Unexpected Rains; Unexpected Revelations

10th October, 2013

             

Today was a day of revelations. Throughout the day, people kept making subtle references about the Naxalism problem in the area. It was our last day of fieldwork and we decided to broach the topic openly.

 We reached Kaka's house at 7:30 for a cup of adrak wali chai and one of my group members started talking about her experience in Gadchiroli. She mentioned that all of us were, deep down, were scared to come here but were surprised by how friendly and open the people were. We were never stopped from going anywhere or had any restrictions and this was surprising because most of us thought that would be strict curfew.

Kaka told us that there is usually nothing to fear here. Usually nothing to fear? Did that mean that there were some problems, I prodded. He recounted an incident which took place about 5 to 6 years back. Some Naxalites had come to the village and had entered their house. They were on a recruitment drive of sorts and had come to “talk” to youngsters in the village. They entered Kaka’s house and demanded to be fed. When they saw a T.V., they asked him to switch it on.

Kaka told us, “T.V. hamare ghar mein naya aya tha. Main darr gaya kyunki mujhe chalane nahin ata tha. Kaise bhi sare button dabakar maine T.V.  chalu kiya”

At this point, I noticed that his hands were trembling slightly. He told us that the whole time he was fiddling with the buttons, he was scared that he would be shot from behind. He had to keep them distracted so that his wife could warm others and hide their children. He hid his children under the bed, other families, emptied the barrels full of grain, asked their children to get in and covered them with grains.

The men spoke to people in the village for a while and left. After, that no one h returned to the village. But his village was lucky, he said, in the nearby village…

At this point, Kaki came in bearing out tea and in hushed tones told him not to tell us these things. Kaka reassured her, but that moment was lost. He seemed a little reluctant to tell us other things and just said that once or twice people had been shot dead in nearby areas.

After our morning chai, we left for the jungle pheri at around 8 in the morning. The jungle was mesmerizing and I hadn’t seen something so beautiful in my life.  But there was something peculiar about the forest. A lot of roots of the trees were exposed. A Kaka told us that it happened because of soil erosion. The soil in the area was Murumbh or red soil which could not hold a lot of water. The perennial nalas that flowed in the forests and fields would erode soil, leaving the roots exposed.

One of my group members had done Bachelors in Geography and he explained that many a time, the soil erosion left behind interesting patterns. He pointed out a few of them.

The passerby’s were interested in talking to us and a few of them even stopped their bikes to talk to us.

I also, spotted the Blue bus, a bus service sponsored by the government that takes children to school free of cost.

Now, one of the aims of coming to Pandhrigota was to understand whether the people in the village knew about the forest rights. After walking for 4 kms. we stopped for a break and held a little group discussion.

The government had allocated a part of the forest to Pandhrigota in 2008. But they came to know about this only a couple of months back. A positive thing that came up in the group discussion was that the people were proactive. They had applied to the Collector’s office for a map that would tell them the area that had been allocated to them.

As we started walking back, a Kaka mentioned about a village called Japragadh, where people were not allowed to settle by the Naxals even though the land was really fertile. That village was located on top of a hill and was very close to the Chhattisgarh border.

But once we started asking questions, they just gave us vague answers. An interesting thing that I noticed during the walk were the numerous trucks that passed by. I was told that the Chattisgarh border is about kms. Away and many of these trucks secretly smuggle teak from the forests. This particular route also helped them evade the taxes the toll booths were located on the other side.

As we returned to the village, we were shown various trees and were told about the wildlife about the forest. Strangely, the people kept calling English as ‘England Bhasha’. 

And since was supposed to be a day of revealations, I finally decided to solve the mystery of 358. You see, in one of the Kaka’s house the number 358 was written on the door and on my first day, I thought it probably was the house number. When I asked him, he gave me a surprising answer. He said 358 stood for Triratna Panchsheel Ashtamarg and it was a holy number for the Buddhist. Lesson learnt; never hesitate to ask a question, even if you think it is stupid.

Another tidbit of information that I picked up during our Jungle Pheri was that today was going to be the market day in Korchi.

After borrowing two bicycles, we left for the market. 

Here are some scenes from the Korchi Weekly Market

In the evening, we had a Mashal Pheri. Inexperienced as we were, we assumed that we will be able to create a perfect Mashal in no time at all. After seeing us struggle with it, one of the Kakas decided to help us out. He asked his wife to get bamboo and he made a hollow in it. He filed it with  some kerosene, stuffed it with cloth and asked us to tilt it after burning to ensure that the cloth gets sufficient kerosene. 

After our Mashal Pheri, we all went back to have dinner and decided to have the Gram Sabha at around 8. Rains, however, decided to play spoilsport and our plans for the Sabha were seemed to have been washes away. But at around 9: 30, it had slowed down to a drizzle and we decided to have our Gram Sabha.

About 20 people had turned up near the Pandal and we used the mike to ensure that maximum people could listen to us. But suddenly, the mike was snatched away from us the minute we accidentally mentioned the word Naxalism.We did not get it back for the rest of the session. 

This gave me an insight; on the surface the people tried to act carefree, as if there was no problem but beneath the surface, there surely was fear.