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Friday, July 27, 2012

Let the RAIN come....mapfotoagency.com


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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