Life in the Village

At 6:00 someone is again banging on my door.  “Manju!!” yells Babu this time.  This time I am ready, it is tea time.  I started liking this tea actually.  I open the door, a big smile and “Good Morning!”  I take my tea and sit down on the bed near the window.  Looking outside and slowly drinking my tea.  Outside there are corn fields, corns are small yet.   There is a huge plant right in front of my window, I have seen this somewhere, but I will remember.  The moment you don’t look at your tea flies gather around it.  At night I am not as bothered by the bugs because I am safe in my mosquito net but during the day flies, spiders, geckos and all kinds of creatures are all around.

 

 

 

After I finish my tea I go for a walk.  I take my cigarettes too.  I am still not sure how people react to the smoking.  I couldn’t find time to ask Shreeram and I do not want to offend anybody.   There is the village center 10 minutes away by foot.  I will walk there and buy some water.  I have been warned by foreigners not to the drink the water from the well.  So I will have to carry my water every day from the village.  They also say I shouldn’t be even eating anything uncooked which is washed by the water from the well but hey I can’t be that careful, I will live here for 2 months.  I can say I can’t eat the mango or the coconut because it is washed with that water.  But for now I will buy my water and later try the water from the well.

I find Rekha Didi and say “Pani” and wave. She say “Pani pagaudi.” This means going to buy water.  I smile and go.  I light a cigarette walking. People riding bikes pass me.  The most common transportation is bicycles.  The more lazy people who have a little bit more money use motorcycles.   You hardly ever see a car. And they are just passing through.

 

I walk surrounded by rice fields.  Endless… Among the fields there are houses.  They are all small cob houses with sedge roofs.  The Himalayas are spotted from far away,  misty mountain tops,  calm and safe.  They give me a feeling of sureness.  I pass small bridges.  During and after the Manson water will be under these bridges but right now the streams are dry.  The trees are all big, they look up to the mountains.  The streets are untouched by dozers or pavement.  They only know human, goats, buffaloes,  cows and bicycles.  While I am walking people come running out of their houses and yell at me “Hello!”. Children, who learn English at their schools ask me my name, where I came from and where I am going.  I say Manju, Turkey, pani pagaudi. It is so easy to explain yourself here.  No one cares what university you graduated, what region you live, who is your hairdresser, what car you drive.  They don’t care what you do.  All they need is your name, so they can call you by it tomorrow when they see you again.

When I arrive at the villiage, I enter the small grocery store. All they sell is vegetables, water, pencils, notebooks and cigarettes.  An old man is sitting infront of the store. I bow and say” Namaste” he smiles and gets up.  He goes in the store, I say “pani?” “Dui.” He takes 2 dusty botttles of water out of the fridge, which only exist in stores here, cleans them with a newspaper and hands them to me.  I give him 50 rupis and he finds the key to the locked box where the money is kept, opens it and put the 50 in gives me 10.  He moves very slowly.  For people who live in big cities and try to catch something all the time moving slowly might be very painful.  But I adopt quickly so I don’t care how long it takes. I have nothing to do, nowhere to be… I stick the bottles in mu bag, walk out. “Namaste” and a smile.

 

 

I light another cigarette on the way back.  I walk slowly and looking around.  Not being in a hurry is the most beautiful thing for me… As slow as you want.  People yell “ Hello” from their houses, I smile, wave and say “Hello”.  They ask me again where I am going, I say home.

 

 

 

When I reach the house Babu and Nani are sitting down to eat.  I again eat with them. This dal bhat tarkari turns out to be really delicious… The potatoes first taste to hot but now I am getting used to it.  I didn’t really like the hot spices much before.  But here it is a significant taste and I am a guest, I can’t  ask them to cook me a separate meal.  So I will get used to it, later on I will love it… Learning to love is much easier than rejecting to accept…