The Bhela Ghors of Assam

Every year in January, the Assamese celebrate the winter harvest with Magh Bihu. The cold is given a stiff battle by the burning mejis and the Bhela Ghors. But wait, I am moving ahead.
Magh Bihu or Bhogali Bihu is a festival of feasting. A traditional festival on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, Magh Bihu is full of games and traditional activities. The festival starts on the last day of the previous day called 'uruka' or the eve. This is where the Bhela Ghors come in.

 

These are temporary houses made of thatch, dry grass, hay, bamboo. People of the neighbourhood gather in it to eat a stupendous feast prepared outdoors. Bhela Ghors are seen adorning the harvested golden fields all across rural Assam.

Traditionally, there is also a ritual of stealing vegetables from others' kitchen gardens to cook in the feast. Even in cities and towns, where there are no bhela ghor ritual, the feasting is inevitable as well as the stealing though this might extend from vegetables to whatever is lying on the front yard of neighbours.No matter where the Assamese might be in the world, uruka feasting (uruka bhuj) on the eve of Magh Bihu is a must. Kath alu fry, labra baji (mixed vegetables), all kinds of meat, fish, kichiri etc etc are prepared communally or in the form of pot luck.

 

After the feasting, early next morning,  people take their baths and light these Bhela Ghors along with the Meji (bonfires). Mejis will be burned early morning on January 16th this year, both in rural as well as in urban Assam plus everywhere in the world where Assamese groups are located. Offerings of a mixture of raw rice and mati dail (black gram), pitha and ladoos, betel nut, paan, and til (sesame seeds) are offered to the fire.

 

The burning of the Mejis traditionally burn out the winter cold. It's wonderful to sit around bonfires in the evening and also in the early morning and roast potatoes, sweet potatoes.Either wrap your potatoes in foil and bury them in the embers or just like that and then hunt for the roasted tubers in a while with a stick, eating it hot and yummy!

 

The day begins after the burning of the Mejis with an elaborate breakfast of chira (flattened rice), doi (curd), gur (jaggery), various pithas, lusi bhaji, ladoos of coconut and til, komal chaul, etc. 

Following the heavy morning 'jolpan', the day ahead has a number of pastimes such as buffalo fights especially in Sibsagar and tekeli bhonga (breaking of earthern pots).  Koni juj (egg fights) are fought with gusto in almost every home and kukura juj (cock fights) are also seen in various places.

Your floods, My floods

My two bits on the Chennai (TN) floods vis-a-vis Assam floods, media coverage etc and what we can learn.
Did Chennai really get national media coverage? No, it didn't initially but citizens did not give a damn and didn't stop allow that to stop them from actually helping and acting on their own... they did not complain, did not whine but set about making news their own way. Media followed the Chennaites..it had to if it didn't want to lose face..so did the politicians. where there's honey, there will be bees.

Chennai floods

Each one is helping the other... Twitter is abuzz each sec with tweets asking for and offering help, normal citizens like you and me are out in the streets bringing people to shelters, distributing food, doctors are moving on their own to people needing help, people are throwing open their homes to total strangers.

Chennai, whether we want to admit it or not, is a much bigger metro than Dibrugarh or Guwahati or any other city in Assam. It is the fifth-largest city and fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the country and 36th-largest urban area in the world. Chennai's economy of US$58.6 billion PPP(US$17 billion nominal GDP, 2010) is currently rated the fourth-largest economy in India. Disruption of corporate communications and industrial houses here obviously means more attention. Water levels were also extremely high, reaching up to first floors. Being the HQ of The Hindu, it obviously, as it should, got local 'national' news. 
Instead of comparing and cribbing about govt and media attention being partial and Assam being treated poorly, let us try and learn how ordinary citizens can make a big difference without depending

Dibrugarh floods

on the govt. (central/state both) Let's really stop blaming and whining and actually start acting on our own. Each one doing whatever we can when there is such a natural calamity or disaster. Media is not covering, what's the big deal? You become the media. Who's stopping you from flooding social media with reports of your areas, putting up pics, everyone pitching in to help people. And why do we have to wait for floods in Assam next year? Instead of comparing media coverage, etc. right now, let us discuss why floods come, steps that can be taken from now on to minimize damage/casualties, form groups for this, motivate others. If there is a major drain blockage near your house, why don't you let all of us know about it? If there is water stagnation, why don't you take pics and share? Let's make a difference ourselves. Aren't we tired of cribbing?

Road Trip: From Rajmai to Delhi

Planning a road trip from Rajmai tea estate (where we are at the moment) to Delhi. Rajmai is about 20 minutes away from Sibsagar, the Ahom capital in upper Assam. we start on 5th December and our tentative itinerary is:

5th Dec early morning: Rajmai to Tezpur (4 hrs), Tezpur to Cooch Behar (10 hrs)
6th: We stay the day in Cooch Behar
7th Early morning: Cooch Behar to Siliguri (4hrs), Siliguri to Muzaffarpur (10 hrs)
8th: We stay the day in Muzaffarpur
9th early morning: Muzaffarpur - Gorakhpur (6hrs), Gorakhpur - Lucknow (8 hrs)
10th: We stay the day in Lucknow
11th: Lucknow - Delhi (8 hours)

Return trip:
3rd Jan early morning: Delhi - Varanasi (12 hrs)
4th morning: Varanasi - Bodh Gaya (8 hrs)
5th: We stay the day in Bodh Gaya
6th: Bodh Gaya to Dooars (Bhatpara T.E.)
7th: We stay the day in Bhatpara
8th morning: Bhatpara to Guwahati

Will keep posting :)

Flowering in the rain...

The rain, though never really absent from this part of the world, is here in all its fury! Everywhere I look is water and despite the mud, and the insects, and the infections, and..., I really love the monsoons and the dark clouds it brings along. Our little garden too stands bravely against the pouring drops and here and there you see lovely colourful patches and even though the sun is not out, your heart still manages to sing!

The humble French Marigold, leftovers from winter plantings, are a bright patch of colour. Come hail or wind, this hardy species refuses to bow down!

The Hibiscus too is a colourful relief in bleak rainy weather. This one here is a white Australian (supposedly) variety and is as colourful as the red ones... The rains does not seem to touch the petals!

These pink flowers are like delicate puffs but they remain undaunted by the torrents of water that fall on them.

Some roses I have tried to protect by at least providing partial shelter overhead. This miniature pink is one such example...

And can monsoons exist without the intoxicating fragrance of the Rajnigandha? These bulbs had been presented to me by my mom when I was carrying Arjun so they are all the more special to me...

Along with flowers, our old swing too has turned colourful...

'Eating out' at midnight...

Sanjib came home around eleven on saturday and for a change, he wanted to go out! Arjun and I, though almost on the verge of falling off to a dreamless sleep, did not give him a chance for second thoughts...

At this hour, in the place where we stay, it was not likely that we would find anything or anyone on the roads. "Let's take along a couple of hot cases", said Sanjib, "Just in case we find a dhaba open." We went off in the general direction of a old, derelict 'dhaba' that goes by the name of 'Baba Hotel'. turns out it was about to close but more than happy to pack some dal tarka and make some 'Alu subzi' for us to take home.

We reached home around 1 at night and needless to say, both the dal tarka and the 'alu' was finger-lickin' good!