Pushpa's Son & the Tantrics

We have been in India for nearly a month. You would have thought that after a few weeks we would be pretty used everything Rishikesh has to offer? Wrong! We are still in turn delighted, shocked, angered, amazed (and any number of other emotions) with the sights and sounds of daily life here!

Truly hospitable people, Jitendra and his wife Bibeta, have asked us to join them for several meals at their new house up on the Clean Himalaya workshop site. These are always pretty boisterous events with their 3 lively sons running in and out, the family pet dog, Coco, craving attention and cows mooing and lumbering past the door. Set this against a background of the endless, piercing, chirping of insects in the surrounding woods and the tiny TV, belying its size, belting out music from whichever colourful Hindi film is playing and you have a good idea of the atmosphere.

This atmosphere was disrupted recently - one of the Clean Himalaya workers, the only female, Pushpa, arrived in the middle of dinner. She lives just down the slope from the workshop, in one of the make-shift huts in the shanty village that has sprung up there. Pushpa was clearly agitated and upset. Although we do not understand Hindi, we knew something was very wrong. Jitendra explained that one of her sons was ill. It sounded as if he was having fits. Pushpa had taken him to the doctor, who had recommended that the boy have a CT scan. Whether this was too expensive or just did not mean anything to his mother, she had then chosen to take the boy to the tantrics, the local mystic healer. Our shock at this was nothing to when Pushpa added that the tantrics had said to sacrifice 2 chickens, but this didn't work, and this time he said that they should try a goat! She did not have the money for a goat, so had come to ask Jitendra for it.

Jitendra did his best to explain that the boy should go for the CT scan and the tantrics' so-called powers are just a load of superstition. He asked how much the CT scan would cost - it was 2300 Rupees, which would be totally feasible for a few of us to have a whip-round to get the funds together. This was all explained to Pushpa and although visibly still upset, she went home again soon after.

A few nights later, Jitendra and his family were kept awake all night by a puja down in the shanty village. A puja is very broadly translated as a ritual invocation of the gods. A bit more of an informed description can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puja

There was intense chanting, singing, shouting, drumming and music until the morning. No sleep for anyone , including the the neighbours. During the puja, a sheep was sacrificed, though whether this was in addition to or as a replacement for the goat, we don't know. Also, one woman claimed to have been possessed by the gods and declared Pushpa's son cured. Well, let's hope so, if only for the boy's sake.

It is incredible how people in the 21st century can still think the same way as our ancestors did thousands of years ago. Things are changing in India, in some fields, like communications, incredibly quickly - almost everyone's got a mobile phone now. But until the population as a whole, not only the more privileged few, develops its way of thinking, large sections of the population is destined to remain in the dark ages for years to come. This is also true of their attitude to the environment. As one man put it to us, when we questioned why people on a pilgrimage would through their junk into the holy river Ganges - we are thinking about it in reverse. The holy river will purify the rubbish!

This kind of medieval attitude makes Clean Himalaya's work all the more important. Educational programmes and raising awareness are a big part of their programme. Anything that can be done to start to inform and educate can only be a good thing!