Now this was our first day when we were to fend for ourselves, completely on our own. We started from hotel a hour later than we had planned. It had rained heavily and we were drowned in sleep beyond the alarm time. But wanted to make up for it with our quick data collection. Looking for the bus, and being unsuccessful with the same, we managed finally to board the van that went to Khanyara at frequent intervals. The driver seemed to be too sporty to make us feel safe and we tried to look solemn and serious through the ride. It was uneasy for a moment sitting jam packed in the van as the workers travelling to and fro had a typical odour to them. We later got used to the same.
We got down near the Panchayat and went straight to the Pradhan - Ms Anjani. She spoke at length to us about so many things. We had rotated the responsibility of taking down things and it was surprising how much easier it was to be in the position of asking questions rather than having to note each thing down meticulously. It was also a bit strange as they were telling us everything we would ask for. Still everytime a new question popped up in our minds, I felt wary of being doubted by them or being misunderstood.
Next entered a Nepali ward-member. She was highly jovial and laughed all the while. She had kept a fast that day on teh eve of Hartali ki Teej. This day was akin to Karwachauth in the typical Bollywood decpiction but celebrated in a different manner. A lot of counting rituals were required here, (counting of grains etc) because of this this lady didn't have time to engage us in long conversations. She however offered to help the next day. I blurted out in the excitement that I would help her count the grains if she needed but then I realised that it would be unritualistic since wife was to do that for her husband. She however laughed it off and said we were welcome tomorrow.
Soon we had the upa-pradhan for company and he was particularly very gregarious. He wanted to be asked questions one after another. We immediately thought this would be our typical wiseman of the village. He had a limp and was sort of veteran but very lively with conversations. Anjani madam said that she thought of him as her mentor in political and public matters and is grateful to him for the same. Be it culture, farming, finance, history or health, upa-pradhan knew something about everything. He spoke in a dramatic manner such that he was telling stories. It was amusing to listen to him and he put us all immediately at ease. We exchanged phone-numbers and requested permission to disrurb him for the next few days if need be. He didn't mind at all.
Just then Patwari entered and he wa a very good-looking young man with royal features and a strict disposition towards people. He was the first and the only person to ask us about whether we had taken permission from any administrative authority before entering the village. This frightened us a little as we weren't quite expecting the same. But we showed him our permission letter from MICA. He was convinced but still wanted us to get a signature from Police Station or Block Development Office.
On our way out, we luckily met the Cable guys too. It was such a delight that we would not need to search them. They were happy to talk to us and gave us information on the consumption of TV channels and TV serials. Those guys looked like any other city college guy with bling and gel in their hair. But to think of the dark clouds of high-risk infections and drug abuse immediately made me feel depressed.
Thus we thought we must leave right away and start working on the permission. We got to the shop near the Panchayat office and got our photo-ids xeroxed. Thankfully all of us were carrying the same in our bags each day. We were feeling very hungry and thought of someplace to eat at. After inquiring from a few people we found that there was this 'Whispring' hotel which we heard as 'Bisprin' and it took a lot of walking to finally reach to the same when we found out the actual name. On our way we couldn't restrain clicking a lot of pictures and this delayed our arrival to so called 'Whispering'. When we reached, we were disappointed as the meal timings were over and we wouldn't get any food. I was
Thus we stopped our research for the day and went to Dharamshala Police Station as that seemed to be the simplest thing to do. There the Inspector signed it without much ado. We had already xeroxed our id-cards on the way and that made it a lot smoother.
This done, we thought of getting something to eat. Not too far from the police station we found a small Chinese restaurant. We went in and ate noodles. We had this plan of finding some restaurant to eat outside. So when coming back we searched but couldn't find any. We were also feeling scared of the deserted roads and darkening skies. Thus we changed our minds, bought a few important eating items like Bananas and Biscuits and went back to eat at the familiar and safer Kunal Hotel.
