Ganesh Festival and the Bullock Cart

As I entered my house, I saw the tense face of my wife speaking on the phone. After the conversation was over, she said one of our friends in Korwa, Uttar Pradesh, had suffered minor bruises in an accident. I called up my good friend to inquire about his well-being. He was always a man in a hurry. I have now retired, and he was still in service. We served together for a good number of years in Kanpur. He opened the conversation with the typical greeting "Pranaam Bhaisaab." He said he was driving from Lucknow to Korwa. It was afternoon, nobody was on the road, no traffic to keep him challenged, and the road was good. Being on the village side, there were no horns or any noise that could keep him alert. He felt sleepy and probably dozed off. The vehicle lost its control, veered onto the side bund, overturned, and stopped as it went into a field. It was an old model car with no airbags, but thank God he suffered only mild bruises. Fortunately, he was not speeding. I asked him to take care and called off.

While I was picturing what would have happened, I remembered a nice incident from long ago when I was a child.

"Ganesh Bappa Moraya" is the sound that fills the air during the Ganesh Chaturthi Festival. In contrast to present-day celebrations, in my childhood, this was the only festival when we were allowed to crack firecrackers, not during Diwali. Many would bring home the idol, some would use the one instilled in their home puja room, and others would observe Pooja at the Saarvajanik (Public) Ganesh Mandap. Depending on their faith, people would observe it for one day, three days, five days, or eleven days, and then the idol is immersed. In cities like Mumbai, people would be waiting eagerly for celebrations galore.

This is around the early seventies. Those days, we also used to bring home a Ganesha Idol on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi and observe the immersion on the eleventh day. Every day, there would be Pooja (worshiping) and a time when all the kids would gather outside for firecrackers. It used to be fun. Additionally, during all those eleven days, there would be one or the other sweet dish. Modaka in different varieties every day. I used to be tasked to pick five bundles of twenty-one Durva (Grass) each. When I asked my grandfather why Durva and why twenty-one, he had explained to me thus.

Basically, Durva is a grass variety that grows very fast and quickly. In our part of the state, a lady after getting married wishes her mother’s family to grow like the Durva on the riverside. It's known that the juice has the best cooling effect on the body. Its juice or paste is applied over the head. He told me that the grass brings positive energy to the idol and number 21 and other odd numbers have positive energy associated with them, so the odd number bundles. Also, each grass must have either three or five leaves only. I used to go to the field and pick the Durva from the side bunds. On return, mother would give me special sweets or recommend to my grandfather for additional firecrackers.

Those days, our village with a population of about 1200-1400 people did not have Sarvajanik Ganesh Pendal. But now, with about 2400 strong people, we have three pendals. Our nearest Town Sankeshwar, a bordering town between Maharashtra and Karnataka, used to have around Three to Four Pendals. Few of them used to bring in good Idols and were famous. People from around the villages would flock to see them during those eleven days. The most popular vehicle used to be the bullock cart, which was almost part of every household in a village.

My Mama (sister's husband) decided to go and seek Darshan on the tenth day. Nights would be fairly lit, and the journey will be easier, and also the rush on the tenth day will be lesser. On the ninth evening, he readied the bullock cart, filled two to three "tatrani," an earthen pot for carrying drinking water, stacked fodder for the bullocks beneath and on the floor of the cart, applied oil to the axle, spread the dry grass on the cart floor above the fodder and tied at places and spread a nice thick bedsheet, a lantern was tied near the rider's place in the front of the cart body. The lantern would be a beacon for others to notice the cart in the dark.

"Tatrani," a pottery meant for carrying water, is now almost extinct and used only in villages tucked deep inside.

Initially, seven to eight were supposed to go, but ladies dropped out due to their monthly periods issue. Only four of us finally started. Myself, Mama, Shivanna (Mama's friend), and Suresh, another friend of Mama. Shivanna was a potter who used to supply potteries and the roof tiles for the entire village. People had just started using aluminum utensils, and still, many used earthen pots for cooking and storing. Almost all the houses were having those tapered half-barrel type clay roof tiles made by Shivanna’s family. Only a handful, rich ones had those red flat what were known as Mangalore tiles. He also used to make Ganesha Idols for the Villagers.

All of them, except me, were busy in the fields or in their work in the daytime. I was playing all day as it was a holiday. We had our dinner and started around Half Past Nine in the night, an hour after the Village temple Pooja was over and the bells rang.

