at ojheytar this afternoon

today a trip to ojheytar turned out to be a trip almost back in time! i was in the paanchkhaal valley exploring sites for filming 'water' sites. we left the road at tin piple and headed east. we stopped at ojheytar because we saw a lot of locals carrying water in their dokos, in bottles, and what have yous.

the mango groves at ojheytar caught my attention. i asked them if they knew where karkeytar was (remembering that's where the summer time mangoes were brought from to ranisaab's). and jit bahadur danuwar point to the grove and said those were the trees whose mangoes were taken to jagadamba. i seemed to go back in time... remembering the line of men and women in their short dhotis and daura suruwal, coming to the durbar carrying dokos of mangoes. how the mangoes would have a lot of holes in them made by insects..how deviji would have to cut through a bunch of them to come up with a plateful of mangoes.

later, seeing that we were taking photographs of any water source, man kumari danuwar insisted on taking us to see a tap nearby. i guess she wanted someone to see that it was fixed. i followed her to the tap. and there it was with the words "shree ra. jagadamba, 2023/10/19/7" carved in cement on the tap stand. i was excited taking pictures.. and i asked the woman if she knew who had inaugurated the tap. she knotted her eyebrows and muttered "some rana".. then she spotted a guy and asked him the same question. and he replied " kamal babu"

i was so excited.. i told them.. that's my father.. my OWN father. and then the woman started introducing me to a couple of other women and men who were they that i was kamalbabu's beti (their language sounds quite a lot like hindi). one woman was saying that she remembered how much fun it used to be making the trip to the durbar. that they'd be treated with dahi and mohi, and would get 'bakas"..

i could not stay there as long as i would have like too.. but the trip surely made me feel like a ten year old for some time!!! i told them that i'd show the pictures to dada. i didn't tell them, but feel we could do something to repair the tank, replace the rusting pipes , so that the people of ojheytar don't have to rely on the stream for their drinking water.

fetching water from the kuwa
fetching water from the jharuwa at the khola







the long road to ojheytar from the khola













mangoes that the ranas planted




man kumari danuwar
rani jagadamba ko dane

and to think 'kamalbabu' inaugurated the tap 42 years ago!!