Woman empowerment in my village Tulati in 1970s IN MY MEMOIR ANNYATHA MULYAHEENA (otherwise worthless)

ANYATHA MULLYAHEENA, CHAPTER 3—WOMAN EMPOWERMENT IN 1970S IN MY VILLAGE Tulati.

To the boy of 8/9(me) my village was the biggest and the best .The biggest (although only a medium size village of four wards only), just like the well to the resident frog is an ocean. Own village is the best to any child ,but neutrally speaking also my village was the nicest place in that era.

     My village Tulati slept like my mother with head to the east comprising the village school since 1886 making literacy aplenty, and adjacent to it the abode of Lord Jagannath on the land of an Acharya Brahmin late Mr Ghana Acharya who went on uttering and blessing his son Adwaita Acharya (Jadanana) to be a KASHIPANDIT. It is history not a legend that even if the boy became an orphan, by GOD`S grace he became a true learned man from Kashi having a double master degree in Sanskrit and some other philosophical subject. Being taken care by Matama Janaki Dash, an agent sanyasini from Balaramkoth matha of Puri, followed by the patronage of the resourceful Mahanta (chief) of that matha. All the properties of Ghana Acharya belonged to Jagannath matha of our village . Later on Jadanana became Mohanta (chief) of Balaramkoth , he was the pride of the whole village till his death in 2007.So the head of my mother village TULATI was the center of learning and religious philosophy.

     A father`s wish and repeated utterance although no one gave any importance as he was an obsessive type man ultimately came true, his son became learned Sri Ayodha Dash.  

 Baba Vishma Dash was in charge of the village Matha whom the villagers told a real Vishma, we children feared him.

     The other institution grew to high school in 1975,But the boss of the school complex was the Head Pandit of primary school Sri Binod Bihari Mohanty, who looked alike, loved and feared alike as Late Mr Bal Thakre. (Will be a big chapter in my write up Annytha Mulyaheena).

     Mata Janaki who once reared the sick ulcerated Jadanana, confirmed his treatment and remained motherly to him stayed in my village till another generation to enrich our childhood with love, affection. Till date I can see her doing an unique style of singing and dancing like a Kirtania in front of The Lord. Her Prasad was cherished by the children; we just went in when Baba was absent or in sleep.

      My village was a nice place for this pious sanyasini to move towards salvation, which she must have attended, (She was the symbol of a powerful woman without a single controversy.)

A line of Krishnachuda (the tree uprooted in July 2014) Radhachuda and other flowering trees on the western fence of the twin institutions was like a necklace to my mother village and western to it was a huge pond that adored the shadow of the head as a locket when the sun rose in the east. The shadow changed to a glowing reflection in the afternoon to dusk when rays came from west.(Photograph can be seen in my another blog post Majestic pond Kastura.

      The pond was the breast of my mother village that fed human, cattle, other animals and helped to do kitchen garden. (It had a natural maintenance system. Every year new monsoon water entered at the Northwest corner where the Chief mother deity Mangala blessed and protected the village and old water was drained at the Southeast. During our childhood the hygienic sense had already improved and no one drank raw pond water however it was used for boiling rice or dal for its better cooking quality. Now no body uses it for edible purpose and no one cares for maintaining its quality.  

     Nowhere had I seen a bigger village pond. The strongest and tallest youth could throw a pebble maximum up to 3 quarters of the water body. It had fourteen huge trees Aswastha, Banyan, Kadamba trees in combine around its bank in addition to the neckless mentioned above. Almost all trees had a name like pakatutha gachha, doli gachha, sudha baragachha, sudha aswastha gachha, mangala gachha, matha aswastha gachha, arasahi doli gachha and so on.

The pond had a name Kastura , legend says out of the seven sisters who dug one pond each in the area the eldest one Kasturi did the biggest pond in our village. There are named ponds in different villages giving the legend some legitimacy. How can any HE of my village give lesser grade to the fairer sex when he believes the grandiose pond is done by a woman?

This is only a portion of the chapter woman empowerment in my village, truly there was no discrimination and our sisters never felt they are inferior or weaker.