Konkan: how I saw it

How do you know Konkan? Have you checked it in the map for your next holiday? Have you visited Konkan to enjoy the beaches? Which one you like the best? Srivardhan? Are you from Konkan? I would be envious. Its a beautiful landscape. Does not matter whether you like sea-beaches or hills, you will love Konkan.

I have roamed in Konkan to meet Katkaris and Thakars. I walked in different parts of Roha, Mhasla, Mangaon to visit villages with exotic names. Taraygar (house of stars) is one such example. Katkaris are a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) who till some time ago were a Primitive Tribe Group (PTG) and before that a De-notified Tribe Group and till British were here they were a Criminal Tribe. In all these changes of names on paper, their real status never changed. Thakars are even less known. It was almost always difficult to hold a meeting in the Thakar-wari (Thakar hamlet) after sundown. No prizes for the guessing why!

They say it rains a lot in Konkan. Weather reports say that, people discuss that and the newspapers reports talk about how much damage gets caused by the rain. But I saw none of this. Never. I only was subjected to the merciless, relentless sun and terrible heat. It was only once that I spent some days in the winter. Rest of my visits were all in summer months which starts as early as February in this area.

This particular story is set in the month of April. I traveled to Konkan on a 10 day trip. I do not remember the exact dates but I remember 14th April, Ambedkar Jayanti was celebrated in one of the Dalit villages near Mangaon. It is funny to remember that intense heat in this peak winter cold of January, though.

The travel was interesting from the start. On the first day that I traveled to reach this area, in the same day, dawn to dusk (and beyond), I traveled from Bangalore to Mumbai by air, Airport to Maitri Park Bus stop by auto, Maitri Park to Panvel by bus, Panvel to Pen by bus, Pen to Roha by bus again and walked to what I thought was my final destination only to find out that I had more roads to travel that night. I started my journey along with another male activist again after a brief break. We took a six-seater to Kolad (which loaded 11 people), then a pick up van to Mangaon and then left Bombay-Goa National Highway and took the highway to Pune. We took another auto from Mangaon and reached Nizampur at around 11.30 in the night where I finally got a night's rest. I don't remember which journey I liked better. The one between Roha to Kolad or the one between Mangaon to Nizampur but both were wonderful as the weather started cooling down by then. I was almost flying (or was just motion sick!) when I finally stopped for the night.

Sarvahara Jan Andolan is a people's organisation (sangathan) where I learnt my basics of building people's organisations. Although my employer NGO used to utilize a Madhya Pradesh based sangathan as a learning ground for all of us. I have written about SJA'a sangathan building in my note named Sangathan Building at Bopoli (http://ladybugfieldnotes.blogspot.in/2010/05/sangathan-building-at-bopoli.html).

In this piece I will talk about my night in Mhasla Adivasi Wari. In the morning itself I was told that we would spend the night in Mhasla and would also go to Chikhlap. We went to Khardi first and then took a Marshall Jeep which loaded 18 people to go uphill to Mhasla!  We kept waiting in the main market of Mhasla for a long time for a particular auto driver to take us to Chikhlap. I was left wondering why! When we finally met the auto driver I was surprised even more as he was pretty rough in words. He was hardly interested in the trip. He coldly told us to wait longer. "It might take long", he said, "I need to finish at least two more trips". The two men who accompanied me were pretty unshaken by his reaction. They asked me to walk till the end of the market where we met a group of brick kiln workers who came from Mangaon. They would stay in the site for the next month or till the rain comes to make bricks. In that late afternoon sun of April we  sat there as they worked and talked to us about how difficult it is to make the ends meet. How they could not get access to food subsidy as they were not in their own villages. I turned into a deep brick color myself when my companions decided we should walk back to the main market to wait for the auto. We met Hari-bhau on the way. He crossed us as a pillion rider on a bike. He raised a hand and his voice "Ho Naaina tayi! Kasi ahet? Mast majat?" (How are you? Having fun?) If Hari-bhau, a laborer working in the field in the April sun for more than ten hours per day can have so much fun in his voice just because he got a ride back home, how can Naaina tayi not be fine! I decided I was absolutely fine and having fun too! And shouted back "Mast majat bhau mast majat!" 

The auto driver picked us up from the Mhasla dairy around evening and it soon became clear why he was more than justified in his irritation hearing the name of Chikhlap. Please remember an auto-rickshaw is a three wheel drive when you read the rest. 

Chikhlap did not have any connecting road worth mentioning. Only after half the way to Chikhlap we had to surrender ourselves to completely to the rocky terrain. After a prolonged teeth and bone shattering musical "Aalap", when the driver was satisfied enough he quickly moved to "Antara" in "drut-taal" and plunged the auto in a river. Don't get alarmed now! Rivers in Maharashtra in April are nothing to be scared of. It only meant that instead of negotiating rocks, the auto now had to negotiate water and rocks. The driver asked me to not to get down from the auto whereas all the other men got down. In the middle of this river the auto took such a violent turn being stuck with a big rock that I almost fell down from the vehicle. I however, had strict instruction from the driver to not to get down. He took his instructions so seriously I had no way to not to follow them. I hence held onto the rods on both side and somehow fought with the gravitational pull to not to get out or fall out of the auto. And it was quite a struggle. After the river it was "Jhala" all the way!

There is a long history of struggle associated with Chikhlap. Babasaheb Ambedkar had led a land struggle of Dalit and Adivasi of the area. However, when I reached there we had a meeting to understand how the villagers are still exploited in free India. However, with the help of the sangathan they learnt to keep a tab on of what is sanctioned for the village in terms of social assets and how much of it is being actually created in the ground. They also explained how all the villagers participate in all the activities of the sangathan although all of them depend on daily wages for survival. They said it is fun to be with everyone for the whole day and whichever sangathan member does not participate in a program is required to submit the day's wage to the village fund. This money can then be used to buy some small food to be used in the next meeting. They walk to Mhasla most of the time in order to participate in sangathan programs. Mhasla is there life-line. 

Late at night we came back to Mhasla Adivasi Wadi. Jaswant organised food for us, which was bhakri and some fiery hot lentil curry. He kept us entertained telling stories about how the Police had to come to apologize for illegally arresting community members the other day. "You should have seen the constable all shaking!" His laughter filled the half-asleep village. A few days ago a woman working in the corporate sector had asked me how do I survive in such an unglamorous  job? "Where do you get your kick?", she seemed intrigued. This is exactly where. In these small villages tucked away in unknown corners of the country. For years. It is here in the full-throated laughter of Jaswant, Hari and many others who are ready to fight years of oppression and do so as if in jest. It is in their looking forward to a dignified living that I collect my source of sustenance and reason for living. I care two hoots for your kicks!



Note: Aalap, Antara, Jhala are words associated with Indian classical music. It describes different parts of a musical composition. Aalap is slow, Antara is faster and Jhala is the fastest in pace.