Fun and adventures in Byndoor....

Hmmmmm. Let me tell you something light now. That was quite heavy on me too. My childhood was not horrible one. I had good loving parents and was given good food, education etc which was a luxury for a girl child in India. It was simple thing that grown up people did not understand my emotions and were ignorant of the fact that they were hurting me. My parents had no clue how to deal with a child who had club foot and also they never accepted this fact. My childhood had its own funny incidents and one of them is my first visit to our native village. After my first two years in school during the summer vacation my family decided to spend few months in our native village Byndoor. It is small village on sea coast and is very different from where we live. There we stayed at my mother’s place. Though my father’s house was also nearby we rarely went there. The food, the air, the smell, the people .. everything was so different. I went wild over there because I was allowed to go anywhere I wanted and play however I wanted in Byndoor. Women from muslim community always wore Burkha when they ventured out and covered their faces in front of males. They had the pallau over their head always. As we were living in this section of society I found it very interesting that women were shy to show their faces.

Most of kids were not much educated. No one could speak English and that made me feel superior there.

I loved exploring the backyards, the old attics with all sort of things stored there. I also found some colorful beads which they say were used to decorate the bed during weddings earlier but has been stopped now. They were lots and lots of them and in all the colors I have ever seen in my life. I claimed possession to it even before my sister could open her mouth and got yes from my family. I spent a lot of time sorting them out and playing with them. I am not sure why everyone looked sad when I announced that I am done with them.

The village was full of gossips, treasures to be hunted, adventures etc. I went in search of crows nest because some one mentioned they store a stick made of gold in them. Lots of time was spent following crows and to see which nest it would get into. But the crows would only sit on the ledges or trees and I could never find a nest. In evenings they disappeared without trace. I was always looking for treasures in Byndoor and made up wonderful tales to get my sister involved with me. We both gave food to crows and tried to befriend them so that they would lead us to their nests.

One fine afternoon we fell down from the position of hunters and became the hunted when I and my sister had a narrow escape from a temple owned bull.

( Note from me: India is a country where people worship many animals and these animals are considered sacred. Monkeys eat a large amount of food and in the process lay to waste a lot of it. People can starve here but not the monkeys. People always have food for them even when they are chasing away an old man or woman or ignoring an orphan. Peacocks are sacred. Elephants are worshipped and offered coconuts on one hand where as on the other hand they are killed for ivory and made to work hard. Snakes annually kill 50,000 people in India but even they are worshipped. Cow worship is a matter of controversy here always and they have been lots of riots taking place regarding this. As for me I love animals and would never hurt any animal in my life. Even the cockroaches. But when it comes to worshipping them I say sorry as I consider myself superior to them.).

As per the custom of the place people would not bother the bull who would be roaming the streets. They would offer him food. It was believed that if the bull ate food from ones house then they would prosper. So people were always feeding it and it had grown very big and strong with a little mountain kind of hump on its back. We both had been to market to buy some vegetables and there we bought some sugarcane. When we were walking back home we saw the bull staring at us… and then it slowly started pawing the earth. I was quite scared and you too would be if you saw the look in its eyes and it s enormity.

All of sudden it started rushing towards us and we had to run. I was surprised that I overtook my sister in running. We both did not stop nor turned back to look but we knew the bull was running behind because we could hear its hooves hitting the road like hammer on nails. I saw a narrow gate into the garden which would allow us to pass through and entered it and my sister followed. We went little further inside and stood there to see whether the bull was chasing us. The bull ran up to the gate and hit hard against the walls of the compound trying to get it. Thank God it was so fat that not even its head with those huge horns could get in the narrow passage which was made to prevent cattle from eating the plants in the compound. These narrow passages are seen in many places in Byndoor. We finally realized we were safe. Though horrifying it was also a very funny experience for both of us. Later on we calculated that it must have been tempted by the sugarcanes we were carrying. For few days we did not venture out and I am not sure why by the end of three days everyone in my family was down with headaches other than me and my sister.

Few pictures of Byndoor...