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We need tribal people much more than they need us

Usually we have to travel long distances in search of roots but sometimes almost miraculously roots come and find us. That is what happened to us at the Forest Foods and Ecology Festival in New Delhi. 

Suddenly, on one fine Friday morning, I found myself surrounded by roots and roots…

“Hey Jagannath, do you remember the bearded farmer we had gone to meet in the forest? Has he come?”

“Ahahah yes, they both have come,” laughs Jagannath. “This one and that one.”

“They were two?? I never realized! They all look so similar!!”

                                                                                   

Our ancestors’ and up to today’s Adivasis’ staple food… intriguing roots... so many of them… in all shapes and sizes… 

And this one is the one that fascinates me most… to prepare it is a long process… It has to be boiled and cut in 4 pieces. Then it is put in a basket that is kept overnight in the river. Once again it has to be boiled, and then only after being peeled, it can be prepared as any other vegetable… 

Here, I can’t help but make a connection with the words of Anodea Judith in her chapter on Muladhara or Root Chakra...

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Back to our Roots

With Jagannath, activist at Living Farm, I travel to a village on the fringe of the Niyamgiri hills in Odisha…

I have one wish… to accompany the tribal women in one of their roots/ tubers harvesting expeditions in the forest. Somehow there is something in that experience of journeying to the forest to dig out roots that deeply fascinates me!! May be it is the unique opportunity of performing an act our ancestors did for million years, an act that takes us back to the beginning of times when we were hunter-gatherers .

The women of the village agree. 

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Tribal people are our spiritual teachers

 

While travelling with my friend Jagannath to the tribal villages around Muniguda in Rayagada district of Orissa, I meet this young boy. He is sitting quietly on the outside partition wall of his small house, not too far from me, but oblivious to my presence. I am surprised… he is not grilling me with those annoying questions which every stranger usually bothers me with… what is your country, what do you do… Such a relief to be spared from that!!

So this boy… I forget to ask his name and he is not bothered about mine either (good because my name is an embarrassment as it is unpronounceable!!)... isn’t the least curious about me but honestly I AM curious about him… his innocent features and calmness puzzle me. So in the hope of an interaction with him I ask Jagannath to translate a few questions. The boy answers but in very few words! He has no urge to impress or pull attention and so his reply is to the point. He tells me he cultivates a plot of land when the agriculture season comes and he daily journeys to the forest…

Another thing about him is...

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