a taste of rural life at Bhogasandra part-2

...continued from a taste of rural life at Bhogasandra part-1b.

Three days after returning home from my second trip to Bhogasandra, I caught cold which became terrible very quickly. Surprisingly the recovery was also quick but I felt weak after the flu left. I felt so weak that I didn't go cycling. The entire month I'd done only seven rides. Meanwhile Sridhar's house finishing work was almost done by the end of Feb, and he had started preparing for Grihapravesha - house warming ceremony. Sridhar called to invite me for the ceremony, he made sure I agreed and my travel tickets travel tickets were booked.

Mar 2, 2023. The journey part was a replay of the previous trip... woke up at 3-00 AM, ready by 4-15 AM, left home by 4-25 AM, walked to the railway station and I was sitting in the train by 5-00 AM. Train departure was on time. Due to ongoing railway upgradation work between Hubballi and Haveri, the train was slower than its usual speed. The train's arrival at Tiptur was 45 minutes behind schedule. I walked down to the KSRTC bus-stand and boarded a Tumkur bound bus in minutes. About 10 km before my alighting point, a huge cloud of smoke was seen on the left hand side. The smoke was rising from a forest area. While forest fires happen naturally, it is an open secret that fires are started by humans, for different reasons. This photo was shot at Doddagoni village. Meanwhile, Sridhar was monitoring my journey on Google Maps as he waited at HAL bus-stop.

The bus ride was comfortable, hardly felt the journey as I alighted. Sridhar was waiting with his friend's moped. This was the second time I was riding a moped on a 6-lane highway, our destination Nandi Veg Hotel was a few kilometers away. We ate lightly and continued our journey to Bhogasandra. With hardly any traffic the journey was peaceful. The moped100cc moped was powerful enough to move 160 kg at 30 kmph. Whenever we ran over a ditch or a bump the rear shock-absorber would bottom out... thud! thud! As we touched Bhogasandra, I was happy to see the Aralikatte, the lake and Sri Siddalingeshwara Devastana on the lake bank. From the temple, Sridhar's farm is about 400m. The 15.5 km ride lasted about 40 minutes, the moped survived.

We rested until about 4-30 pm, had tea and did some work until sunset. We decided to go to Siddalingeshwara Devastana to attend Pooja-Prasada event. This temple was renovated recently. As a custom, apart from daily morning-evening rituals, a special evening pooje followed by prasada was held for 40 consecutive days. Every family of Bhogasandra took responsibility of shouldering the event for one evening, of course village folks joined hands with that family. For prasada, pulav, rice, mudde, sambar, vegetable curry, payasa, uppit, shira were popular items. Prasada for the day was payasa, ragi-mudde & vegetable sambar. As the pooje was taking place, a teams were busy preparing food. Watching the team making ragi-mudde was interesting. From the below frames of a video clip, you can see six people mixing ragi flour and boiling water using 6' wooden poles, the vessel is on a wood-fire stove. This job requires coordinated motions from four people rotating the poles around a central pole. The sixth person keeps adding flour to the mixture until the required consistency is achieved. Lastly butter or oil is added to the ragi-mudde so that making balls becomes easy.

The ragi-mudde & tarakari sambar combination was excellent. The experience of having dinner on a lake bank, under open sky, refreshing breeze ...a rare opportunity.

Mar 3rd. The following day we were busy cleaning the house and removing waste matter. Afternoon we focused on organizing stuff for weekend rituals with invaluable help from two local guys Harish and Shivappa. Village folks brought mango leaves, banana laves, coconuts and other stuff needed for the event. The coconuts had to be peeled, so Harish called a champ coconut peeler Raja. Harish said that Raja will peel these 40 odd coconuts in 5 minutes. It was hard to believe. Raja arrived with his two pointed spear, drove one end into the ground and started peeling. In the 30-sec clip, Raja had almost peeled 4 coconuts i.e. 8 seconds per coconut. Indeed as Harish said Raja did dehusk 40 coconuts in 5 minutes!

Meanwhile Shivappa and another person had erected a chappara at the house entrance. The chappara was a traditional type, made of wooden poles, coconut leaves, mango leaves and banana plants. The shamiyana guys arrived in a truck, delivered chairs, tables, vessels and erected tents. The tent was erected by a four man team. By watching the team I realized even shamiyana technology had evolved over the decades. No ropes, no pegs driven into the ground. The entire assembly was self-supporting, very impressive.

