Dr. Satyawan Saurabh
Talking about the village chaupal, one remembers the old days, when 15-20 old friends who have now turned into neighbors sit and chat under a 100-year-old banyan tree on the bank of the village’s johad/pond. Used to be visible, but his age was also around 70-75 years. Whenever I used to pass by the village chaupal, I used to think whether I too would be able to join these chaupals someday. But now it seems that I will never be able to join the village chaupal. Most of you would not know what is a chaupal.
There is no more in the chaupal, the same thing as before.
The breeds became urban, and the countryside changed.
Ever since I came to the village, this urban gift.
Do not plow the field, now talk to each other.
Till four decades ago, the villages of India were so lovely, they used to flaunt their beauty. At that time chaupale was perennial. In winter, the elderly villagers sitting on the muddas used to walk in the middle and talk till midnight with the help of bonfires. Although at that time the politics of Panchayati Raj had also entered the village, the minds and minds of the villagers were clean. Amidst the hum of hookahs, clean discussions based on religious and social stories used to take place at that time. In the changing environment today these discussions have been destroyed. Now in most of the villages, the talk of decorating perennial chaupalas is sometimes heard far and wide. The people of the village, who have been completely divorced from Chaupal, have become limited to TV, mobile, or stove due to their contaminated mentality.
Life becomes urban, villages are changing.
The earth has become barren, the mechanical feet are stable.
All the streets are sad, all are silent.
Gone to the city, who brought the village back?
The chaupals of the villages have been a school to learn politics and also a court to settle the disputes between the villagers. When hookah gurgling Panch reaches a decision, it has been considered as the decision of Panch Parmeshwar. The great thing is that the Panchayati decisions taken on the Chaupal get preference in the court as well. Similarly, political decrees have also been pronounced by the chaupal and in whose favor the Panchayat decision has been taken, then the people of the village and township have been making it fruitful. If I talk about the village chaupal, then I remember the old days, Chaupal is called that, where meeting is held and the area is open from all sides, here the people of the village sit and talk about the country and abroad or about the future of the village. Let’s discuss In simple language, I can say that those elders sitting on 4-5 cots under the banyan are part of the chaupal.
The village of affinity has turned into an argument.
Every courtyard should be entangled, the feet of discord.
Now the village would have been a stone, call out every moment.
Return me, tile shape.
In the village now there is neither the splendor of festivals nor the songs sung by women at the time of marriage. Even the form of mourning that engulfs every house on death has changed. Earlier, on the death of a jawan in the village, the stove of any house was not lit before his last rites. But the bitterness created due to politics has polluted the atmosphere of the village bound in the bond of love in such a way that even in the village, the culture of the selfishness of the metropolitans, the death of the neighbor does not have much effect on the health of the neighborhood adjacent to the wall. Now the chaupal of the village has been limited and the chaupal of every house is held there in the evening while having dinner. Now maybe the village chaupal will not be able to come alive again. It is very sad to say that the truest judicial system of my country is ending today.
When the letter came from the village, take the message of the mother.
My eyes filled with tears after reading, that country has changed.
After years I returned to that village of my childhood.
The old Peepal shade was no more there.
Change is the law of nature and the cultural, social, and economic change that came in the village did not come from any other planet. Rather, to join the race of modernity born at the speed of time, not humans, they have adopted new dimensions in search. The way old buildings become grounded. In the same way, new resources and cultures have replaced themselves on the chest of ancient traditions. Now it is the responsibility of all of us that we unite and add such old traditions which inspire us to live together. The decisions taken in the Chaupals were hardly ever appealed. Humanity was seen alive in the decision to these questions. But today the importance of money is seen more than humanity in the justice system. Will the chaupal be able to sit under that banyan tree again in my country, in my village? Well, what to do even after thinking this, because who has time left even to sit in the chaupal?
From my beloved village, that’s all the question.
Where is the old peepal, where has the chaupal gone?
Brought a letter from the village, when the flowers of memories.
Lost in intimacy, went to the city, and I forgot.
