Page 47 - GOTIL (ENG) Sample

Village Life in Bangladesh 15

put everything away. There were bed sheets and quilts out
in the sun for airing, and dāl boris being dried. Everything
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was completely still and the sky a brilliant, uninterrupted
blue. But “He says, ‘I am coming,’” and indeed within
fifteen minutes the heavens were black, shaking with
angry thunder and volleying rain and lightning.

But after Boishak comes another month of summer, with
not even temporary relief from the heat; as soon as the
sun rises it burns. When there is neither rain nor scope
for deep tube-well irrigation, drinking water becomes
scarce, leading to diseases of humans and animals. Worse
is when crops fail. If, as often happens, drought is followed
by floods, suffering is compounded.

Once I was invited to go on a harināma party around a
village. It had been a particularly long and hot summer,
the monsoon was overdue, and all living beings were
suffering. We spent the entire morning chanting from
house to house, accompanied by a group of children. At
each home the residents would throw a precious bucket
of water in the courtyard and the youngsters would roll in
the slippery mud thus created. I thought this was rather
strange (but anyway, there were so many strange things
going on). Years later I learned that that particular type
of harināma procession is traditionally performed to
invoke rain.

As summer wears on, all creation awaits the thick dark
monsoon clouds that convert blinding midday into
15. Dāl bori — food preparation described below.