Are you keeping a cow, lower-house-grandfather?
Yes, I have a cow, as far as that goes…
It calved and now it doesn't let you go near it — it kicks, it butts, it kicks — just like that. [It gives] nothing to eat or drink, it's just there.
When did it calve?
It's already a yearling, the calf.
Oh. Did you sell off the buffalo?
The buffalo had bloody died.
What happened?
What happened indeed! I never knew. It just up and bloody died.
Mm.
It couldn't eat anything, there was something up here in its throat, who knows?
Ah.
We cauterized it's throat, in case it was diphtheria. Nothing we did made it better, and it died.
Ah.
It's been two or three years.
Yes, I…
I thought I'd arrange for a small buffalo, but they said I couldn't handle it.
So, you're keeping one neutered ram and one cow.
There was a female goat, too.
Mm.
There was a female, like that, but later we didn't even mate her. It was like she was sterile.
Mm.
I was going to sell her, thinking to look for another one, and we sold her.
Look for another one somewhere and what then?! I gave it up.
Mm.
I don't have a goatherd, I'd have to put it in someone else's herd.
Yes.
The goats, [I'd have to wait around wondering] when are they coming, when is it going with the others?
Yes, it's a nuisance.
Huh?
It's a nuisance, no?
It's a bother, no?
It is.
I can't come and go myself, there's no one to take them, what would you do?
Yes.
??
Anyway, it's done.
It's settled. Like it or not.
Uh…
Huh?
You kept a cow, now the cow…
I'm thinking to get rid of the cow.
Yesterday, yesterday evening I'd got the chickens in down below, I went to open up [the cage]…
When I went near her, wham! she hit me.
Oh!
She hit me in the thigh and threw me completely to the other side.
Kicking you?
Butting with her head!
Butting!
She got her horn onto my thigh and wham! she tossed me to the other side.
She's a bad one, if it's like that.
That's what I was saying, somewhere — one day she'll throw someone onto the fence!
Yes.
She doesn't let anyone near, do you understand?
Really it's not that she wants to hurt you, she's saying, "Throw in some fodder!"
Yes.
She wants you to throw in fodder and she has to butt like that?
Mm.
Instead, she should just do like this with her muzzle!
Mm.
Does she do that? Wham! she butts you to the other side!
Haha. … Sowing [wheat] here — have you not sown here, or did someone come?
Huh?
Did you sow here already or not?
It's sown, I already finished mine.
Oh.
They just threw a little seed.
Who sowed it? Who came yesterday?
Who came — down below Harcanya's father came.
Ah yes.
Harcanya's father brought them [oxen] and sowed — he brought oxen to Tilcaur [his own village] yesterday, then he brought them here.
The youngsters all said, "We won't go today, we're worn out."
Then he came himself and did it.
He came and plowed. Afterwards Ude brought oxen over there, Ude sowed his fields down there, then Ude brought them.
Ude brought them and then they finished it.
Ah, he brought two teams.
Over here, Dane had sown previously.
Ah.
Dane from Tilcaur, you know?
Ah.
Down here — up above there were only two fields left.
Ah, that's it.
What would you do? It's become difficult—
The village men won't do labor.
Yes, it's difficult now—
The village men won't work, and I can't do it myself any more.
And the ones from the low-caste hamlet, the way they used to…
They won't do labor either.
Mm.
There's nothing to give those motherfuckers, and if you gave them something, they still wouldn't work.
Mm.
Now its the low-caste laborers who will make slaves of the high castes — why should they do labor?
"They WILL? — They've already done it!
Mm.
If it's a question of going to the forest, they've already done it — now they've stopped carrying compost.
Yes.
They don't carry compost.
Mm.
In some places they don't come to marriages [to play music and carry the bride], look, you have to invite them.
Mm.
Even if you call them they don't come.
Mm.
[Miming an anxious family member.] Are they coming? They don't come.
They don't.
Nowadays, whatever happens, there's Lachhe.
Mm.
Whether he is able or not, there's only Lachhe. If you call him, he comes; if he's found out himself, he comes.
The others have already quit, the ones in the Bhat hamlet have quit, the ones in Simugada have quit, they don't come.
When Lachhe dies, its the end.
Yes. Now so many have taken land in the tarai, so many are doing something else, they've started going to Bombay, they've started earning money — they've become rich, the ones in the low caste hamlet.
Even if they're rich, whatever happens — it's a question of their own merit, the merit that their ancestors earned — there's no dharma any more!
None.
No one has dharma. Sin…
The times like in the past… the values aren't there any more, see, grandfather.
What is it — is it the times? The times don't tell people to do this or that.
That's so.
Is it mankind? Now it's mankind.
Mm.
The times are as they were: the week, the year is the same, time is the same, the month is the same, the day of the week is the same.
That's it.
Before, they used to say, in our father's day, rice was eight annas, four annas a mana [i.e. 25-50 paisa for about a pint].
Now, look, you can't get it even for twenty rupees a mana, you can't get a mana of rice even for twenty rupees, look.
Yes.
A person who has money will pay — a person without money, how will he pay?
Mm.
That's another thing you can't get.
I thought, "I'll buy rice from people's houses and eat it — the Food Corporation rice [imported by the government from the plains] is no good," but I didn't get any. Afterwards, I thought I'd pay 1500 rupees and bring some from up the hill, but I didn't get any. I sent word as far as Thana, there's none anywhere.
So what would you do?
Before it was a simple, straightforward time, everyone took care of his own business.
[??]
It was good, now what's all this?
In the old days, there was enough to sell, there was no need to buy [food] to eat.
Yes.
Food Corporation rice was unheard of then, it was unknown. No one knew about Food Corporation rice.
Before, the office didn't exist.
Back then, there wasn't any Food Corporation!
We couldn't eat all of our own, we couldn't eat all the maize, we couldn't eat all the maize and the wheat.
As for food and dress, on our own we had plenty to eat.
There was home-grown rice, home-grown maize, there was enough to last until the wheat ripened, there was no problem.
So! Now there might be one per cent who eat without buying Food Corporation grain. Otherwise, everyone buys Food Corporation rice. Is there anyone who doesn't eat it?
Right. People have become lazy, they don't work.
Hee hee.
Anyway, buyers have driven up the price of land.
Right.
What's the use of increasing your land, there's no compost.
Right.
And what about cattle?
Now there's only one pair of oxen; if you're going to raise something, raise a buffalo; otherwise there's just a pair of oxen.
Yes…
Nowadays they don't go the the forest, they raise them at home. They raise them at home, they don't even go to the forest. Where would they get compost?
Right.
Where's the compost going to come from, if they don't want to work hard?
If they don't want to cut litter during the rains— in the winter months, one who has gotten sal branches during the month or two when they are good [for litter and compost] has got them; the one who hasn't, if he goes later, they aren't there.
Mm.
That compost is good for nothing [lit. "good for cannabis"].
There was leaf compost, if you used it, that's finished too.
Leaf compost is finished, compost is finished, where will it come from, where will food come from?
People have become lazy, they've become lazy.