BURRDI‘S PLACE
Yesterday Shilpa Vaishnav, Hasmukh’s assistant, arrived from Mehsana. In the Indian tradition, when her daughter Niddhi came with her child from Canada for a visit, and for the marriage of Mansie which will begin in a couple of days, Niddhi stayed at her mother‘s home for a week and then shifted for her second week here in India to her parents in law‘s home in Ahmedabad. This means that Shilpa will also be able to connect with her daughter and granddaughter at the wedding when we go there in a couple of days.
Yesterday evening Shilpa took me to two homes, one for a visit with an old friend, Burrdi, and the other to do business with a Moslem friend.
Many years ago, when I first got to know him, Burrdi was the cook and driver at the ashram and remains a good friend to the ashram after shifting to working at the local dairy. We visited his home beside a hill of big rocks where the space around the house was home to a number of water buffalos, cows and goats tied to posts. There is no grazing land so the animals stay tied up all day and night with feed being brought to them. While there I photographed Burrdi‘s wife and grandchildren and made a video of the yard and house. His wife was wearing the traditional tribal dress. While we were there she was milking one of the water buffalos.
And then we were off to the home of a Moslem friend who has cooperated with the Ashram on a number of village projects with whom Shilpa discussed a new project. He was a good friend when the tearing down of the Ayodhya mosque happened in 2001, a train of Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya was burned, presumably by Moslems, and anti Moslem riots swept across Gujarat and a great number of Moslems were killed. Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist and now Prime Minister of India, was then chief minister of Gujurat and apparently did nothing to stop the massacre and may even have supported it. Hasmukh Patel came to stay with this Moslem friend and protected him, for which he is still grateful. I photographed his wife and daughter and grandchild.
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BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 