"JAMNA-gari, naukriyu, khojileyuu hangkaathe," Tulsi Rajbar, 30, sang in her mother tongue as she patched up the blue walls of her ravaged mud hut in Chakarpur village on the foothills of the Kumaon mountains of Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand. It was a song about migration and search for work in foreign lands, written by Rajbar herself. It is one of the first and only songs ever to be composed in her language, named after her endangered tribe, Raji. "Language is intrinsic to our identity," Rajbar insisted. A fifth grade passout, Rajbar started learning to read and write in Raji-written in the Devanagari script-in 2021 and soon earned an international fellowship to teach Raji to local children of her community. She had even started writing songs in Raji and had performed them at an event in Dehradun. "I got many invitations and offers from other states at that time, and I thought I could become the first known Raji singer in India," says Rajbar. That was in 2023.
All that seems to be a distant memory now. Her diary of Raji poems and all her textbooks were washed away in the recent floods that struck her village in July. With no state support for the Raji community or employment opportunities, Rajbar had no option but to return to daily-wage labour, the only work that has been available to her and her forefathers for generations. "Our ancestors left their primitive mountain caves and migrated to the plains for a better life, more farm land and education for our children," says Rajbar. "We still don't have pucca houses or jobs," she says, pointing at her inundated patch of paddy. As an added irony, she says that though she remembers the Raji word for water (ti) and rain (barsaat), she could not recall the word for "floods". "Maybe they (her ancestors) never faced floods in the hills," she jokes.
Denne historien er fra August 21, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra August 21, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Layers Of Lear
Director Rajat Kapoor and actor Vinay Pathak's ode to Shakespeare is an experience to behold
Loss and Longing
Memories can be painful, but they also make life more meaningful
Suprabhatham Sub Judice
M.S. Subbulakshmi decided the fate of her memorials a long time ago
Fortress of Desire
A performance titled 'A Streetcart Named Desire', featuring Indian and international artists and performers, explored different desires through an unusual act on a full moon night at the Gwalior Fort
Of Hope and Hopelessness
The body appears as light in Payal Kapadia's film
Ruptured Lives
A visit to Bangladesh in 2010 shaped the author's novel, a sensitively sketched tale of migrants' struggles
The Big Book
The Big Book of Odia Literature is a groundbreaking work that provides readers with a comprehensive introduction to the rich and varied literary traditions of Odisha
How to Refuse the Generous Thief
The poet uses all the available arsenal in English to write the most anti-colonial poetry
The Freedom Compartment
#traindiaries is a photo journal shot in the ladies coaches of Mumbai locals. It explores how women engage and familiarise themselves with spaces by building relationships with complete strangers
Love, Up in the Clouds
Manikbabur Megh is an unusual love story about a man falling for a cloud. Amborish Roychoudhury discusses the process of Manikbabu's creation with actor Chandan Sen and director Abhinandan Banerjee
