The dusks at Jorhat and the songs of the fishermen.


As the sun dipped into the tea gardens, the shades of darkness gradually plunged into the tea estate areas with the screetching noise of birds settling into the trees and the stridulating sounds of the crickets marked the beginning of the nocturnal chaos revealing the arrival of dusk in Jorhat. The shrilling sounds of the blowing of Shankhas came floating from the nearby villages with the fragrance of the incense sticks deluging the traditional Assameese evening. I could hear the faint hymns of the tired fishermen singing while dumping their boats by the riverside for the day and returning home. 

I have seen diversed shades of dusky evenings in Jorhat during my stay for two years in this small town of Upper Assam. And the Jorhat evenings are as beautiful as the traditional women adorned in Mekhlas setting fire to the evening lamps or diyas and their faces shining with the glow of the flames and their beautiful eyes glistening with the reflection of the lamp. I have seen many colours of Jorhat evening skies and the dusks in the river banks as well as in the villages surrounding the nearby tea gardens. With the setting sun in the waterbed of Brahmaputra, I have observed the busy villages of Jorhat diving into the ocean of serenity and darkness with the shining moon and the sparkling stars illustrating the saga of mankind at the banks of the river Brahmaputra. 

Two of my most favourite evening destinations in Jorhat had been the Neamati Ghat and the Shikari Ghat situated in the banks of Brahmaputra. I have spent many evenings in these two places sipping into hot cup of tea to get the glimpse of the setting sun romancing in the water of Brahmaputra rolling out its red and yellow rays in the river water. The boats returning back from the distant villages of Assam with cattles and the villagers plunging their feet into the muddy river water while getting down into the bank of the river and a religious farmer taking a bath in the holy water of Brahmaputra with the hope of all his fights for survival carried away by the swelling waves of the river water making his life lot more easier indicated the different spectre of human life and livings. 



I have spent many evenings in a small tea shop located in the shades of a banyan tree at Shikari Ghat and observed the fishermen and their lives and struggles. They set out in the middle of the night amidst darkness of a dawn and venture far away into the turbulent water of the mighty Brahmaputra even inspite of storm and thunder risking their lives, leaving behind their family members with loads of anxiety and uncertainty. At times they return with plenty of fishes and at times with meagre catches, not good enough to run their living. But they never forget to smile. It is as if a tradition to smile and sing to keep human lives floating with the pace of the river water. Their songs have deep inner meanings which inject guts and bravery to these fishermen in a tumultous river amidst storm and thunder and at the same time motivate them while returning home at the end of the day to keep their pace of struggle alive for the next day.  I have learnt the most important lessons of positivity from these fishermen and their traditional bhatiyali songs at Shikarighat which incessantly flows through the highs and lows of the human lives.



I will never forget the different shades of struggle faced by the villagers in Jorhat with the ravaging river water hitting the village life every now and then. But then they keep their pace of living alive with these wonderful traditional songs inducing the flow of optimism among themselves with their life switching over between the dusks and the dawns and the light and the darkness. 
I have walked through the muddy kutcha roads of Jorhat villages with loneliness as my only companion with the popping noise of the bamboo trees and the rustling of the leaves whispering in my ears that every humanbeing should learn to travel alone in life with a smile and without much expectations. 

The memories of the dusky evenings of Jorhat Assam will always stay alive in my heart along with the songs of the fishermen.
Their songs depict about the life in a small town of Assam where people live smilingly with not much extravaganzas, but with love and belongingness towards each other as their biggest wealth. 









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