The desi Chhattisgarh experience….
Recently, I and my boi Posu [Prosenjit Matia] visited our friend Chetak’s home at Piparchhedi, Chhattisgarh to attend the inauguration of a new section of his home and celebrate his father’s birthday. This is my second solo ride on a bike from Bhubaneswar to Chhattisgarh this year and a lot had changed in the last two months.
The dry soil covered with ash was wet and covered by green grass now. The empty cleared fields were full of green ripe paddy now. The aftermath of harvest season was replaced by the next season of growing the next set of crops.
We didn’t travel much this time and that gave us more time to indulge in the culture, the “desi Chhattisgarhi culture”. It’s a great place to retreat from the fast-paced modern ways and relax. You get to slow down close to the natural ways. You get to enjoy fresh and natural unprocessed food. Although people here aren’t into the concepts of sustainable living, nature here hasn’t been affected by pollution much. So you get something a lot cleaner than what you find in the cities. Although I’m a quite private person, I do find bathing in the bores surrounded by open green fields quite fun and good for a change.
People here are really friendly and we’ve made quite a few friends here already. They don’t get many visitors here and hence we are still treated as some sort of important guests here. On the other hand, people here are quite religious, taking pride in their hindu identities. Religious occasions like Kumbh Mela and Ram Navami are the largest social events here. This also makes the place very patriarchal, devoid of diversity and a bit of casteist. But no culture is perfect and no place is without its vices, ain’t it?
Watch the cinematic travel montage here: https://youtu.be/v85J__OL3ac