The distance is around 18 kilometers. Bullock cart travel will be approximately 4-5 kilometers per hour, depending on how fast you want to go. For a shorter period, they can be raced to even 25-30 km/hour. Mama said it will be just before dawn we will be reaching the Sugar Factory at Sankeshwar, where we will halt at our Mami’s (Father’s Sister) House and freshen ourselves, feed the Bullocks before starting for the town which was another hour so from the factory. My Mami’s husband used to work in the sugar factory.

Mama had told me that we will be first crossing our Village and then Gowdawad, and taking the turn toward Arjunwad, Kochari, Gownal and then Sugar Factory. Then I had asked him that we will be passing near to our Gowdawad field. He said yes. But it will be night so I will not be able to see it. We had a field near Gowdwad, it was maybe three hundred meters inside from the road.

We crossed our village, and bullocks pulled along the cart in a rhythmic manner. The bells in their neck belt were ringing lightly. The night was pleasant with moonlight spread. As we moved, ringing of the bells and the occasional howling of the foxes and barking of the dogs were the sounds we heard. Mama and his friends were talking, yearning stories, laughing at times. I could hear Shivanna humming the folk songs. I went to sleep well before we reached Gowdaw

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I did not know how much time had passed, but was woken up by the talking of my Mama and Shivanna. It was maybe an hour before dawn and still dark. I sat up to see that the cart was in our field near Gowdawad. They were standing in a place near the well, marked for tying them after the Bullocks are released from the cart. I got down and saw that Mama and Shivanna were both having hearty laughter, the other friend was still asleep in the cart. I asked Mama as to what happened and why are we in the field.

He said, as all of them were very tired, just before Gowdawad, half an hour into the journey, unknowingly all of them fell into deep sleep, one by one. One who works in the fields will know how sound sleep one gets after a day’s hard work. The bullocks as they were on the path to the Gowdawad field, as nobody did anything to change the course, they simply took the familiar path tread by them to the field and stopped where they usually would. Almost every second day they would come to the field, and the path was well known to them. While coming to the field, only at the exit of our village once they had to be course corrected as there was a fork, and the other road also used to lead to another field. Mama had already set them on the Gowdawad field path before going to sleep as it was the chosen route to Sankeshwar.

They were standing there patiently for almost three hours before they started shaking their head that eventually led to the waking of my Mama. He loosened them and fondly called their names and fed them and then offered them water brought from the well. Mama used to name every Bullock and will treat them as a member of the family. He never used the chabuk (whip) on them. Surprisingly, all of them used to behave very well with him.

Then just as the sky started getting brighter, we started again, and this time around he made them walk faster. What would take four to five hours took just two and half hours. We reached our Mami’s House and then enjoyed the festival.

Now, when I look back, I wonder at the safety aspect. We were safely taken to the known place, and they did not drift away in the absence of any guidance. There were two major diversions on the road before taking a turn for the field. But their GPS has guided them correctly. They obediently and patiently stood at the known place, without causing any commotion for quite a long period. The best of the drives today will not offer this safety and comfort.

Their guidance system is really wonderful. In the summer after the fields were plowed, My Mama and family used to put the Manure (Bio Fertilizer) in the fields. Firstly, they will fill the cart at the Garbage Pit in the village, and the bullocks will be driving the cart to the fields. In the field, from the cart the Manure will be spread in heaps. The movement is really worth watching; they would drive straight and stop at the right distance, Mama would pull down some manure from the cart and will give a signal to the bullocks, they would start and stop again at the right distance. At the end, they would take a U-turn on their own, and the process repeats. Once the cart is emptied, they would return to the Village and repeat the process. Every time on the return journey from any of the fields, I have never seen my Mama guiding them. They would reach on their own; their homing system is so perfect that present-day GPS guidance also might be a shade poorer.

All our technological advances are a mere copy of something that exists in nature. We are still far away from unraveling many things that exist in nature. If we learn how the creatures live harmoniously, adapt to the situations, how they don’t disturb the nature or overuse the nature and try to follow that path, maybe the world we live in will be heaven.

One funny thing, after I graduated and joined work, during the training period, one of my superiors asked how one can steer the aircraft if it doesn’t have a steering system. With my knowing how we steer the bullock cart (by holding the rein of the bullock on whichever side you want to turn), I had said if one can apply brake on the side one wants to steer, it’s possible. My knowing the CG balancing on the bullock cart had helped me understand very clearly about aircraft Weight and CG. Real life has more to teach you than the books; I now miss that earthly feeling as I live in the concrete jungle called the city.