33 H

23-Dec-2011

From last 2-3 years I was telling Neiha about the beauty of the place. The vast fields, narrow roads through Mustard fields, barren land patches, Narrow gauge rail link running along the road, small villages hinged to the road, sand dooms, blue cows running in fields, soothing sounds of silence……… I told her a couple of times about my only visit to this beautiful place. She insisted to go there and after waiting for so many months we got a chance to visit Jorkiyan – My sister’s (Raj) In-laws village. Jorkiyan - a small village in Ganga Nagar Dist. near Karanpur.

“Bai ji Jorkiyan nu kehra rasta janda?” I slipped my car to the side and asked a fruit hawker. He gave me an amazed look.

I repeated my words again….. This time in hindi “Bhai sahib Jorkiyan ko kounsa rasta jayega?”

I was driving and Neiha was on side seat, and Raj was sleeping on the rear seat. We were crossing Karanpur and I lost my way in confusing narrow roads. I didn’t want to disrupt Raj’s sleep, so I asked a fruit seller for the directions; but got no response from him and even from the other two gentlemen standing there.

In the interim my sister woke up “Uncle 33H jana hai…..” She asked an old gentleman standing there.

“Oh……….. Right from this T point and then 1^st left…… Straight to 33H” He replied promptly.

We thanked him and moved on with the given directions. I was OK as I knew here the villages have numbers but Neiha was completely surprised. “What is this 33H?” She jumped with surprise.

“It’s a numbering system for canals” I replied.

“But he said….. 33H Jorkiyan. He used it for village” She questioned again.

“Here in this part of Rajasthan, ground water is not good for farming. So, Indira Gandhi Canal was laid down many years back for irrigation purpose. And its water is distributed to different villages through small canals. These small canals had been numbered from 1 to 100 and this one small canal is used to irrigate farms of few villages which are designated by alphabets (A to Z)…….. And now the local people generally entitle the villages by the numbers of these canals leading to that particular village…… So 33 is for the leading canal and then H is for our village Jorkiyan – 33H” Raj summarized it all in one go.

We moved through narrow roads of Karanpur and the entire road thereafter was so beautiful. The view of small canal flowing along the road, tall Eucalyptus trees and irregular mud walls protecting orange orchards was just breathtaking. The mustard fields and tall sugarcanes alongside made it more admirable. And yes, Neiha did not miss noticing every milestone of villages (22P, 13O, 09Z).

We reached Jorkiyan oh sorry 33H ;) around 4 in the evening. After a welcome drink (Gur di chaa) and some rest, I moved out with Pinku for a round in farms. A long time dream came true; drove a tractor first time in my life….. yipppiiieeee….. An awesome feeling, it always looked difficult to me but in actual it was quite easy & comfortable. The taste of fresh sugarcanes from our own farms just made the ending of the day so wonderful, enjoyed it till my mouth got tired. Then we went to a Kalahari, Pinku got busy with the Kalahari owner to get a best deal for his sugarcane in the meanwhile I tried to learn the process of making Molasses from sugarcane.

“How much Molasses you process in one day?” I asked a labor there.

“6-7 Ton in 24 hours”

“You are able to sell this much in market? I mean there are so many kalahari’s around, if everyone is shelling out 6 ton everyday, is this market able to consume all of it?” I asked surprisingly.

“Yes” firm reply from him.

“What they do with it…… I don’t think common man eat that much of it”

And then I got the obvious answer, which I must guess before asking such a stupid question. “Daru (Desi whisky), It is used to prepare Desi Daru”.

It was getting dark and we moved back to our home. The whole village was so silent at around 7 O’clock, it seems like past midnight. That night I stared at the dark sky for a long duration, it’s been years I had seen such a wonderful night sky. Trillions of stars were visible, evidence of such a clear air in these villages. We went to sleep listening to the village stories from Pinku, most of them were related to the cross border people; as this village is just 5 KMs from Indo-Pak border. Some of them were so strange and funny which we can’t even imagine, I will definitely share some of them in some other blog.

The next morning was smooth, lazy day at home under winter sun. In the evening I took my Camera along and moved out for some clicks of the beautiful village (mud houses, friendly shepherds, village well, small pond, sun set behind the Gurudwara and the most attractive was a small ring of smog around the village just at a height of few meters; which if looked from some distance seems like a cloud).

The worst thing about time is: it runs at tortoise speed when you are getting bored in office and it exceeds the supersonic speed limit if you are enjoying it. Keeping this phenomenon alive; our two days fun time was over in just a blink and we were back into our car waving our hands from the side windows saying good bye to the wonderful hosts.

PS: Will definitely visit Indo-Pak border on my next visit. Pinku be ready to host us again in next winters.

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