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Nathiben: A Dynamic Old Lady |
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I begin the story of my long life from a time when I looked very small, from my stature as well as age. I was born in Kavitha village in the Bavala taluka of Ahmedabad district. I was married to Mavjibhai of the Metal village at the tender age of four. When I was 15 I was sent to my husband’s house.
When I arrived in my husband’s village, I recall that it was facing a period of famine. Water was not available in the village. We would bring water from a nearby pond called Motisar. The water of this pond was as sweet as coconut water; so the food cooked using this water was also very tasty.
In the new dwelling we would collect kerada (Capparis decidua) from the nearby hills for sale. We engaged in jobs like harvesting of crops such as paddy, maize, millet, banti (Echinochloa frumentacea) and bavato (Eleucine coracana). My husband and I worked very hard on digging a well. Once the well was dug it was equally hard pulling water out from it using a kosh (leather bucket) and jhilu (pulley). We would separate banti, pearl millet and paddy using an instrument called moghri (a wooden hammer), which was made from the wood of rayan (Mimusops hexandra), whose properties ensured that it lasted many years. Several of my days were spent performing the chore of grinding grains for the people of the village. I have worked as a midwife as well, a service which I have provided for 50 years. Bhaniben, my younger sister, who has been trained by the local health department, now performs this job in my place.
Lighter Moments
While sowing paddy in the fields I would sing fatana1. We sang these songs to keep ourselves from getting bored; we would then resume work with renewed vigour.
Special Recipes
We would make dishes of the leaves of chil (Chenopodium album), the yellow leaves of a variety of cactus, fafada thor (Euphorbia nivulia), pods of khijado (Prosopis spp.) and plants like dodi (cockwort) and faand. We would eat dishes like khichadi, bhadaku of ratadiya juvar (red sorghum), loaves from jhav (manna, Tamarix dioica2), rice and pickle made from kerada. We would boil the flowers of the mahudo tree (Madhuca indica) and make sweet dishes like shiro or dhokala, so that there would be no need to add jaggery. In another preparation, we would chop the pods of the prosopis plant into small pieces and fry them with buttermilk.
And Remedies
In the old times, the people of our village would burn neem leaves at many places to control the nuisance of locusts. No one would sit idle and everyone busied themselves with removing the locusts by flinging cloths at them.
I can also suggest a few domestic remedies. For example, black jhav, ground or powdered, may be administered to young children suffering from fever. For the good health of children, we administer the red fruit of fafada thor in the form of a tonic.
We have remedies for the complications associated with
childbirth. If the mother suffers pains in the stomach after delivery, the leaves of tindola (Coccinia indica3) and pilu-vakhdo (Salvadora oleoides) are boiled and later applied externally over the region of the stomach. If the mother develops fever at the time of delivery, the leaves or bark of the neem tree should be boiled in water; this water should be used by her for bathing to give her relief from the fever.
I even have a treatment that improves growth in paddy: four to five days before sowing the paddy, the leaves of pilu-vakhdo are placed in the furrows meant for the crop. This practice helps to accelerate the growth of paddy seedlings.
Another interesting remedy involves employing pigeon droppings: if an animal has a leg-fracture or an ache in the stomach, pigeon droppings should be placed in a piece of cloth and tied on the affected region.
The interviewers add: Nathiben ended the narration with singing a fatana which she and other workers in the fields used to sing while sowing paddy. It beautifully captures the rural landscape of western India during the rains.
The fatana:
They’ve come; they’ve come: the stream of clouds; the clouds are thundering.
That father-in-law is being dragged away, and the clouds are thundering.
Sow; sow; sow the paddy; the clouds are thundering.
That father-in-law has begun to dance, and the clouds are thundering.
That mother-in-law is being dragged away, and the clouds are thundering.
Peacocks in all of Nature are crying, and the clouds are thundering.
3. Coccinia indica plant is diaphoretic, stimulant and diuretic.Its leaves and stem are antispasmodic and expectorant and its fruit is bitter (source: http://www.geocities.com/tanhoard/tanher3c.htm).
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 13(4): 2&9, 2002 |
