No rain for months.
This is May, pre-monsoon, as per the old
ways.
Things are not as it used to be.
We boys do what had to be done. We organise
kadakher (smearing with mud).
A male and a female kolabeng (frog) are caught from the hole.
Red dye is collected, a garland knotted;
marriage performed for the frogs for they are the symbols of water. When the
thunders arrive, rain falls. The frogs sing.
A hole is dug under the mango tree. Water
poured. There is mud and we cover ourselves with that and roll over the ground.
We pray for rain:
Allah
, megh de, pani de, chaya de re tui allah;
ashman
hoilo tuta tuta, jomin hoilo fata……
We walk through the village; we roll over
and over.
Aunts and sisters rush with water and throw
over the party. They try to cool our body temperature. They bless us.
Everyone wants rain to arrive soon.
We reach the village water body. Half of
the water has already evaporated.
We have seen the elders doing this. They
say that Allah listens more when the children beg.
There was a man in our village used to tie his
feet to the branch of a mango tree and hang upside down for days; it was
through suffering that he begged for rain.
He got educated and left for city. He lives
in the city and doesn’t come back to the mango orchards.
Meherpur 2012
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