Old leaves, new leaves
Following is the first of a four-part series on voices from four villages in the central Himalayas. The pieces will appear every fortnight.
is going through now?
Both of us held each other’s hands tightly…that was basically the only communication with her for the time I sat beside her. Conversations started. Two sons with white turbans, the daughter, the son-in-law, the young man who had brought me and a speech-challenged boy, Yashu, who is the family, and village favourite.
I asked the priest about what he was doing. Rameshji was being prepared to leave the home. Clearly, a concept to be understood. So, the body has already been cremated. The spirit/soul too must move on. Today, that journey was being ritualistically enabled. A hole in the base of the round mud pot, sticks, white cloth, the holy grass, durva, were all being structured. Later, the family will carry everything to a sacred water body point that is said to have a subterranean connection with the Ganga in Haridwar, miles away.
Yashu, with his speechless smiling face and twinkling eyes, is very busy helping the priest. He knows exactly what to hand over when. If not, he follows instructions carefully. The priest is indulgent and patient and lets him participate fully.
Meanwhile, the conversations continue. It is life as usual. Jokes, laughter, exchange of information about work and earning, leg-pulling of the younger son, as he makes mistakes in his attire for the day.
There is a doorway on my left leading to a rather dark room. Women are seated there, including my female escort. They are chatting away. I get up and go in to join them. My sitting on the floor itself is an issue that I have to brush aside. They are all seated on the floor.
My eyes flit to the very small meshed window at the other end. This is obviously the kitchen and dining area. I wonder how a proper meal can be cooked here. Well, obviously meals upon meals have been cooked here since Rameshji built the house. His wife cooked here, now the daughter-in-law cooks here. Everyone gets their meals, always have.
As my eyes wander, the elder daughter-in-law shares her thoughts…unwittingly. Rameshji had said he would never move out of here. So, he had asked his younger son to build a more modern home a little ahead. As for Rameshji, till his last breath, he slept in the main room on his favourite bed. It was a given that the elder son and his family would live with him.
We talk but I remember little. My thoughts were all over the place. Circumstance,
choice, will, life…what does it mean to each of us…how different are the levels of existentialist questions between an urbanite like me and a rural family like the one I am sitting with…
It is time to leave. I say my goodbyes to the women around me and step out. I go to the bereaving wife to take leave. She says, “Already?” I do not know how to respond and awkwardly say I should be going.
Everyone, including the priest, wish me well and keep saying I must come for the thirteenth day lunch. I mumble. I never went.
When I reached home, my domestic backbone, Panna, wanted all details. I told her about my visit. While talking, it started raining. The annual fortnight of Ancestor Worship, Shraadhh, was coming to an end. Panna said, “Well, the souls have had their bath before going on their way to their world.” Well put, I said to myself and pondered for a long while.
My thoughts went back to a year or so ago, a few months after my husband had taken his last journey. Kishen was seated on the steps leading to my house. We were chatting about life and death. He said, “Well, if old leaves don’t fall, how will there be place for the new leaves?” I nodded in agreement…and pondered.
Neelima Mathur is an Indiabased Executive Producer, Researcher, Writer, Mentor and Trainer for documentary and NGO films. She is Also Festival Director of the Lakeside Doc Festival. studying and researching renewables, I think that there are definitely multiple techno-economic challenges with some potentially promising solutions.
As fossil fuels continue to choke us, alternative fuels are fast populating our horizons with green hydrogen and ammonia emerging as favourites to fix some of the hard-to-decarbonise and almost impossible to electrify sectors such as aviation, shipping, cement manufacture and steel-making. India has one of the highest potentials for green ammonia production at economical rates. The country can single-handedly fulfil the world’s potential ammonia requirements in the future. It is one boat that the country might not want to miss in terms of the capacity building ahead of time. In addition to the central benefit of contributing to a sustainable future, the opportunity also presents itself as a way to establish the nation as a formidable economic prowess. Many countries including most of the middle-eastern region have already demonstrated the stake that selling energy creates for a region.
India’s potential to emerge as the leader of a “sustainable future” is not just limited to its current natural affinity for wind, solar, and other natural elements but to the climate change resilience that the predictions show for the future of the Indian renewable systems. It is undeniable that we now live in a world that is considerably warmer compared to preindustrial levels. The anthropogenic nature of greenhouse gases makes them a constant ailment that will continue to keep our planet warm long after we have absolutely stopped all emissions. The natural variables of our climatic conditions which govern renewable production are bound to change due to the domino effect created by the warming.
Climate change resilience predictions show a varied global trend with many across the globe including California, Nevada, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia seeing negative effects as the world warms. Their installed capacity is going to potentially drop due to changing solar irradiation and wind speeds. On the contrary, India has displayed promising resilience making it a very strong candidate for capacity building ahead of time. Enhancement of national grid transmission capacities, introduction of feed-in tariffs, and subsidy on green energy consumption can go a long way in incentivizing the country to transition to good energy.
In a country with great natural potential, cultural acceptance to sustainability, and future resilience, the time is to catch boats we previously missed and build up capacity, rising up to the occasion of a sustainable world leader.