Madhesh Yatra (मधेश यात्रा )

I am not writing this blog not just to remind myself what places i visited in my youth but also to let others know what it felt to be inside a typical village in Madhesh of western lowlands.

The journey started on 5^th of October, 2013; as soon as I was back from Greece, where I stayed almost a week for for Rhodes Youth Forum. At that time I was involved with a research project on lymphatic Failariasis. This research project was to have the field level work in three districts of Nepal.  Survey on Dhading (one of the districts) had already been finished, and this was the second we planned before Dasain. I was very happy to found that everything for the field work was managed by my colleagues before I leave for the place. In the afternoon,I left Kathmandu happily.I need not to do anything, just i had to wait for my bus to leave for Taulihawa.

I get off the bus in Chauraha. It was 6 in the morning. This was first 6 o' clock in my watch  in last three months. I realized i had become lazy since I left Damauli.  I went straight to the Bus Park. There was not any bus to take me to Maharajgunj (the Field Station). Then hopelessly; i went to the nearby Rickshaw station, and asked a rickshaw puller to take me to Gauri Chowk. I was amazed; he said I had not hear such places here.  I thought the person may be new to this place, like i was there. Not knowing where i was; he took me to east of the bus station, and from there I took a bus to Bahadurganj. I suddenly realized something was wrong; when the bus conductor asked me to pay 157 rupees. Before my colleagues had told me not to pay more than 60 rupees. How could the price can be so high ? I could not find an answer. Being confused; i seated near to the driver in the cabin. I asked the driver how long it would take to reach Bahadurgunj. He told me it would take two and half hours to arrive Bahadurganj. By there, I still had to take half an hour trip on Jeep. I asked the driver from where was departed? I got a simple but a very strange answer. We came from Butwal Bus Park. I was like I was suddenly off the bridge. The whole mystery was that I got off the bus in Butwal, but I was supposed to got off in Taulihawa. I didn’t have imagined this could happen. I was petty of myself. I did not share this to anyone there in the bus. I was afraid they would fool me, that I didn’t like to be.

I arrived at Bahadurganj. This place was like what I had saw in Doha Airport. Girls wearing full sleeve black clothes (Burka). The eye was the only part of body I could saw of any girl. I took the opportunity to have journey together with these Begams. Unfortunately, I had to ride  on the Roof of the Jeep. Nevertheless, the travel was very pleasant.  Atmosphere was clean. The shining paddy field as far as the zenith was like a Heaven in middle-earth. I could not differentiate between presentations of heaven in typical fiction movies to the pace where I was passing by. I felt riding on the roof was better than being cooked inside in the jeep in hot weather. I did not make any delay to make a facebook post because I was able to check facebook up there.

"I am very happy to find a place called Maharajgunj in Kapilbastu district. Its calm,and is not polluted at all." Courtesy FaceBook 8 October (www.facebook.com/shivarajmishra)

Kamal Ranabhat, young man who had worked for years in health system of Nepal, was quick to recruit two Awadhi speaking persons to our work. Together they had already completed a quarter of  work. Accommodation was not bad. We stayed like a Home Stay. It was the house of Sweet Shop owner in the town. The work was troublesome. Working in hot weather, added by strange community environment  made the work difficult for me. We went to many houses for interviewing Elephentitis cases. I was somewhat confident before that I would easily negotiate with the people during the work. But, this was no longer true when I find people speaking in Awadhi. Only the young, who were very rare in the village, had good tongue on Hindi and Nepali. So, by then I got the insight to the difficulties one would have working in these places.

While the others were working in research, I was interested more to look deeper into the Madhesh. I interacted with people; especially with women about their traditions, cultures, and their rituals of marriage. I saw a fascinating scene of Madhesh. While I had heard of Hindus and Muslims fighting each other, the Hindus and Muslims there were so nearer and dearer to each other. There was festive environment all over the village. And this was the time of Newaratra. Everyone were fasting and, devoting their prayers to Goddess Durga. I was some what surprised. While they were having only the sweets and holy foods, fellows in my town was full stomach with meat. I felt very pity of sacrificing customs we had in our culture.

The streets were full of kinds. This may be because people still have large family size in Madhesh. Houses were as big as that I could make by combining three houses of my neighborhood. Girls were rare in the market, as if there were no girls in the village. Many of the houses were single storied, were not plastered either. Most of the houses had ponds. These ponds in villages provides source of water for round a year, and a perfect swimming pool for kids and she-buffalos. I really enjoyed seeing all this. What I missed the most in Madhesh, was the verity of dish I had in my launch in Kathmandu. In four days, I was almost fed up of eating rice and potatoes.  

I was not being wrong. I didn’t observe a bad response of people towards me and my friends. It was not because I stayed just for five days in Kapilbastu, and my experience to ground was little. In fact they were very simple and welcoming people. In found them like my friends in neighborhood. I was very happy to visit such a place while I was still a young.

The work ended happily. We bade good bye to the Mithai dai in the Sweet Shop, our fellow field workers, and to the old town. I was going home after three months. This was the longest time I was out of home. When I was to take the bus to Narayangad, I felt like the Dasain Fever started on me.

Some pictures of my travel.