going home...

start of a 10 day vacation and on day one itself we all are headed to our village to attend my cousin's wedding. Been a long time since I visited my village. It has to be during the Durga Puja of 2009 when farside came along with me. This time, it was different. Instead of taking the public transport as we usually do, we booked a cab from our home in Kolkata to the river and then a reserved boat for the 45 minute journey to the village. This took a little bit of fun away from the journey as I used to enjoy those crowded boats stopping at so many villages by the river on its way to ours. This time it was a direct point-to-point journey. Nothing had changed in the village, in fact, it never changes - it all stays the same year after year. If there's something that changes is the level of the water in the river...it changes with year and season and that pretty much drives the life of people in the village. These villages by the river are so strongly influenced by the river that the pace of life here is pretty much governed by the river.

Relatives started coming in and by evening all the nears and dears were there. In the evening, I accompanied one of my uncles for inviting the village folks for the wedding/reception. I must admit, I was surprised by how the invitations were done. It was totally an informal affair, at least to me. There was no wedding card. Just walk into the houses of people, sit for a couple of minutes, tell them the news (which by the way, was not a news anymore) and ask them to be present in the ceremony. The number of houses we covered in just a couple of hours is just amazing. Just straight to the point without any lose talk. The houses in the village are arranged in groups or paaraa. Each paaraa belongs to a common family tree...if one can trace down a few generations, one can find a common ancestor. In one particular paaraa, we passed through so many houses and narrow gulleys that I was totally lost. I am sure that I wouldn't have been able to find the way out by myself but for a local help. I was totally awed by the simplicity and efficiency of the whole exercise.