Travels in rural Bengal - visiting a large household

I posted a photo previously; of a woman in a white saree milking cows. She was wearing the "inchi paar", the plain saree with a small one inch border in blue or green or brown. That type of saree is meant for widows. It never has red in the border. Red in Bengal is the colour of auspiciousness.

Contrast that with this other family I visited. They are landed gentry with several bighas of land.

The lady in white and red is the female head of this household and her husband is next to her. She is a tiny Jaya Bhaduri to her husband's tall Amitabh figure. The house where she is standing is an old one.

Her "laal paar" (saree with red border) is brand new and it is crackling stiff like tissue. The red of the saree along with her shakha pola (red and white bangles), and the sindoor on her forehead, announce her marital status as a shoubhagyaboti. Her husband is alive and kicking, she is blessed.

She has 10 sons! Her prestige is therefore doubly high. In one of the many inner courtyards of her house I met with two of her bahus. They were wearing the printed cotton that seems to be a big favourite in the villages. Batik is locally done in this district and is also very popular.

With me is Dr. Sarah Lamb an anthropologist who is studying aging in different communities in Bengal. Sarah lived for 2 years in a small Bengali village called Mangaldihi; she speaks fluent Bengali. We came on a nostalgia visit to meet an elderly aunt, whom Sarah had met a couple of decades ago.

The elderly aunt was relaxing in the sun when we saw her. She is more than 90 years old. You can see her in white blouse and petticoat with her back to the camera.

She was widowed at the age of 31 and had no children. She came back to her maternal home when she became old because she felt her in-laws house was not the place where she could get care. The tall gentleman in the dhoti is her brother.

She inherited land from her husband and in exchange for looking after her, she has willed the land to her brother. Within 5 minutes of meeting, she explained this to Sarah and me. She wanted us to know that she was not freeloading on her maternal home. A girl never belongs in her mother's house, you see...

I learnt a lot about rural society and structures for the survival of the elderly through this visit. She has come to her maternal home because this is where she still has more comfort. She wants to die here. Although she said clearly to us that she will hit a century before she dies!

Couple milking cows, Birbhum, West Bengal

I have been travelling in rural Bengal, and have visited many villages. I saw and learnt many things, and I hope I can find the time to post at least some of the pics. Here is the first one. In a little village in Birbhum district, about 4hrs from Kolkata, I came across this couple and their cows. 

As soon as you drive away from Kolkata, you start to see women wearing cotton instead of the hideous synthetics that dominate city markets. I loved the contrast of her pure white taant shadee, against the skin and the brown hay...isn't it lovely? And here still, the British imposed modesty of the blouse has not made its way to the older generation. I wish we could all be like this, but now that Victorian prudery is well established, there is not much hope. Strangely, the modern Indian woman seems to be going back to the choli-less state! With halter necks, thin straps etc! But we are yet to see in the city memsahib, the casual nonchalant grace of this woman.

I always thought cows were milked at dawn, but I came across this couple a little after noon (as you can see from the shadows). I realised that the milk is probably being used for their own consumption, and they are not taking it to market. That's why they have the flexibility to milk at any time.The cows here don't have the oversized udders which you see in commercially reared cattle. A more natural state, perhaps.

From what I can tell, these are the indigenous Gir breed of cattle. There is some misguided effort by the government to cross-breed these with foreign breeds for higher milk yields, but it's a myopic policy. By improving feed and care, the same Indian breeds can produce much more milk, and they are in fact, doing so very successfully in Brazil.

Cows and bullocks are valuable and are usually housed in little sheds. On this shed, we saw the harvest of masur dal (red Bengal lentil). Bengali Comfort food = rice and pyaj diye moshur dal :)

Some people earn their livelihood by taking animals to graze. The man in this photo doesn't look like he is the owner of these calves; he is probably on some kind of wage.

Every village you visit has walls decorated with cow-pats. Cows provide much of the fuel used for cooking.

And of course, no meal is complete without some milk sweets! On the menu: a sort of bread pakoda, bread dipped in an egg wash (duck's eggs, because the Brahmins here don't eat chicken), two types of milk sweets (sandesh), a ghugni with motor (peas), and a delicious salad of cucumber tomatoes and onion.

Dr. Sarah Lamb is an anthropologist, who spent 2 years living in a village in West Bengal. We were on a nostalgic visit to meet one of the families. What a lovely day.