Yes, no, maybe?

An attempt to make a collage for

Intellectual Observer

Give feedback

do mention some resources on collage making.

Closure

• whatever closure you're looking for is only going to come from within, not from him.

What I have been upto- December.

December is mostly a blur. In the first week- I went for my first ever night halt on my own, to the eastern Banni region, to a village called Nani Daddhar. It was two nights long actually, between 6th December to 8th December and lot of fun, culture shock and unlearning. Also this visit marked my initiation into learning "milking the buffalo".

The night before on 5th December, I was nervous indeed. First of all I had concerns about reaching that

pace one piece and secondly I was worried about language hassles. So much baggage

before the trip had even begun. Rightly so, I forgot the birthday of one of my closest buddies, the following day!

I had not had enough time to soak in all the Banni-ness and the wedding bells were already ringing for darling Shilpa. I had no heart to miss her wedding. And so I traveled to Pune via Bombay. Thr night halt at home was simply amazing! It was re-iteration of the fact that I really miss my parents (contrary to my initial beliefs which suggested otherwise). The rid

e from Mumbai to

Pune in the luxirious MSRTC volvo was super indeed. Especially the winding ghats and all. Refreshed, I reached Shilpa's home the morning of 13th. The first sight of her was an emotional affair. Shilpa had not hired professionals for her make-up

etc SO her friends were helping her with the same. I have zilch know-how on make up and was doing the general running around. But because of the whole thing being a very small, personal, close-knit affair her wed

ding was very special indeed! It was two days of dance, drama and

action add to it her best buds from school and SPA days. It was lot of fun indeed. And ofcourse, yours truly with help of Sheetal managed to drape a Sari, thanks to Rashi was

ornamented with make-up and thanks to the entire girl gang had the confidence to sashay around the

lawns at the wedding venue without a fall.

And ofcourse, Shilpa post the water cosmogony

module ad decided to include all the rituals of a Garhwali wedding. All in all the most fun I have had in recent times, read a long long time!

I was back at Sahjeevan on 16th only to leave for Chirag on 24th December for the mid-point meeting. I was in no mood to travel that mu

ch again but alas! Also I let my co-fellows talk me into staying there for new year's something I had mixed feelings about later on. But guess what, it was really really cold and on new year's eve it snowed! I was too numb to feel much in the body but yes there was a strange warmth in the mind. I had carried with me work for post-Pashumela report. An assignment I was able to finish but

not mail in.

Anyway,

I handed the little report over to Ramesh Bhai after I was back at Sahjeevan on the 3rd of January. Post that it was time to once again seriously pursue my study on women of Banni and their role in animal

husbandry.

These days...

Initially when I move to Kachchh, I would write off and on. My dad was a bit skeptical about me keeping daily logs. I laughed off his suspicions saying I loved writing and so I would. But halfway into my fellowship I realised I haven't written enough to consolidate my experiences, thoughts opinions, ideas- whatever. And so. I do this now. Lot of information would be obviously lost this way but something is better than nothing. Also I got from home my inks and drawing papers but have been barely painting at all. SO I have decided to combine my monthly/ quarterly reports with my consolidation for self notes with blogging. Lets see if this helps. Also I have been reading up social sciences stuff on a very sporadic basis. I love it. Not to forget the question 'what after June' has been raising its head.

I guess I am ok!

I am not a jester,
I am not a clown.

When I talk a lot,
you say I crib too much

When I talk too little
you say I am very quiet

whatever I do or say
doesn't seem to match up
ever- may be you are
way beyond my standards

I know not love,
that was measured-
in centimeters or liters...

I know not political correctness,
I know not how to
hit below the belt
with a sugar ring around it.

But I guess I am OK,
the way I am.
With my flaws-
my hairy arms eyebrows
and a sprouting mouch

I guess I am OK!

from the archive 02/06/09 first I thought I wrote this for an ex-boyfriend then I realised I wrote this for a girlfriend actually :P

coming soon!

