In Ranthambhore, water is everything. Animals big and small, predator and prey gather around the tiny water bodies that dot the forest. It is common to see peacocks and chinkara standing around the lake, their heads inside the water, as if friends gathered together for a drink after a long hard day at work. It is equally common to see the smarter, more discerning langurs drink straight from the tap just outside the forest gates.
And the best sight is that of people, usually men sitting with pots of water (cool and refreshing as only matke ka pani can be) everywhere, handing out glasses o the thirsty. This woman sits just otuside the main gate of the reserve, just off the dusty main road. She has pots of water filled and ready, and fetches them from near her home which is close to the main gate,, when the pots go empty. People give me whatever they wish… She also adds, often they don’t give anything. I just do it…
This woman works at the Dastkari Kendra in Ranthambhore. Dastkar is an NGO working with women’s co-operatives, in this case the kendra was set up as a rehablitation measure to provide income support for those families displaced when the villages they were living in came under the protected national park area. Supported partly by the Ranthambhore Foundation, this Dastkari Kendra in Ranthambhore believes that income from this source means eventually less pressure on the forest land itself. These women are skilled with their hands, and the results are evident in the quality of things they produce. Niti Bahn has a more detailed post and more photographs from Dastkari Kendra Ranthambhore.
Working women happy and proud to be doing what they are…
And then this family of local folk artists who perform every night at the hotel we were staying in. Father, mother and daughter and one more male, perhaps the son? or a nephew? on the dholak. The woman’s face is almost always covered with the edge of her pallu except when she sings. And after the first song, the little girl gets up to dance. She dances with complete lack of interest, dead-pan expression on the face, sometimes urging others to join her in the dance. I have seen these performances elsewhere in Rajasthan – and in each place, I have been struck by how listless and even lifeless, the little girl’s dance is. Hand and feet motions that have to be gone through, quick smiles flashed at the right times, a namaste here and all the time, the eyes tired and far far away…
These women earning a living too…
***
Related link : 50 million missing on flickr
Also read : On Itchy Feet, notes from a recent quick trip to Ranthambhore – the park and the fort