On Road In North East India-7

LETTER TO A FRIEND-2

Dear Vidhya,

 

I remembered you last week.

No, nothing to do with your new profile pix in Facebook, but a different thing altogether.

Because it brought back memories my late mother also.

Your favourite ‘Chillu patti’.

I was in Kamrup village visiting a farmer on the outskirts of Guwahati, Assam who is growing rajnigandha and chrysanthemum in polyhouses.

While returning from polyhouses, I spotted this.

Look at this…

Remember what it is?

 It is sparrow’s nest.

My mother and your ‘Chillu patti’ (Chillu grandma) used to tell you that it is a kuruvi koodu (nest of sparrow in Tamil) when you hardly 2 or 3 years in 1986-7!

Somehow whenever I see kuruvi koodu (sparrow nest), I always remember you.

And my mother.

 
How beautifully these little creatures build their home out of straw, hay, dried leaves….

Beautiful civil engineering skillsets.

I saw plenty of them.

When we live in metros, we lose touch with nature.

You in Singapore and I in Delhi.

And we all go bonkers when we see animals in jungle or watch tribal life on Geo wild or Animal Planet.

Talking about villages, reminded me of my niece Savita Venkataraman, (now in Boston on a visit). Her mother in law (incidentally, she was my school mate in Children Garten School, Mylapore, Tamilnadu in 1960s) narrated this to me during a recent visit to their Mumbai abode.

One day, Savita when the family was on a vacation to somewhere in the country, decided to take her two little sons to a nearby village. “I did not understand this urge to show my grandsons these villages. .. But Savita explained that her children need to know villages are also part of India and they living in highrise concrete jungles should get exposed to mud houses, wihtout fans and airconditioners, cooking with wood-fed stoves (not LPG), wells, and how they grow paddy, bullock carts etc.”

Savita was trying to get her children the rural connect or Bharat connect.

We all must show our children (particularly the city bred) these things.

Sorry… this also brought back memories of my own experience.

When my daughter Krutika was hardly 5 years, I took her in a Haryana state transport bus to 50 km into rural backyard.

Both of us walked 5 km from the pucca road where we alighted into the nearby village.

We saw gud (jiggery) making, men and women taking bath in a temple tank, oil crushing with two bulls circling a manual crusher and someone milking a cow! For my daughter, who is familiar with sachet milk pockets, it was a revelation!

Lovely rural darshan.

Enough for today, Vidhya.

Next time when you visit India, take your children to Mudikondan (near Mayavaram, Tamilnadu) from where your father hails.

Hope to catch up with you at your father’s 60^th birthday in Chennai on April 30, 2013!

Cheers