My Rural Experience

 “I can make the buffalo fart.” said my cousin to me while driving the bullock cart. I was sitting behind him, in squat position because I thought that it was the same cart used to carry dung to the farm. I was amazed how he could make it fart. He lifted its tail and it really did fart.

“Disgusting it is.” I said to him, to which to laughed madly.

My 10^th board exams just got finished. I was determined to take medical stream, so, my father decided to visit our ancestral house before I got engaged in studies for a month.

I had never experienced the village lifestyle, culture and tradition because my parents left the village when I was 2 for my studies. I did not stay too long there even during holidays. So, I was pretty excited. I thought it would be great and exotic. But the reality was opposite.

The first day went well but the night was awful because the electric supply went off. I had problems adjusting to the joint family system but I wanted to enjoy it as I knew would not get this experience again in my life.

“Get up.” said my grandmother to me tickling me on my neck. I opened my eyes; my 2 cousins and my grandmother were standing around my bed and staring at me.

“Get up and take bath. I want you to join your cousins to the Gram Kheda.” she added.

I got up, took a bath and went to kitchen where we were handed a pot of 90% water and 10% raw milk, turmeric, diya, wheat flower and sugar. I followed my cousins as didn’t know anything about the tradition. We were welcomed by stray dogs. Somehow I managed to look brave though I was terrified from inside. We took our shoes off and entered the place where the Gram Kheda was situated. We rang the bell, touched the doorstep. Then my cousins told me the further rituals. We bathed the Kheda with the solution of water and milk, and then we drew Swastika with turmeric over it and put the flour and sugar in the nearby containers.

One night, me and my cousins decided to spend the whole day in the farm alone.

We left the home and reached the farm by 5 in the morning. My cousins asked me to take some food stuffs but I denied because I wanted have an adventure. As soon as we reached the field we opened the farm house which was just a room with few cots, a wooden stove and few utensils. We mulched a cow and while I was taking it to the farmhouse, my foot collided with a stone and I fell on the cow dung with milk over me. We again had to mulch.

I had to take bath but there was no bathroom, only a tube well. I bathed there and washed my clothes. While they were getting dry, we made our full milk tea which was yummy. When my clothes dried, we went to search for some vegetables. We found some capsicum, onion, pigeon pea and tomato. So, we cooked a pulao and enjoyed it with some plain boiled milk. Then we climbed the mango tree where we spent our afternoon and the night we had roasted potato with milk. The day was amazing but during night even the lowest frequency voice terrorized me. To worsen the situation, the thunderstorm came.

We somehow managed to spend the night pranking each other, telling horror stories etc.

I enjoyed going to the Devi temple where we offered sweet wheat flour fritters. Every day, I would accompany my cousins to pick vegetables and raw mangoes.

And my learning about the village traditions and culture came to an end with the end of my holidays.