Standing in the middle of rice paddies and mustard seeds the bird life is rich. The journey here, as pillion, on the back of a motorbike traveling the main road was interesting. Life moved a little faster than the walking pace it has been venturing about six kilometres from the centre of Bodhgaya.
The hotel owner and extended family have taken a shine to me. I don't think it is because I am still the only guest. There were two other Indian men one night who enjoyed their sojourn by the empty spirit bottles outside the door and noise echoing from their room. I don't think they were paying guests.
I have met the uncles, sons and nephews plus some of the girls. I have been taken through albums of photos on the phone and pad. Today, Shivam, the nephew of the owner and duty manager for several hours a day, is not at college. It is his day off and he wants to show me his place once he has delivered, to his cousin, some supplies from home. His cousin is staying in a hostel at a nearby school. On arrival he is brought from lesson to meet and collect.
The family fields are a few kilometres in from the main road but a world away. It is calm and quiet. Men and women are about their business in the fields or on charpoi enjoying a sunbath. Down from the bike we move across the raised field dividers. I learn they are more than the embankment holding water but the boundary markers as well. Shivam points out his land. The family who specifically farm this land for the Brahmins, reside in a solid structure and have the where withal to tend the land and crops once harvested. Profits are divided between the landholders and workers.
On arrival the fields are being flooded. There is a deep groundwater well hooked up to a pump on which is connected a clear five inch hose. It pours steadily vast amounts of water into the paddy. The embankments are broken in several places to allow the overflow into other fields The soil is clay based, baked hard and cracked when dry but viscous and slippery when wetted. Standing in one place the bird life becomes evident. Overhead flashes of turquoise blue as Indian rollers fly. On the wires sit small kingfisher waiting to dart for a feed. Blue black drongos perch close to each other, forked tails evident. Swooping in over the mustard seed flower heads are the small bright green bee eaters with spiked tail. Further afield large quail scurry along the rises. Back to towards the road hoopoes are seen. Egrets roost high in the trees and a heron is hunting in the water of the field. This continues as we walk and then ride back to the main road.
Shivam pulls into his college to show me. We proceed to the Department and I am ushered in as a welcome visitor. Already seated are six Spanish speakers, a French speaker and a young woman from New Zealand. Introductions are underway and there is a spare chair at the front of the classroom. The Head of the Faculty welcomes me as introductions continue. I am asked to share about myself, why I am in India and how I feel here. At this point a plate of namkeen and dry biscuit and sweets are brought around one for each. It is awkward taking food with everyone watching so I ask Ma'am if anyone has questions, thinking I am safe with seven women sitting in front of a class of young men so I bite into a biscuit just in time for the first question to be directed to me. ' Share something about Australia'. Nice open ended question encompassing anything and everything.
An answer provided another comes and then a brave young man mentions when introducing himself he dances and the Spanish speakers ask him to show them. The table in front is moved to provide a floor space as he searches his phone for music. Hip hop, unexpected but well done on the spur of the moment.
After a few more questions, sharing and writing in the visitors book, it is photograph and selfie time, first inside the room and then outside the Department before Shivam plans a quick escape on the bike. He shares this was unexpected and was supposed to happen yesterday but something went wrong. The Spanish teacher was not even present as it is day off. Synchronicity continues.
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