I Cherish To Tell

I Cherish To Tell

P K Routray

Seven decades of observations

on social practices and traditions

with which I was nurtured and grown

as a child, as a youth and as a graying person

propelled me to record on a few of them my perception

for future generation when those will be lost in oblivion

as now by faster, easier and wider communication

impact of practices world over has encroached upon

some practices managing to survive with alternation

and some practices are pushed to extinction.

With the then restricted communication

some practices were limited to one region

Even the names of them ring funny to the outsiders

difficult it is for them to conceive their usages and features.

Dhenki is the local name in their colloquial language of such a device.

for unmasking the paddy from its husk to get the rice

it is a big wooden hammer propelled in sync by many legs together

a lady is engaged to remove the product from the head of the hammer.

In the villages of Odisha in India where paddy is on cultivation

to get rice by operating Dhenki  village ladies join on their own.

It is for their mass exercise, training session, recreation

and to increase social; bondage and to get cooperation in return

The execution in tandem needs every one’s full concentration

to save the hand of the lady at the head from mutilation.

Usually all the ladies on the Dhenki reemains engrossed in conversation

Hands and legs take care of safety and work load without any violation

The cooperation and companionship among ladies in such participation

address issues on health and bridges the gap of difference in opinion

contributing to the health of society and the energy conservation

in such session seniors teach the juniors many a lesson.

I am in a fix whether I can force my opinion on such a decayed system

cover the mechanized means with its wells and ills of modern wisdom.

( N . B - Sorry I could not give a better photo or art to explain Dhenki’s operation which has many ladies paddling on one side of the fulcrum and another lady pushes paddy crops and removes husk and rice.

This system has a major indirect and direct contribution to the social fabrics of rural villages in Odisha.)