Life at the borderland
A life least known but deserves highest appreciation
Tushita Pandey
Have we ever encountered the life of those who live at the border land areas in our state Jammu & Kashmir? In one part, we find stone pelting- a reasonless reaction of a demand beyond comprehension, on the other hand we have found those villagers who are the locals, migrants or the refugees, these people have such a way of living that can inspire many. This article is one of the first attempt to make realize the value of life and a living which needs to be appreciated. The border land comprises many villages from Jammu district, one of the tehsil is Suchetgarh where we also find tourist spot famous for sharing international border between India and Pakistan, here are few villages namely Gharani, Chakroi, Kapoorpur and Shamka, villagers here face continuous distress due to border security issues. But they still live and never questions army for their protective measures and moreover, they always stand with the Indian army and are proud on being Indians, stone pelting is beyond imagination for them. We have heard a lot about much publicized Kashmiri heritage which comprises many artefacts such as in the form of Handicrafts for example papier mache, pashmina shawls, wood carvings, and carpets, a number of famous tourist spots, represented in many old Bollywood movies, a cuisine that is famous throughout the world, but why we have left these border villages who have their own sense belongingness to the country and to their heritage, have we ever publicized the efforts of villagers of these borderland area of Suchetgarh Tehsil. One such effort to represent the living heritage of these refugees, migrants and locals was taken up by Centre for Studies in Museology on International Museum Day on this Thursday, 18th May 2017, where folk people demonstrated their folk heritage. Ladies represented the folk heritage in the form of wall paintings in which decorative motifs are painted using natural colours pictured by Smt. Prito Devi ji, handicrafts known as chinger made using just three elements namely local wool, needle and straw handcrafted by Smt. Bacchno Devi ji, Smt. Rani Devi ji, Smt. Rita Devi Ji and Smt. Surishta Devi ji and also made binne using throw away pieces of clothes and needle, making of tokri using just the branches of a local mulberry tree woven by Sh. Shailo Ram. Lastly cooking the local delicacies known as Ghyur and Chilley cooked by Smt. Kailasho Devi ji served in lotus leaves brought by Sh. Devinder Choudhary from Datte ka Tallab in Shamka Village. It is very important to convey the name of these people who are without any highly paid degrees conserving and protecting their local heritage and at the same time promoting their heritage, these people who live in continuous insecurities as they are inhabitants of border land villages, but they live with their heritage in happiness, these are self-made people, today it is a need to understand how one can live with heritage and promote it especially for youth who comes under depression and frustration on those mediocre issues which are most of the time self-made. If we need to learn what life is, we should learn from these people who under every circumstance will greet you with smile. Several aspects of this local heritage are still uncovered and those aspects will be presented in the next article – the aspect of commitment, hope and faith- the aspect of local deities.
Freelance Writer and Scholar of Museology and Heritage Studies
Email-id: tushita_pandey@yahoo.in
