block called Thanagazi (3 hrs from Jaipur). Both these places are in Alwar district. During my stay at these locations, I travelled a lot in surrounding villages attending various meetings and interacted with a number of villagers.

This area is full of mountains…small mountains, much lesser in height as compared to the great Himalayas and you can easily reach the top. The terrain is rocky and dry. Haven’t seen anything apart from sparse shrubs, Babul trees and cactus on these mountains…and mind you, all of them are thorny. The only flowers I have seen here are on cactus!!! I saw that lot of villages are situated in mountains and their foothills. Often, these villages are miles apart from each other and located at such places which make me sit up & think - Why in the world will you stay in a place as remote as this? It will take hours for a doctor to reach at those places in case of need..but still, the wheel of life goes on.

Staying in village is a different experience altogether. I’ve often heard about water scarcity, sanitation problems, livelihood issues etc in villages but never really got a chance to see it myself until I reached here. I stayed at Narhat village. It is a 400 house village situated in the foothills. The nearest renowned village is Pratapgarh which is 3 kms far. The organization with which I am associated with was kind enough to make my living arrangements…otherwise I would have been in a soup. The village is decent…lots of pucca houses here. People here are warm. Often, when unknown persons come across you in a gali (street), they would say Namaste or Ram-Ram. This is much different from cities where nobody gives a hoot to you. About every house has goat(s) and some also have other cattle like cows, buffaloes, camels etc. So fresh milk availability is guaranteed!!!

The village is not without its share of problems. I haven’t seen any taps here. The wells are non-functional. The area hasn’t seen a proper rainy season for years altogether now. Handpumps are the main source of water. Each morning, everyone -including me- makes trip to village handpump to ferry water to start the day. One automatically learns to economically use water in such situations. There are only couple of shops in this village and one has to rush to Pratapgarh to get stuff. Electricity is an issue here with it not being available for most part of the day. A major issue here is that of sanitation with hardly any proper toilets built in the village. It seems so natural for us city folks to expect amenities like toilets built around but it is a different India in these villages. I didn’t see any landline in the village. But thanks to the mobile revolution, the village is connected to world. Transportation to the village is another issue. Overloaded private jeeps ferry people around here and trust me, these jeeps can put an overcrowded Mumbai local to shame :)

This is primarily a weavers’ village. Narhat means landless. Villagers’ main source of income is carpet weaving and they produce beautiful hand-woven carpets. Some people also do shoe making and govt/private service. The village seems to have realized the importance of education. Apart from govt primary school, two private schools have also come up in Narhat.

The evenings are calm here..no constant blaring of horns and no regular city buzz.. a laid back environment indeed. One can relax just by looking at the sun which is setting beyond mountains. By 07:30-8:00 PM, streets are empty and pitch dark. The night sky looks full of pearls, some faint and some of them shining brightly. It is a mesmerizing view…one that I had longed to see.