After eating we noted down the day's data collected, it being quite rich this time. We also sat and enjoyed some TV in the hotel room until we felt too tired for it and slept off in order to start early the next day.
We got down near the Panchayat and went straight to the Pradhan - Ms Anjani. She spoke at length to us about so many things. We had rotated the responsibility of taking down things and it was surprising how much easier it was to be in the position of asking questions rather than having to note each thing down meticulously. It was also a bit strange as they were telling us everything we would ask for. Still everytime a new question popped up in our minds, I felt wary of being doubted by them or being misunderstood.
Next entered a Nepali ward-member. She was highly jovial and laughed all the while. She had kept a fast that day on teh eve of Hartali ki Teej. This day was akin to Karwachauth in the typical Bollywood decpiction but celebrated in a different manner. A lot of counting rituals were required here, (counting of grains etc) because of this this lady didn't have time to engage us in long conversations. She however offered to help the next day. I blurted out in the excitement that I would help her count the grains if she needed but then I realised that it would be unritualistic since wife was to do that for her husband. She however laughed it off and said we were welcome tomorrow.
Soon we had the upa-pradhan for company and he was particularly very gregarious. He wanted to be asked questions one after another. We immediately thought this would be our typical wiseman of the village. He had a limp and was sort of veteran but very lively with conversations. Anjani madam said that she thought of him as her mentor in political and public matters and is grateful to him for the same. Be it culture, farming, finance, history or health, upa-pradhan knew something about everything. He spoke in a dramatic manner such that he was telling stories. It was amusing to listen to him and he put us all immediately at ease. We exchanged phone-numbers and requested permission to disrurb him for the next few days if need be. He didn't mind at all.
Just then Patwari entered and he wa a very good-looking young man with royal features and a strict disposition towards people. He was the first and the only person to ask us about whether we had taken permission from any administrative authority before entering the village. This frightened us a little as we weren't quite expecting the same. But we showed him our permission letter from MICA. He was convinced but still wanted us to get a signature from Police Station or Block Development Office.
On our way out, we luckily met the Cable guys too. It was such a delight that we would not need to search them. They were happy to talk to us and gave us information on the consumption of TV channels and TV serials. Those guys looked like any other city college guy with bling and gel in their hair. But to think of the dark clouds of high-risk infections and drug abuse immediately made me feel depressed.
Thus we thought we must leave right away and start working on the permission. We got to the shop near the Panchayat office and got our photo-ids xeroxed. Thankfully all of us were carrying the same in our bags each day. We were feeling very hungry and thought of someplace to eat at. After inquiring from a few people we found that there was this 'Whispring' hotel which we heard as 'Bisprin' and it took a lot of walking to finally reach to the same when we found out the actual name. On our way we couldn't restrain clicking a lot of pictures and this delayed our arrival to so called 'Whispering'. When we reached, we were disappointed as the meal timings were over and we wouldn't get any food. I was
Thus we stopped our research for the day and went to Dharamshala Police Station as that seemed to be the simplest thing to do. There the Inspector signed it without much ado. We had already xeroxed our id-cards on the way and that made it a lot smoother.
This done, we thought of getting something to eat. Not too far from the police station we found a small Chinese restaurant. We went in and ate noodles. We had this plan of finding some restaurant to eat outside. So when coming back we searched but couldn't find any. We were also feeling scared of the deserted roads and darkening skies. Thus we changed our minds, bought a few important eating items like Bananas and Biscuits and went back to eat at the familiar and safer Kunal Hotel.
After eating we noted down the day's data collected, it being quite rich this time. We also sat and enjoyed some TV in the hotel room until we felt too tired for it and slept off in order to start early the next day.
Happy Dusshera Silky....try and meet the Dalai Lama...get me an autograph from him na :)
ReplyDeleteOh...the visit has ended actually. And this is merely a record of it. :( couldn't meet him.
ReplyDeleteHow would I get you an autograph...i don't recognize you from the username