Village Life

After years, I got a chance to spend some time in my ancestral village this year. Schools were closed for 10 days and kids were free. Although the villages in North-Haryana are quite advanced when it comes to the basic civic amenities(this necessarily means consumerism only), But still the charm of olden days is not completely lost.

Boys still spend some "unaudited" time, out of the reach of vigilance of their mothers.
They still come out from the warmth of the Charpoy, to warm themselves with the flames of freedom.
Women still use the age-old methods of using cow-dung as the best source cooking fuel.
Sugarcane and Wheat still grow.

Mighty Markandey

I remember my childhood days in a small village in the Kurukshetra Disstt. Of Haryana. A mighty river namely Markanda (named after Rishi Markandey) used to flow touching the village. I still remember the volumes to which the river would swell in the MONSOON months. Every second year it used to break its banks and flood the whole region with not only the waters but fertile and virgin soils from the lower Himalayan regions. The river used to be worshipped like the supreme gods due to prosperity that it brought year after year. Monsoons were the months to observe the might of this river, rest of the year it flowed like a meditating SAGE.

I am a frequent visitor to my native place and a spectator of how the Mighty Markandey has been tamed by they lesser mortals. A visit this year has shown how the volume of water has decreased over the years.

Just campare the high flood level in the 1978 flood with the level of water at this time of the year. The water rarely touches the feet of the pillars now.

A local Market at the weekly Sunday fair in Shahbad Markanda.