[Reader-list] my belated posting06

[nilanjanb at 123india.com]

Posting 06
Where am I: In between we have documented (on video)
one religious event, Gajon, which took place on the
last day of the month Chaitra (mid April) in three
places in Kalikapur. There were processions, mass
bathing by men, women, and kids who kept vows since one
month, and then there were Kanta Jhhap( jumping on the
thorn), Boti Jhhap(jumping on the blades from a height
), walking under the fire, and many other rituals.
Everything was dedicated to Baba Mahadeb ( Lord Shiva).
It was such frenzy! People were dancing, mutually
fighting while collecting the coconuts thrown by the
vowers, vowers were falling on the open blade one after
another from a height of fifteen feet (Bhim, Raju,
Gwaja were among them too), and so on.
I was watching them while they were frequently
shouting, joy Baba Mahadeb, Baba Mahadeb.. before they
jumped into the pond beside the road common to Purba
Diganta and Kalikapur. I was just thinking that what a
strange scene going on there at the border of Purba
Diganta, and with which the residents of Purba Diganta
didn’t have any kind of association!
Now the group members, mostly the Kalikapur kids have
started visiting my place quite frequently. Their main
attraction was drawing pictures on computer. Their
grips on mouse were firmer then but a deadlock
situation had been created especially in case of
writing any text in English, as all of them are almost
ignorant about English. The English desktop came out to
be a serious obstacle. So I thought of using a Bengali
desktop and then I thought of trying out with that
particular Bengali desktop, which Ankur Bangla group
has developed on the Linux platform. Fortunately I am
in close association with the Key members of Ankur
Bangla group. I had actually thought of trying their
Bangla desktop even earlier and also had a discussion
regarding that with Indranil, one of the key persons of
the Ankur Bangla group. Indranil was very much enthused
about the idea and now as I have asked for his help he
has agreed merrily. The very next day he was there in
my place with his laptop! That’s another exciting
session for the kids. Initially they got excited- for
the first time in their life they have seen something
like a laptop. Then they got enthused by seeing
commands in Bengali which they could recognise.
Indranil was trying to explain few things to the kids
while they have then started playing with the mouse.
The session continued for more than two hours and it
was very encouraging for all of us. We have few more
sessions with the computer from which I have derived
into one conclusion that at least for this particular case
localised desktop may be the only possibility towards
using the computer as a potential tool for biodiversity
documentation. Apart from that seeing the strong
affinity and aptitude of those kids in computer I could
very well see a strong possibility of turning them into
literates by using their knowledge base only. They have
a strong orientation towards an image rather than any
written text. I have seen in my own eyes that how they
were sitting in front of the computer patiently for
more than an hour to see each and every scanned image
of the leafs which they have collected as specimens
during their field work. They were enthused to identify
those leafs as if it was a game. Not only they have
painted sun, tree, landscape, house, in the computer
but they also tried to paint leafs, fruits, which they
have collected as specimens. I can very well feel the
demand and utility of an image-based desktop in
Bengali, which as I understand would very much possible
in a Linux platform. 

The fieldwork continued. More data have been generated.
The kids were taking the lead and several others from
Kalikapur have started sharing their knowledge. Bhim’s
young uncle, Shibu Ghorai, has handed over a list to us
of the birds(24 species) seen in the locality. One
couple from Kalikapur has talked about the shrubs/
leafs which make an integral part of every day’s
dietary supplement of Kalikapur people, and which they
could easily collect from the wild. Bhim and Shanu took
us to an old lady, Bidhumukhi Darik, known for her
knowledge of treating animal bites, especially the dog
bites. She prepares the medicine by smashing roots of a
particular plant but she didn’t tell us the name of
that particular plant as it’s forbidden, she said. 
Collection of fuel wood- most of the Kalikapur families
use matir unun, the oven made of earth, for their
cooking purposes. They mostly use tree leafs, stems,
dry dead plants, which actually they collect either
from the roadside( By-pass) social forestry, or from
the nearby urban localities like, Purba Diganta, or
Eastern Park. In these localities they do household
collections too. Like if some how a lady from Kalikapur
knows a family in Purba Diganta who has coconut trees
in their house then the Kalikapur lady will have an
advantage of getting the dry leafs from those trees.
Sometimes it also happens that the Kalikapur people,
mostly the ladies and the kids, do scavenge abruptly in
the urban localities, only to find various things like,
termite affected woods, packing boxes, old news papers,
which all are being used as the fuel. Some families
also use cow dung cakes which generally they make on
their own either by gathering their own cow’s droppings
or simply by scavenging for the same. Shanu and Bhola
said that they also collect fuel wood whenever they get
it. Another thing people of Kalikapur use is the stiff
black soil which they say is very good as fuel. But
that’s only available at the time of digging work. 
Sheela said that they use all the tree leafs available
as fuel except, Bel, Bot, Ashwoththo, and Neem as their
ancestors have forbidden these trees to be used for
fuel. This could possibly be one of the most rare
examples of retaining traditional ethics of protection
of sacred trees in an urbanised surrounding.