Dehradun, Makarsakranti heralds the beginning of a year full of fairs and festivals all over India, and has a special reverence in the hill-state of Uttarakhand.
Today, when the young are forgetting the ways of the ancient, here in the heartland of Pauri district, ‘gendi ki kauthik’ celebrated on Makarsakranti, continues to rekindle & refresh the human spirit.
As dawn breaks over the mountains, droves of crowd can be seen from miles away, making their way down the trails to converge at Tyodoh gaad close to Rishikesh. This traditional spot, tucked away into the forest, away from the maddening crowd, has been for decades, the venue for two days of festivities which begin on Makarsakranti.
Close to two thousand hill-folks from over twenty villages, within a 10 km radius of each other, collect at this very spot year after year. This annual fair is meant specially for daughters & daughter-in-laws who haven’t visited their maternal home off late. For young brides like Krishna, this is as close as she can get to home. A year since marriage and she has been counting days to be at the fair, smiling away waving to her friends Krishna tells us, “ I have come to meet my married sisters and friends from adjoining villages, this is our meeting point, I cant wait to sit with them and talk.“
With lines of wisdom stretched across her forehead, Bhuri Devi gets nostalgic, relishing piping-hot savouries off the pan, she says, ‘I make it a point to come to the fair every year to meet my married daughters and a daughter-in-law married in Rishikesh and then return home, where I live with my cattle and sheep.”
For hill-folks here, fairs like these are a welcome break from the mundane life they live. This is one day on the calendar, when men, women and children turn out in their fineries to shop until dusk, eat traditional sweets, meet up with friends and family whom they had met, perhaps last year, same time, same place.
