I feel proud to say that I am from a place of abundance, i.e. Darjeeling. I have not seen any locals from Darjeeling begging on the street. If we see any beggar in Darjeeling, he or she will be from outside this region.
Darjeeling has gone through various kinds of agitations. During 1985-86, there was forty days strike but still, there was no report of people dying of hunger in any part of Darjeeling. I am born in a community, where we do most of our rituals by offering blood to the ancestors. However I choose to become vegetarian. Few days back, I was contemplating, why did I choose to become vegetarian and I got the answer, it was just because of abundance. When I was growing up, we always used to have 20-25 chickens at our home in Pedong. Every time, there would be a guest at home, one chicken would be killed. Same thing would be repeated, every time, we would be guests at our relatives place. I have heard several times at my relatives places the statement like, ‘Roshni has come, let us cut the best chicken for her’.
Dasera used to be the festival of abundance of meat. We used to grow pig especially for Dasera. After killing the pig, meat would be distributed or sold to all the neighbors in the village and still there would be lots of pork remained at home. Just by seeing the abundance of meat, I felt like converting into vegetarian, when I was just 7-8 years old.
After coming to Mumbai, I have started appreciating more about the abundance in Darjeeling. Our houses are big with lots of open spaces. Income of Rs. 10000/- (Ten thousand) is enough for the living expenditure in Darjeeling. I really appreciate the way youngsters dressed up in Darjeeling. When I go to Darjeeling from Mumbai, I feel myself out of the place by looking at the dressing sense of young girls in Darjeeling. That’s why I prefer wearing traditional dress, where ever I go for any function.
The traditional food, we eat in Darjeeling is very healthy. I have tried eating ‘Kodo ko Dhero’ (Millet porridge) as a part of my carboloading before the long runs and I realized that it is the best food for the marathon runners. Recently, I attained a soup preparing class, where the trainer was saying to put rice water on the soup, which we call BHAAT KO MAAR, in Darjeeling and generally we use it to make Sabji ko Jhol, i.e. Veg soup. We don’t have traditional dessert. I feel that our words are so sweet, the way we speak to each other is so nice, and we don’t need dessert to have sweetness in our life.
Every house in Darjeeling will have plants and flowers. We hardly see any house without flowers. Without interior designer, houses in Darjeeling are very well organized and clean. In Mumbai, I have seen rich people’s houses also without proper furniture.
In our community, women are already empowered. Our fathers don’t need to accumulate property to get daughters married. Daughters are given equal education without any discrimination. Further, woman can choose her life partner and love marriage is acceptable and it is not a taboo like in many parts of India.
Weather of Darjeeling is very good. Britishers liked Darjeeling because its weather helped their wounded soldiers to recover faster. Darjeeling has abundance of greeneries. There are many floras and faunas, which are found only in the forests of Darjeeling.
People of Darjeeling have abundance of health. We are genetically very strong. If there is any death in the village, the family of the death person need not do anything. Entire village will take care of everything. People will be around with the family for whole night, whole day they will be taking care of the family and relatives of the death person. If a person wants to see the abundance of humanity, one should go to Darjeeling.
Most of the families in Darjeeling stay in a joint family. There is no drama between mother in law and daughter in law. When I was very new to Mumbai, I was surprised to hear my colleague doing backbiting about her mother in law in the office in front of the entire colleagues. It was really awkward for me but now I am getting used to with such things in Mumbai. But in Darjeeling, I have never seen a daughter in law doing backbiting of a mother in law.
I believe that all these things have made my Darjeeling an extra ordinary place. There are lots of disturbances happening since 1980s but still we see happy faces in good cloths with good thoughts all over Darjeeling. People are natural; we don’t meet any superficial creature in Darjeeling.
Darjeeling grows the best quality of tea in the world. Before globalization, Darjeeling tea was the only medium of foreign exchange for India. In tea Gardens of Darjeeling, people work whole day and they earn little more than Rs. 100/- per day but still they are living a satisfied life.
Every Village in Darjeeling has received the dead body of her son with India’s flag on their shoulders from Kargil, Bangladesh War and different borders of India, when there were disturbances. Could anybody feel the pain of those mothers or wives, who have lost their sons or husbands, while serving / protecting mother India? Same mother or wife on saying that their mother tongue is Nepali will be asked, ‘are you from Nepal?’ And how they would have felt, when there were some processions with posters, ‘Nepalis are foreigners’.
Recently, I was invited to a school in Mumbai. I introduced myself to the students, saying that I am from Darjeeling and I asked them, do you know, where is it? A class X student said, it’s in China. Are the people of other part of India really ignorant?
After I have started the project ‘Run with Roshni’, I understood that people are really ignorant. They don’t know how Darjeeling along with our ancestors became the part of India. They don’t know that Nepali is a recognized language under the constitution of India and it is one of the languages mentioned on the Indian currency. Many people acknowledged me that after reading the media mention of the project ‘Run with Roshni’, they became aware of the facts of Darjeeling.
After I have started the project ‘Run with Roshni’, I understood that people are really ignorant. They don’t know how Darjeeling along with our ancestors became the part of India. They don’t know that Nepali is a recognized language under the constitution of India and it is one of the languages mentioned on the Indian currency. Many people acknowledged me that after reading the media mention of the project ‘Run with Roshni’, they became aware of the facts of Darjeeling.
People in Darjeeling are not acknowledging themselves for being who they are. In cities people are very expert in presenting and promoting themselves. Only lack I see in the people of Darjeeling is that we lack the skill of promoting our talents, our achievements, and our contribution to the development of India. In cities like Mumbai and in Corporates, I see people doing little but showing off more, which the people of Darjeeling should learn.
Now it’s the time, to focus more on our strengths and do promote our strengths. No other community has unity as much as Gorkha community has. Our demand of Gorkhaland is 107 years and since then there is a unity in our community. We should remain united till our demand is fulfilled. This is not the time to see what our community is lacking, it the time to see, what are our strengths. Demand for Gorkhaland is not a political issue or an issue of Darjeeling only but it is an issue of identity for the Gorkhas all over India.
The team ‘Run with Roshni’ will be running Hyderabad marathon on 25th June, 2013 in the capital of newly formed state Telangana. While running that marathon, we will be remembering all the martyrs, who have sacrificed their lives for Gorkhaland because it will be our tribute to all the brave martyrs.
Intentions of my blog is to say that I am proud to be Gorkha.
Jai Gorkha, Jai Hind.
File pic
No comments:
Post a Comment