| More
Information |
|
|
| Name |
Joitiben Bhaktibhai Patel |
|
|
| District |
Gandhinagar |
|
|
| State |
Gujarat |
|
|
| Category |
CENTENARIAN |
|
|
| Title |
Work Hard, Live Longer! |
|
|
| Abstract |
In our culture, we often give blessings to people to live for hundred years. But when somebody indeed lives that long, we generally don’t care. This research effort of SRISTI is to overcome this tendency and fill a major gap in our understanding of how do people live long, what is their worldview, what makes them look at future more optimistically than most. Can we learn from their traditional knowledge, climate change perceptions and other insights? |
|
|
| Details |
Joitiben Bhaktibhai Patel, a 102 year old centenarian from Lavarpur village (Gandhinagar district, Gujarat) is a renowned midwife and known for her dexterity in handling complex delivery/pregnancy cases.
Early years of struggle
Joitiben lost her mother when she was very young and hence she and her other siblings shifted to her maternal uncle’s house which was at Aminpur village in the same region. Her father worked as a labour in a textile mill. She had to work hard to take care of her siblings and uncle’s family too. The village was dominated by the Darbars i.e. the Rajputs. The labourers had to work in their fields free of cost before tilling their own land. She laments that those times were difficult and they had to toil hard to make the ends meet. Speaking about the lifestyle then; she says, “Ek divas ma vis mile jetluchalvu, amara mate ramatvaathati.” (Walking twenty miles a day was normal for us).
Surviving Natural Calamities
When she was quite young, there was a severe drought. She says that the oil extracted from Mahua (Madhuca indica J. F. Gmel.) fruits was used to cook food as groundnut was not available during droughts. Mahua flowers were eaten after being roasted and the leaves were fed to the cattle. She says, “Akal ma mahudo amara mate kalpvriksha hato; aameane amara pashuma hudo khaine jivigaya.” (During drought, mahua is like a blessing for us, without this our animals and we could not have survived)
She recalls that once there was an earthquake when she was attending a relative’s marriage. In those days, people believed that nature punished us for the evil deeds in the form of such natural calamities. Joitiben comes across as a very soft hearted person. She cannot bear people fighting amongst themselves.
Memories of struggles
She got married to Bhakibhai in her early teens. She says, “Kutumbh motu hatu etle sangharsh pan moto karyo.” (For the well being of my large family, I had to struggle a lot). She had to manage her six children single handedly along with the daily household chores which included endless work from dawn to dusk. She recalls that her day started early, at four in the morning and the work included taking care of the cattle, arranging fodder and then milking. Other than this, she laboured hard all day cooking food for her six children (which included making about 100 big chapatis per day!). Even the ghee and butter were prepared at home. The hard working Joitiben even used to grind the grains at home by Chakki (grinding stone). Similarly, the paddy was threshed every day at home. She says that she struggled hard to raise her six children but she is thankful to the almighty that they respect her to this day. She feels, “aa me jetlu kaam karta hata enu ardhu kaam pan aajkalni bahuvo ne karva nu hatunathi. Tem chhatai bahuvo ne aakaam badhare lage chhe, ane aaj na zamana ma to kaam badhu karvana name par bahuo ne divorce leta pan sikhi gayichhe.” (The kind of labour and struggle we did, modern daughters-in-laws cannot do. They prefer leisure and if one asked them to struggle harder, they might even ask for divorce).
Survival kit
When her children used to fall sick, she used to cure them by home remedies. She used to get the different kinds of roots from the jungle and mix with tulsi, Neem, giloi, bittergourd. These are effective in fever and cough. She shared that around 35 years ago, people used to laugh if anyone went to the doctor to get treated for cough and cold. For fever in cattle, she used to apply salt on its body and cover it with jute bag. In case of bloat the animal was fed oil and hing (Ferula asafoetida L.). The bullocks were fed guvar, gur and ghee. Apart from this, they were also fed coconut and sesame mixed with gur. To increase milk yield in buffaloes, they were fed cotton seeds.
She has lot more knowledge than what we have shared here. Will this survive?
May her spirit survive for as long as it can! The younger generation also needs to respect the struggle that elders like her have gone through. We hope she lives longer still.
|
|
|
| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 22(1) & 22(2) 30, 2011 |
