Sundarbans LDLM Village Festival
Trip Start
Oct 09, 2007
1
34
45
Trip End
Mar 10, 2008
Kolkata (Calcutta),
West Bengal,
India
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Baba has the 1st bedroom, and I am in the second. Amalendu (LDLM's Rural Projects Director), Babai (about 6'3" tall, Baba's computer expert and my translator on this trip), and Baba's driver are sharing the 3rd bedroom, which has a less than full sized bed! They are also sharing the room in daytime with Madhavi, our cook, who has her small propane cooking stove on the floor in their room. She is preparing Baba's and our meals there! (This is sooo Indian, just making do with what you have).
The men are so generous, reassuring, and resolute that they will not hear of it when I express my concerns about how 3 of them are going to sleep on that tiny bed and offer to switch rooms. In the morning, Amalendu is on the floor outside of my bedroom lying completely covered in a blanket. We can talk quite comfortably between the palm-frond walls separating our rooms ... I feel like I am at the Waltons as we say goodnight.
After our nap, we go for a walk along the riverbank levee. Again, children are holding each of my arms and hands. Ground level is about 5 feet below us. Mangrove trees are on the riverside below. (I keep an eye and ear out for tigers, but this is reflexive, since I know nothing is going to happen with Baba right behind me.)
To the right are fields, dotted with rice-thatched mud cottages that are surrounded by their grainstacks. The women come in and out of the cottages tending to children, gathering pots, water, and the vegetables they have chopped outside in the yard for dinner. Goats and cows are feeding in the stubble of the fields. A few ducks waddle onto the path in front of us. Off in the distance of the fields, men are finishing up their day's work as the sun disappears and the half moon rises. It is all so silent, so deeply silent and peaceful. The only sound is the faintest rippling of water from the river. Along the land side of the levee are the tree starts planted by the SHGs. It is a thick planting, with four or five starts between the top and bottom of the levee, crowded closely to the next groupings on both sides. They have already grown to the size of small bushes, and healthy, very dark green leaves.
When we return, it is time for the evening program to begin. Thousands of people sit patiently crosslegged on plastic sheeting on the ground, beneath the open air tent canopy. Chaired seating has been set up on one side for honored guests. Baba offers incense, flowers and a lit candle arati at the sweet, well lit and garlanded, perfect model of Baba Lokenath's Baradi ashram that the villagers have constructed, which sits to the right of the stage. We are escorted to the guest seating, Baba is garlanded, we are all presented bouquets of flowers. Then Baba and I are invited to come sit on stage (I would much prefer a seat down in front of the stage, where I can take better photos.)
The music and dancing begins with a group of 8 tiny young girls in bright saris that are accented with even brighter sashes. They are lushly adorned with flowers in their hair, glittering veils, flowers and bangles on their wrists. Their painted red fingertips and feet accentuate their every movement. Their hands and feet twist at the precise and delicate, elegant angles that are characteristic of traditional Indian dance, and they end with a pranam. The crowd goes wild with appreciation. The second performer is another tiny young spit of a child, wrapped in shimmering gold fabric. Hardly looking old enough to walk, she performs her elaborate and sophisticated traditional solo dance with aplomb.
The evening continues with groups performing chants, children and adults reciting poems, and a myriad of mythological and nature tales being told in dance and song. One of LDLM's goals is to deepen villagers' experience and appreciation for their own cultural heritage and natural surroundings. So it hires a traditional dance teacher to instruct the children and do the choreography. Participating in the festival gives these children training in traditional dance and other arts, and offers them a chance they would not otherwise have to learn more about, and be arrayed in that aesthetic glory of India's traditions.
One dance is a long one, created by Rabindrinath Tagore, featuring Krishna and Arjuna (of the great Hindu mystical epic the Bhagavad Gita). Another celebrates the local wildlife, including the Bengal Tiger. It was the Tiger who stole the show for the evening. His showmanship was unmatched as he spontaneously lunged at different sections of the crowd and at me. At the end of the dance, he stalked over to Baba, and rather than lunge in feigned attack, he reverently pranamed, stealing our hearts along with our laughter and cheers.
One of the soloist dancers is a young girl who was found in her home last year by an SHG member, starving after 15 days without any food, after her father had abandoned the family (her mother was mentally ill). Lokenath Divine Life Mission has taken full responsibility for her, found her a good living situation in a hostel, gotten her established in school, and hired 4 tutors for her academic advancement since she is particularly bright. She is an immensely talented dancer and she is obviously thriving at every level now.
Last, but by far not least, the grand finale of these festivals is the advanced yoga and gymnastics program. On this night, it involves a lot of fire. LDLM's yoga teacher, Nimai Biswas, has no counterpart. He so pushes the edges of what is possible so far, he really should be hired by Cirque du Soleil. What he does without a budget, with young performers who often don't have enough to eat and need much better nutrition, is nothing short of phenomenal. It is absolutely mind-blowing. It is difficult to get photos that do the show justice in the dark, but between Babai and me, we did get some that at least give you a sense of the extraordinary accomplishment of Nimai and his students. I am going to do an entirely separate blog on them in the attempt to do them justice.
When it is all over, I am left in a state of awe. Having done logistical planning for large events myself, but nothing even approaching the scale of this festival, I know that the work involved in putting this event on is virtually unimaginable to the rest of us. These SHG members and their families are simple, hardworking, very poor villagers. Yet they do most of the financing, all the planning, building, costuming of performers, and other program preparation, meal planning, food prep and cooking, and other logistics for 8,000 people! And that is along with their preparations for Baba to come and stay. It speaks of a level of commitment, inspiration and selflessness that most of us simply do not have. So I honor them, I pranam to them in my heart, to all that they have done, to all that they are so obviously capable of.
Next year, I promise myself, I will come on my own with Babai (my translator/Baba' computer genius), and meet with more of them individually, when they do not have so much else to attend to, to hear their personal stories of the work and write about them.