Mar 4th. The most important task of the day was to get food items. A grocer from Nittur delivered the items late morning. We unloaded the stuff and separated items needed for the priests and cooks. By noon Sridhar's family members arrived in a cab. Harish and I took the same cab to Nittur vegetable market and purchased the items as per the cook's list. On the way back we had lunch at Nandi Veg Restaurant and then went back to the farm house. The priests arrived around 4PM and we were expecting the cooks to arrive. The priests were a team of five. They freshened up and began preparing for the rituals. Going by the looks of the team this is going to be an elaborate affair. With a hundred little things to do, time flew by and soon it was dusk but the cooks hadn't arrived. Sridhar was trying to reach them on phone but they were not reachable. We started worrying... the cooks were supposed to dinner for 20+ people and then keep stuff ready for Sunday breakfast & lunch. Around 7PM we got them on the phone, they were somewhere between Bangalore and Tumkur. Finally they arrived at the farm around 8-15 and got to work immediately. Meanwhile the priests has completed evening rituals and ready for dinner.

Dinner was rice, sambar and vegetable curry. The next task was to make sleeping arrangements. The priests chose to sleep in the hall. The bedroom was reserved for Sridhar's parents. Sridhar's wife and two maids opted for the shed (our lodge). The remaining seven us including the four cooks will have to manage outside. Three of the cooks chopped vegetables and organised other stuff until about midnight and hit the sack by midnight. The fourth cook carried on working. Six of us slept in a row in the sit-out. Mar 5th. Night weather here is generally chilled. Sleeping on ceramic tiled floor was like surrendering to cold completely. It took about 45 minutes to fall asleep then suddenly a noise woke me up... one of the cooks was snoring away. Damn, that was the loudest snoring I'd ever heard. I don't remember when I fell asleep again. Around 5 or so I decided to get up, so did Sridhar.

That morning I went for a stroll into to the neighboring land. I spotted a fox, quite a big one it was. The fox too noticed me, moved away little and stood on a mound and started looking at me. It was still for about 30 seconds or so. What a lovely sight was! Then suddenly it descended and disappeared into some bushes. That was the best fox sighting in my life. That fox made my morning!

The house was like a beehive in the morning. People getting ready, priests preparing for pooje, cooks began cooking breakfast... somehow in the mele I too had bath and changed into fresh clothes. The priests were preparing for a Homa. A very detailed Rangoli was drawn, Kalashas were placed, offerings of flowers & fruits were made... these five priests were trained in Vedic rituals and each of them had a specific role. I'd not seen such an detailed homa / pooje. 

The overall rituals included Satyanarayana Pooje and Gau Pooje too. Part of Satyanarayana Pooje was to recite the story by one of the priests. The rituals were done by 1PM and lunch was ready. Village folks turnup was not as expected, the close ones were present. Lunch was first served to the priests and then we all had, including the cooks.

By 4PM, the priests and cooks left back to Bangalore. Then Shridhar's father and son left. After that we had to dispose leftover food, some of the items was sent to Shivappa's cattle and rice was put into the lake for fish to feed upon. One of the farmers, Indrakumar, told that cooked rice must never be fed to cows or buffaloes. When they ingest rice, their tummies bloat up and exert severe pressure on their respiratory system which can be fatal. That's the reason for dumping rice in Bhogasandra Kere, where fishes would feast upon it. Later in the evening, the shamiyana guys came to pickup their stuff. Every single item was accounted for and they left. Though the event was over, Sridhar's mother and wife had a load of tasks on hand. They had to pack up things brought from Bangalore and prepare tambola for the guests. We had a light dinner and hit the sack. I slept well.

Mar 6th. Time to leave, all of us would be heading back home.. Sridhar et al towards Bangalore and I to Dharwad. Anand the auto driver arrived around 11AM and dropped us Nittur bus-stand. It was an emotional bye, Sridhar's mother had shed tears of joy, happy that I'd come from Dharwad for the function. This trip would be memorable since so many aspects of it was new to me. Honesty speaking, our house-warming pooje was simple that I cannot compare it with Sridhar's farm house ceremony. And interactions with village folks is always educative.

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