One day in the Gairing-- ## BY JOYDEEP DEBBARMA
Swiftly, the breeze fluttering the leaves, and some bamboo shoots sprouted side-by-side from the earth. I stood on the top of the hill, and I saw the slope was green. "Oh, how nice it is."
I heard two or three voices chattering among the bushes. "Hello, anyone here?" I said.
And there was complete silence except for the chirping of the birds. I came to the nearby hut, looked around, it was empty. I sat on the floor (bamboo beam) of the garing(hoisted hut) and swung my legs. I folded sleeves of a shirt, and fresh air was blowing in.
I saw two people, a man and a woman to another slope of the hill, and they were planting red Maimi rice. They dug the earth and inserted three to four rice grains into it and climbed up the slopes following the same pattern, uphill.
"Monkeys! monkeys!" One of them cried, " Hui- huiya!".
Another fellow accompanied and made a louder noise, "Hui- huiya, monkeys, hey! Go away!"
I saw them facing toward me, it must be their hut, and I stood, but they didn't say anything to me. I sat back again, beaming at the two.
Two children came up from the muddy road and stare at me. They were holding three to four thin books.
"Hey, you all came from private tuition?"
The two children nodded and went inside the hut.
"Can I come in?" I said, turning around from the slope.
The two ran behind the door, and I look back toward the slope again. It was dark in the sky, and suddenly it started raining.
I stood and went inside the hut. I saw the two children eating rice, plain rice. The little girl took out some salts from the tilok and mixed it with the plain rice. The boy, who was two or maybe three years younger than the girl does the same, and they both pour half-glass of water in the mixer of rice and salt and gulp it, it was appetizing, though. I was observing them. They didn't say anything to me. As it continues to rain, I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky.
The couple who were planting rice came sprinting to the hut. They put down their Langas( baskets) and replace their clothes with dry ones. I stood as they entered into the small one-room gairing.
"It's okay!" The man said, "How are you supposed to be here?"
"I am working for block development schemes," I said, “can I have a glass of water, sore throat."
"Oh, our block?"
"Yes, I am surveying."
The woman gave me a glass of water and said, "I have arak, do you want to try a cup of it?"
"Yes, good for sore throat," the man said, "Have it." He gave me a cup of arak.
I took a sip, and it relieved my throat.
"Oh, like a medicine, it worked."
The man said, "This is the only medicine which kept us surviving in the hills. He sighed. You know too much hard work is required to make a living in this place. Drinking water is one most essential, for which we have to go down the hill and fetch from the bank of the stream. Sometimes the water is contaminated with cow dung and other kinds of stuff."
"You drink that?" I asked, "At least, you didn't boil it?"
" A spring of fresh-water is bubbling up there nearby the stream, it is drinkable water, purified by nature, " the man smiled, " but in an open place, sometimes we also found all kinds of animals drink water there."
The woman started cooking rice and boils some jungle potatoes. The man poured more of arak in my cup, and we talk about rains and the hills. The place is beautiful, and I saw a rainbow forming on the top of the slope.
"I will cook for you," the woman said, “You can have lunch with us today."
"It will be okay," I said, "I shall have to go."
It was continuing to rain. The children had a good time in the rain. I heard them singing: Rain, rain, go away, come back another day. Little jhony wants to play. Rain, rain, -go away!
"They went to which school?"
"Bangla medium school at 13 miles," the man replied, "They heard that song from the eu-tuv."
"U- Tube?"
"Mobile net,” he said, "my elder brother's son has a mobile net phone. They always gather around for watching eu-tuv on the mobile net."
"Is it?"
"Last day, we have seen in the mobile net about the girl possessed by a spirit. Someone was counseling her. she was murmuring in anger."
“Internet is new magic we can see many things. Do you believe in witches?"
The man kept silent for a moment.
"Why not," he sighed, "don't you?"
The woman had finished preparing lunch. And she starts making Bangui. She chopped banana leaves and rinsed it with clean water. She packed the red Maimi sticky rice in cone-shaped, made from banana leaves, and fasten it with waruk (Bamboo strips).
"Would you like your wife to be a member of Self Help Group?"
"Help-self group?" He signed, "I don't understand in such kind of schemes. I am fed-up with the tussle among group members. I was a member of one help self group before."
"Do you believe many sticks are hard to break than a single one?"
"What do you mean?" he scratches his head and smokes the bamboo made hookah.
I took ten thin sticks, held side by side, and asked him to break it.
"I know it won't break,” he said, "I said we don't know how to work in help self group. We also don't have enough time for all this training. What about our Jhum, how about the risk mitigation plan?"
"We'll provide you a loan and our convergence plan with Panchayat is ready to be placed in the annual action plan."
"Before I was also the members of the help-self group, I know what it meant. These kinds of schemes are only for time being and the benefit of the office-bearers in the long run."
The rain has stopped, and I heard the sound of bullfrogs.
The woman brought three cone-shaped Bangui and fried bitter gourd leaves with dry-fish. The odor of the Bangui was so pleasing. She gave it to me, and I ate one.
"Would you be able to give me your details, household details?"
"My name is Budhurai," He said, "See, I hope this is not a korona vairus test survey. I don't expect any health workers to come and collect our mucus."
"Testing is mandatory, see, the government is trying to protect you," I said, " later on, you'll be needing money to pay for the test."
The woman stood and snatched the Bangui she had offered to me and said, “Please, I want you to leave right now."
I kept goggling at her for a while. "They must be coming on the way," I said, "thank you for the Bangui."
"Don't misunderstand our hospitality, young man," Budhurai said, “We offered you not for presuming your help."
"We know what happens in the korona vairus care center," the woman said, "They don't even care. We have seen many cases in uo-tuv. No one is responsible, not even the doctors, neither the nurses. They'll not even send the dead body of the patient to the family members."
"Do you ever know what that meant to us?" Budhurai jeered.
"How can we trust them?" The woman concluded, "Now, please go."
I left the garing but with a thought.
(N.B: Arak is well-distilled liquor, prepared in local homes of the hill dwellers)
####By-Joyd###
