CHANDU, RANGIA AND CHANGRU

            Village shepherd, Chandu Ram,  the only son of Santo of uple charmkar (chmaar), had also been to school up to primary in early fifties. He was the classmate of the writer who took admission in fifth class in Snatan Dharam High School, Ladori after passing class fourth at Govt. Primary School.. Chandu was a very submissive, humble and soft spoken boy who always felt shy of his being from a society in the village which was not easily accepted in the main stream! Chandu himself did not seem confident, strong and therefore studies never interest him. Therefore, he totally lost interest in studies. Class teacher Gagan Singh Pathania tried his best to persuade Chandu to take interest in studies as his future depended on being educated only. If not, then he would spoil his  future life and will have to do his ancestral work of shoe making at home. But Chandu would not listen.

 One day class teacher Gagan Singh Pathania was explaining about the honey bees and how the honey is accumulated in such a large quantities and stored in their hive. He explained that there are two types of bees. One is Rani Makhi and rest others are 'Kartri makhis', Kartri meant, makhis who work and collect the honey from various flowers. In the end of the period, when the teacher asked Chandu about the types of makhis, Chandu replied that, 'Ek thi Rani, ek thi Kahtri', Kahtri makheer laaye, Rani makheer khaye'!

Despite best efforts of the teacher and friends, Chandu  suddenly gave up studies, left school and adopted his ancestral work. Chandu Ram still  carries on with his ancestral job of making hand-made juttis at home and grazing cattle. A lean and thin character of moderate height with angosha tied around on his head, Chandu is a good man and everyone in the village is satisfied with his services. Humble, faithful and soft spoken,  Chandu always tries his best to be punctual in his duties. Cattle too seemed to be friendly with him as they never disobey or ignore the coded commands of their master! 

  Rangia Ram son of Moti Ram of 'Chikle Chamaar' was also the classmate of the writer. Rangia was a sturdy, well built and looked like a wrestler. He spoke through his nose. Though he was good at studies but due to pressure of agricultural work at home, he too dropped himself from the high school in fifth class. His father Moti Ram was  a very well known person in the area for his mastery of making different types of hand-made durable juttis. They also possessed their own agricultural land around their home in chikla maira. They had their own bullocks and other domestic milk animals like buffalos, cows, oxen, goats and sheep including some ponies and pony cart. 

At Rangia's house, there was a huge ber tree in the middle of their courtyard that attracted some of us to visit Rangia's house time and again in order to collect 'meethe ber'! There were several mouthwatering seasonal fruit trees like amrood, peach, anaar and aalu bukhara trees in their kitchen garden. Rangia would bring such ripe fruits to school and share with us.

  Another obedient fellow Changru, who belonged to our sister village Danni was a tall, thinny-skinny person, who was slightly bent from the waist upwards, was always available for mending the  kitchen garden fencing and making mud bricks on order. He was always bare from waist downwards and worn a 'Langer' only. He also used to wear shabby, torn and repaired military ankle boots and worn out olive green fuji shirt, sometimes sporting ranks, in white stripes on the right arm of the shirt. With an angosha tied around his head, Changru was always equipped with his ancestral 'Mandhaar Drati', wooden 'Sangi' and  was ever ready to take orders. 

          He used to make mud bricks on order and also bring loads of thorny bush on his head with the help of his ancestral drati and sangi and mended kitchen garden fencings in the village. His utterly poor condition sometimes moved women to donate him old clothes, food and water for which he had all praise for them and touched the ground several times in reverence while leaving and showered blessings in return until he was out of sight!

         There are still others like Chandu, Rangia and Changru in the village who depend upon firewood and fodder from the jungles. Firewood and fodder is available in abundance on the upper reaches of nearby hillocks stretching few kilometers northwards from Khadiyater Meadow to Domel of jabbar Khad. In those days, people of all ages used to go in small groups to these slopes early in the morning to collect dry firewood and green fodder.

          Some people bring loads of firewood or fodder on their backs till recently from places as far as five-ten kilometers upstream and sell them in the village in order to earn a living while others stock them for use during rainy days.