“My (mobile) browser fails to display embedded media content” | Tips >>
3 Bagi kedalang (We no longer do the same)
Theme
Two school-boys sing:
We have left our herding days but we cannot leave playing our flute. We have left hunting rats and birds in the jungle but we cannot leave drinking rice beer.
Two school-girls sing:
We have left the habit of collecting cow dung in the scorching heat, we no longer collect vegetables from the fields but we cannot forget our dances and music and attending our village fairs. We have forgotten the habit of putting a towel on our shoulder and embroider the end-pieces of our towels but we have not forgotten our childhood friendship.
Literary translation
Boy:
We have left herding cows and buffalos,
but could not leave playing flute.
We have left hunting mice and birds and left the eating of roasted meat,
but could not leave drinking rice beer.
Girls:
We have left stitching mattress with palm leafs sitting on khat under the banyan tree, collecting cow dung in the field in the scorching heat.
But could not leave our habit of roaming around in the bazar.
We have left the habit of putting towels on our shoulder and doing handy work at the end of the panchi (towel),
but could not leave our dance and music.
View the full video album from the beginning >>
Courtesy: Dr. Boro Baski © Ghosaldanga Bishnubati Adibasi Trust –
Dr. Boro Baski works for the community-based organisation Ghosaldanga Adibasi Seva Sangha in West Bengal. The NGO is supported by the German NGO Freundeskreis Ghosaldanga und Bishnubati. He was the first person from his village to go to college as well as the first to earn a PhD (in social work) at Viswa-Bharati. This university was founded by Rabindranath Tagore to foster integrated rural development with respect for cultural diversity. The cooperation he inspired helps local communities to improve agriculture, economical and environmental conditions locally, besides facilitating education and health care based on modern science.
He authored Santali translations of two major works by Rabindranath Tagore, the essay “Vidyasagar-Charit” and the drama Raktakarabi (English “Red Oleanders”), jointly published by the Asiatic Society & Sahitya Akademi (India’s National Academy of Letters) in 2020.
Other posts contributed by Dr. Boro Baski >>
Ghosaldanga Bishnubati Adibasi Trust
Registration under Trust Registration Act 1982
P.O. Sattore, Dist. Birbhum
West Bengal-731 236
India
For inquiries on Santal cultural and educational programs, please contact:
Mob. 094323 57160
Copyright
All contents are being published with an understanding that the respective copyright owners have agreed to the license terms explained in the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. This means that no commercial use or modification of such content is permissible without written consent by their respective copyright holders.
Learn more
- RSV School & Museum of Santal Culture >>
- Print-friendly version (PDF 200 KB) for the above translations and Part 1 >>
Courtesy: Dr. Boro Baski © Ghosaldanga Bishnubati Adibasi Trust –
Copyright
All contents are being published with an understanding that the respective copyright owners have agreed to the license terms explained in the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. This means that no commercial use or modification of such content is permissible without written consent by their respective copyright holders.
Photo © Ludwig Pesch
Learn more about a wide range of issues
including Education and literacy, Health and nutrition & Ethnobotany >>
UNESCO World Heritage Centre | Backup: PDF-Repository >>
Learn more about the status and spread of Santali in different regions of India: