Dusk and lamp
Dusk had fallen and all the lights on the street were switched on throwing a hazy glaze over the ground and the tenements beyond with their brilliance .
Through this glare which virtually created a shroud of mist beyong its immediate percininct i saw a small flicker of light moving in a circle .
Shading my eyes from the glare of the lights as powerful as flood lights that i have seen only in films with a prison sequence or on a stage when dance or dramas are performed and nowwhere else least of all in a residential area such as ours , i saw the slight figure of a elderly woman moving around the oxen with a small oil wick lamp in her hands .
Her devotion and sincerity in her circumbulation penetrated this artificial mist and touched me in a inexplicable manner .
I have seen this huge white oxen drawing a cart driven by a small thin old man.An anorchism in the heart of this modern metropolis as it was thethered amidst parked cars and vans and the only of its kind in this entire area.An reminder of days gone by ,A touch of rural life .
That woman was as lean as that man, must be his wife and she was practising an age old practise common i n rural areas to protect the source of thier livelihood from evil eyes as well as showing gratitude to this beast of burden.
A thin old woman,where did she find the energy and will to do this circumbulation?Maybe from practises handed down .I have seen a similar practise at time of Pongal by nearly all residents of this city but it is a circumbulation of inanimate vehicles and there is nothing touching about it .
she was doing this with faith in the practise and with a real regard for this dumb, huge animal.
I am not fully aware or rather never registered all the practises my family, relatives and friends do and some of which i myself do in my memory with any deep feeling .Would any of the neighbours,family and relatives around me who do all the rituals dilligently from feeding the crow in the morning to celeberating all festivals feel this tug at the heart watching that simple circumbulation by a elderlycouple of poor means in the twilight reminisent of the dust swirling up and around the cattle returning home in the village after grazing out all day?Doubt it.
I was caught off guard and that made the significanceof this tiny ritual or practise touch me and made me bow my head in reverence to the faith and humanity mingled in this age old practise with a ethereal quality that made time pause a moment.
written on -11.6.15
PS A month or so later the oxen was no longer thethered at that spot nor did i see it in my regular walking route unlike before. , Two huge ugly black colored sintex water tanks were placed in that spot and a van with a red flag was perumbualting it. i see that old man, the ex bullock cart owner walking with sagging shoulders .
In the recent floods both the tanks got uprooted and were seen floating .
Through this glare which virtually created a shroud of mist beyong its immediate percininct i saw a small flicker of light moving in a circle .
Shading my eyes from the glare of the lights as powerful as flood lights that i have seen only in films with a prison sequence or on a stage when dance or dramas are performed and nowwhere else least of all in a residential area such as ours , i saw the slight figure of a elderly woman moving around the oxen with a small oil wick lamp in her hands .
Her devotion and sincerity in her circumbulation penetrated this artificial mist and touched me in a inexplicable manner .
I have seen this huge white oxen drawing a cart driven by a small thin old man.An anorchism in the heart of this modern metropolis as it was thethered amidst parked cars and vans and the only of its kind in this entire area.An reminder of days gone by ,A touch of rural life .
That woman was as lean as that man, must be his wife and she was practising an age old practise common i n rural areas to protect the source of thier livelihood from evil eyes as well as showing gratitude to this beast of burden.
A thin old woman,where did she find the energy and will to do this circumbulation?Maybe from practises handed down .I have seen a similar practise at time of Pongal by nearly all residents of this city but it is a circumbulation of inanimate vehicles and there is nothing touching about it .
she was doing this with faith in the practise and with a real regard for this dumb, huge animal.
I am not fully aware or rather never registered all the practises my family, relatives and friends do and some of which i myself do in my memory with any deep feeling .Would any of the neighbours,family and relatives around me who do all the rituals dilligently from feeding the crow in the morning to celeberating all festivals feel this tug at the heart watching that simple circumbulation by a elderlycouple of poor means in the twilight reminisent of the dust swirling up and around the cattle returning home in the village after grazing out all day?Doubt it.
I was caught off guard and that made the significanceof this tiny ritual or practise touch me and made me bow my head in reverence to the faith and humanity mingled in this age old practise with a ethereal quality that made time pause a moment.
written on -11.6.15
PS A month or so later the oxen was no longer thethered at that spot nor did i see it in my regular walking route unlike before. , Two huge ugly black colored sintex water tanks were placed in that spot and a van with a red flag was perumbualting it. i see that old man, the ex bullock cart owner walking with sagging shoulders .
In the recent floods both the tanks got uprooted and were seen floating .
posted by K.C. Sujata at
4:20 AM
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