a gist of my thoughts and feelings about Banni

These days I am here

Luckily, they have remained till now, off the map

our thoughts don't travel this far

A mostly muslim community, this one

is closer in it's mind to Pakistan

although, they now tread on the Indian soils

And why not, their radio catches Pakistan stations

They are Maldharis, they are keepers of buffaloes

and sheep and goats and more

They shun permanency

and perhaps that's why

rest of the world, me included

find it difficult to trust them

they migrate with their cattle

wherever the cattle finds food and water

they migrate at the expense of their own comfort

so that the land recuperates behind them

they still have families back in Pakistan

and a train from Jodhpur takes them

to their earlier home

they live with little

make do with what they have

they speak a dialect between kachchhi and sindhi

the men folk travel the world

the women don't cross the home thresholds

women don't even watch tv or listen to the radio

its forbidden apparently

they community finds itself without girls these days

and so girls are brought in from Kolkata

for marriage

By themselves their customs seem cruel, crude

but who am I to say, because they are survivors,

droughts, earthquakes, storms, calamities

they have braved it all and so

they stand tall and proud,

also greedy for free money

who am I to say they want it easy

for their life has been anything but easy

at times they have survived by eating

seeds of grass and barks of trees

will I ever understand them

and come to trust them

or even trust myself enough

to be able to work with them

An overnight stay at Banni was fun, the moon five sizes big than I would see it in Mumbai was shining brilliantly on the Pakkas (temporary houses of Maldharis) we ate a modest but lovingly cooked meal of roti and dungri shaak and crawled under elaborately stiched quilts. The women of the house took out the newest ones for us. What make these people of such extreme conditions so courteous to visitors? Post the overnight stay, the morning after when periods hit me and I knew there would no be any toilets around I was ready to break down. But there was work to be done and these things were quickly forgotten. But next day post the overnight stay, when I had the choice of not going, I decided to stay back and work in office. I feel so ashamed for not having enough guts to go to Banni today. This feeling of helplessness sort of kills me a little everyday. How will I manage to work in Banni, I have no clue. More so, the fact that I am not exactly in love with some people here doesn't make it easy. Will I ever have enough balls, Jhumpi I miss you dearly- I miss your words of wisdom and courage which have always egged me on.

Answers

A>

The traditional occupations in Kachchh, in the order of (?)

Dry land farming

animal Husbandry

Fishing

Sea Trade

Handicrafts

Business

Industries/ factories

Traditional occupations as I understand come to be owing to the very obvious factors of geography, availability of natural resources, climate of a place and umm err I need to read up on this ;)

A>

Kachchh has a huge livestock population due to the following factors:

Absence of predators like lion, tigers in significant numbers

There haven't been severe droughts in a long time.

Veterinary services are available today

Better transport ensures availability of fodder even in lean time and access to resources

Government schemes and subsidizes

Present day thriving dairy business, encourages livestock keepers to further AH activities

Lot of initially available water was exploited using technology etc, the amount and quality of water being lesser and inferior today has led to farmers shifting from farming to AH

Communities out of spiritual beliefs and solidarity support livestock shelters (mostly cattle).

A>

Dairy business did not survive in Kachchh initially despite of having a large livestock population because

Kachchh faced severe droughts in the past (for thee out of five years in a cycle)

Lack of forward (organized, efficient and transparent milk collection system, milk storage, marketing of milk and milk products) and backward (availability of sufficient food, water, healthcare facilities and hygienic living conditions of livestock ) linkages.

Fluctuation in quantity of milk collected, depending upon rainfall that given year

Huge distances and poor infrastructure hampering connectivity of collection centres in villages with markets in adjoining and urban areas.

Producers' not getting paid the prices they deserve for milk and milk products due to erratic supply chain management and quality and quantity of milk-milk products.

Management of milk co-operatives, slack and corrupt (eg: fat percentage changes when checked at the the collection centre and the eventual dairy where milk is sold, tampering with milk and milk products while in transit).

Lack of transparency even at producer levels.

A>

Livestock keepers have gradually shifted from rearing cows to buffaloes because

government's idea of planting Prosopis Juliflora or Ganda Bawal to contain desert backfired as cow's chewing on it's fruit developed paralytic conditions of mouth while buffaloes could chew on it's fruits unaffected.

During green revolution, several agricultural technologies came up and tractors and mechanized farming became a norm, as a result the demand for draft animals reduced dramatically, so also livestock keepers were lost interest in farming bullocks.

Due to damming of rivers, increasing salinity of grazing lands availability of fodder and grass reduced, in such conditions buffaloes give more milk output as compared to cows in terms of input resources versus quality-quantity of milk output.

After white revolution, milk with more fat content began fetching a better price- the fat content of buffalo milk is obviously higher than cow's milk and livestock keepers preferred the former.

Also farmers and livestock keepers as well those engaged in hard-labour benefited from the higher fat content of buffalo milk than cow's milk, in terms of their day to day consumption.

Communities especially livestock keepers with nomadic lifestyle settle where they do depending upon:

Their native land,

the food / grazing requirement of their livestock.

whether they are into farming and livestock keeping or only livestock keeping. Therefore the herd size of animals.

Maldharis or livestock keepers with nomadic lifestyle as they are known in Kachchh are fantastic people; as they are one with nature. They live with and for their livestock i.e domesticated animals so much so that they migrate according to the food and water requirements of their animals, not their own. Which we outsiders and governments of various states view as failure or lack of basics which in our eyes pushes them to migrate. We fail to see that apart from the need of their animals they migrate to allow nature to recuperate behind them from grazing etc.