Bargad- tree which fulfill wishes.

Recently I was in Jaypore ( not Jaipur the capital of Rajasthan) , Jaypore is in Koraput district Orissa. I was there with some work at judicial court. I reached there early at 9 am as the working hours starts in Indian offices at 10 morning. But there the seen was very interesting, a large gathering of people were there before I reach there. They were sitting under a huge banyan tree in front of the court and enjoying the shade by sipping tea and having snacks ( idly and chatni). Really tree is very huge and covering about 2000 square feet. A platform is made around it with arrangements to sit.

As in my home state  Kerala , there I had not seen such huge banyan trees,except  in road sides, which  were also not so huge I have seen here. But I heard  from my father that , at Adayar in  Chennai, there is a huge banyan tree which cover a area of about one kilo-meter.

Someone , who was with me to assist in court work said me that they are taking  medicated oxygen, because in  early  morning hours  it release a large amount of oxygen  that have such a curative power even help to get cured from TB. I don’t know is it  true or not. May it be also a “satta”(Hindi word, meaning Guess)

Whatever, here  I would like to tell here something about  the  importance of Banyan tree to Indians.

 

Mushrooms …..beautiful !

The below mushrooms are I found in jungles of south Orissa during my trek.

coffee color wild mushroom.

White lily mushroom.

Lily mushrooms.

Beautiful white lily mushroom.

Red apple mushroom.

Red apple mushroom.



Common edible mushroom.

Poverty, illiteracy and superstition… who cares?

Today I was reading newspaper; two local news’s caught my attention. The news was like …

One - “BLIND BELIEF LEADS TO HORRIBLE CRIME” Sister ‘sacrificed ‘ for getting wealth. In Mayurbhanj district, a man sacrificed his sister to get mental peace and wealth. According to the accused, he killed a snake two days before of the incident and in his sleep the snake god appeared and cursed him on his sin and as a remedy directed him to sacrifice one of his family member. Therefore, he planned to sacrifice his sister and he chopped off her head with a sharp weapon during her sleep.

Second – “WITCHCRAFT SUSPECTED” Woman branded with hot iron. This incident also in same Mayurbhanj district. Hear the villain is a rich man, who suspects  an elderly poor women as a witch doctor and due to her witchcraft his daughter suffering from illness since long. So he called some ‘tantriks’ and organized a puja in that the tantriks suggested to brand the witch doctor with hot iron and he done it.. Horrible!

Such incidents are many in these illiterate poor areas, even I remember when I was in Bihar,then also such news’s I read ,happening in Bihar and Jharkhand but occasional. Here, it seems an often news(these are reported and who knows how many such incidents were there un reported ?).

One thing we can understand, poverty and illiteracy are the root causes of such incident. But can anybody justify the act of literate illiterate’s activity in  above second incident?

Superstitions from the mind of these illiterate, poor villagers cannot be eradicated in a single day but by educating them sure, there will be a change in society and slowly such superstitions are vanished. But who cares? A hungry stomach need food first, not pencil and books. The money flowing in the name of literacy will only effective when there is a programme for sustainable income for poor’s otherwise the flowing money in the name of literacy leaks to somebody’s pockets only.

Hairstyle, sickle, and dongria women.

Sickle, axe, hoe etc are common agriculture tools of an agrarian society. Indeed Dongrias are agrarian society ,male keeps their axe as a body part on their shoulder same time female keep the sickle on their hair like a ornament as well as for domestic purpose. See pictures below how dongria woman keeping her sickle as a hairstyling clip.