A good memory of the past
As time passes, the past seems better. When the memories come back you realize how much you have left behind. This time does not pass and becomes a part of the memory. When one starts walking towards the fields, the scenes of the last four decades start appearing from the sleeping fields. How much joy there was in these deserted fields. Now time has passed and time has passed. This was the time when fields were picked and plowed by hand. The fields were filled with family members. There was a lot of activity.
Hearing the bellowing of the black-faced bulls, people living in the backyard also used to take their way to the fields. Except a few houses, every house had a pair of bulls. Two people who are unable to keep a pair, raise one bull each and form a joint pair. Prosperous farmers used to have a pair of bulls with high snouts. Rivals are irritated by cheap bulls. Keeping bulls was a necessity for every household. Hundreds of bulls used to go to Sri Anandpur Sahib and Ropar bull market for sale and hundreds of bulls were bought and taken to the villages. People used to go to see the newly arrived bulls. From huts, furnaces, mills to joyous gatherings, people talked about them.
People who kept good bulls had a name in their village and area. Even today the people of the area take the name of Rakha Bains with great respect as the famous bull trader of our neighboring village Khurali now Shri Khuralgarh. Dozens of bulls used to stand on their fences. In the morning his horns were decorated with black oil. Exchange of bulls from the market took place every month. Bulls used to be the topic of conversation in the village halls, roadside dariyas and other street meetings. Those who had good and strong bulls were considered rich. In winter, the people of Sarde Puja used to hang colorful sackcloth on the backs of bulls instead of sackcloth. At the time of the meeting, the well being of the family as well as the milk and livestock was also inquired about. Hali went into the dark field, his attention focused on the allowance coming to him from the village. He looked towards the village again and again. In those days, it was common for three women to go to the fields with an allowance. Maize was sown as soon as the rains started. After a few days, maize plants grew from the ground. If there is heavy rainfall after sowing, then bullock plow is used to plow the land. Then the whole family would sit for weeding. Neighboring farmers used to invite each other for tea.
Many days would pass until the weeding was completed. There was a lot of brotherhood at that time. If one family went berserk with gifts, they would join hands with the other family. Where are those things now? I remember the words of Bebe Ratan Kaur. She used to say that brother, in future do it so that the house where he was born sings a song, and the house where he dies cries. Remembering that period, the lines from poet Vidhata Singh Teer’s poem ‘Navy Kurina Tehzeeb’ echo in the ears: Took the donkey from home after giving ‘Kapala cow’, stopped drinking milk, put a sling on it. ,
During plowing days, pairs of bulls can be seen far and wide. It was broken and used twice and thrice. Land deprived of irrigation water in the coastal area was taken care of by drainage. For this, the field was irrigated by pouring water during the rainy season or autumn so that the field remained moist. Two people used to climb on Suhaagi to make Surma of Dhims. The boys used to fight with each other to eat sweets between their father’s legs. To get suha from the bulls he had to break the dhim for several hours. One has to be very careful while harvesting maize. After harvesting of one field, harvesting of the next field is started. Corn stalks along with currents will also injure oxen. These snails were collected from every house as per requirement for fuel. After weeding, the maize plants will gain momentum within a few days. During maize harvesting days, native mango and yam ripen together. Everyone enjoys these natural blessings. The new generation has been deprived of these natural blessings. Pure native maize plants seemed to be growing every day.
With this, when the maize reached the knees, threshing started. The term Sidai may vary for other areas of Punjab except the Kandi region. Knee-deep corn plants are plowed by oxen. Vats were made all over the field. There was no water from the light rain. The maize plants were covered with mud. For families whose work was complicated due to the large area, neighbors or relatives from nearby villages would arrive with a pair of oxen. For recent bread-and-butter, house guests may have been adventurous and visited with plenty of hospitality. After Dussehra, after sowing the wheat, the bulls were hitched to the velena (Ghuladi). Kamad was planted in almost every house. There was shortage of sugar but there was no shortage of jaggery.
Houses full of jaggery were witnesses to this. Bulls were added to it according to the warrior’s turn. Early in the morning, the click-tick sounds of oxen were heard in Ghuladi, like the sounds heard at wells in the plains. The sounds heard in the fields like “muraya, muraya mera boya sher, parar muraya”, the sounds of the bulls making love and braying have now become silent and have gone into the lap of the past. In the villages, in some big houses, a pair of oxen and a statue of a farmer can definitely be seen. Change is an invariable law of nature.
