Zariyein>>>Khirki Village, New Delhi>>> East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya
Zariyein in November 2006 was primarily aimed at gaining a foothold and finding entry points in the amorphous space that Khirki is. The predominant question in our heads (as people given to research and representation) was how does one begin to and arrive at knowing a space that is so outside of our own lived realities. Keeping this question in mind, we sought collaboration with a few residents of Khirki to create a collective understanding and representation of this space using the medium of photographs and conversations.
Zariyein in Meghalaya in the months of June and July was different as it was allied with another research project that we have been doing in Shillong and the East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya. This time Zariyein has become a means to unravel various strands of our research questions and understand and document various arenas that we thought were significant for this process.
Wheels and Wares- The Story of a Bus>>>
Over the last two months or so, we have been trying to understand the system of bazaar buses that exist in Meghalaya. Although these buses are a common phenomenon all over the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, we have been focusing on the buses that connect a particular region of the East Khasi Hills with Shillong. For several villages that lie in this region, the bus is a very significant aspect of their lives, and our research, very briefly put, is trying to explore how this is so. At the same time, markets in Shillong are also fed in to by this huge network of buses, all carrying produce from villages to the main trading centre in Shillong- Iewduh. However, this definition of the bus – as a focal point for exchange between villages and an urban centre- can be extremely reductionist. And it may also sound rhetorical to say that the bus, for many people who use it and are dependent on it, is almost like a living being which provides a sense of comfort and security, however true that may be.
In trying to understand the journey of the bus from these villages to Shillong, various nodes stand out – the point of origin of these buses, the villages en route to Shillong, Smit – a semi-urban junction which is the gateway to these parts of the Khasi Hills, the bus stand opposite the Anjali cinema hall and the Iewduh market in Shillong. Several people map themselves out at these various nodes – people from these parts of the East Khasi Hills who use the bus either for personal or medical needs or to buy and sell produce in the Iewduh market, people from these areas who live and work or study in Shillong, drivers/managers (conductors)/ handymen of buses which ply on routes in these areas, owners of buses, bus body builders. Wholesale traders and shop-owners at Iewduh, middlemen/agents for goods that are sold in Iewduh, shop-owners at villages along the bus routes. People like parking contractors who work in the bus stand in Shillong and other people who are dependent on the bus-stand in Shillong for their livelihoods. Elderly people who can throw light on life and modes of conveyance before the bus came to their areas or the history of roads in their area. Through conversations with these individuals who are in some form or the other associated with the bus, we have tried to understand various facets of this system and the inter-linkages that the bus creates between these villages and Shillong.
Bus>>> Images>>>
The people whom we handed out cameras to as a part of Zariyein inhabit various nodes of the bus. Their photographs, in totality, almost seem to represent the journey and the life of the bus through its various stages. Photographs of particular individuals refer to different aspects of the bus, the journey, the unique landscape that it passes through, various reasons for using the bus, the significance that it has for people who live along the route, the meanings that are associated with the bus by people who use it, the vast sea of buses and humanity at the Anjali bus stand, the spatial layout and components of Iewduh and the imagination of Shillong for people who belong to that area, the crowds, the shops, the vendors, the hustle and bustle, the waiting and watching - each set of photographs imbued with the individual’s personal style and choice of subject, each throwing up their own distinctive narratives.
So while Bah Deng Nicholas’ photographs travel from the bus stand opposite Anjali – of people in the bus, a recording of the temporary halt of the bus at Smit and photographs of his family in Pashang village, his frames filled with people at various stages of the bus’ journey, taken from every possible position- the road, the top of the bus, the people inside the bus, the outside of the bus, his camera looking up, down, left, right….Loi’s pictures ease away from the crowds of Iewduh and the Anjali bus stand into the gently undulating landscape of the East Khasi Hills and his village, Nohron. Like a few of Kunum’s photographs that touch upon his village, Mawlang.
William chooses the “day in a life of…” approach through which to look at the Anjali bus stand where he works. Moving from an almost surreal desolation of the bus stand early in the morning to the time when the buses start coming in, to various activities like loading/unloading of goods, the vendors and the tea stall ladies, a short detour to the Iewduh market and then back to the time when the buses have unburdened themselves of produce and are preparing for the journey back to the villages. Contrastingly, Prince urgently documents happenings in the bus stand, constantly driven by what he wants to tell through each photograph – who is selling what, to whom, why, what are different people doing- the person who is sweeping a part of the bus stand, the man reading a newspaper, the woman speaking on a mobile phone sitting on sacks of rice inside a bus, the porters urgently ferrying goods to their respective buses since it is almost time for the buses to leave…. half an hour, one and a half rolls of film. If Prince is in the thick of action, Jed’s camera gently glides through the background of the bus stand– individual buses isolated in his frames, a porter loading goods on a bus or children having fun sitting on top of a bus, a moment’s respite at a tea/jadoh shop or a boundary wall coming up in a part of the bus stand. Shngain roots himself in the toll booth of the bus stand of which he is one of the contractors, almost as if monitoring the entrance and exit of every bus through his camera frame, all his photographs taken from a single position – the toll booth, a few buses coming and going, and then an emptiness which is broken by an ice-cream man walking out of the bus stand with his cart, having finished business at the bus stand for the day.
Bah Hep’s frames capture the mélange that Iewduh is –a profusion of people, vehicles, comings and goings, buying and selling, noise – all within single frames. And Rubina and Spilin embark on a personal journey of their own, through spaces in Shillong that are familiar to them- their locality, their college, photo-worthy landmarks in Shillong like the Cathedral near Don Bosco Square or the Lady Hydari Park.
Zariyein>>> Work in Progress>>>
The narratives that grew out of these photographs were recorded by us using video- the reasons behind each individual choosing to take particular photographs, each narrative simultaneously giving us new insights and new frames of reference through which to understand the system of the bus. In that sense, Zariyein became a means to push the research questions with which we had set out. We plan to edit short video capsules out of these recordings, and these along with audio/video recordings of conversations that we had with people associated with the bus could be used to complement the photo-narratives.
The photo narratives are a new point of departure. We have assembled a selection of about 142 images drawn from all the sets of photographs. This assembly of images, in the form of a scrap book, is intended to throw up a sense of the journey of the bus from the village to Shillong and back. Two such books will be put into circulation over the next three months, one among people who live in these villages and another among as many people as possible in Shillong. Erness, Rishai and Droma, who live in three different villages in this part of East Khasi Hills, will circulate the book among people in their areas and try and generate discussions around the images. We have also been engaging with a group of young people from St. Edmund’s College in Shillong and we hope they will be able to do the same in the urban context. The idea is to use this sequence of photographs to record people’s associations with the bus in these two very different milieus. One of our tropes of enquiry for this research is to try and explore the imagination of the urban that the bus facilitates for the people who live in these villages and conversely, the imagination of the rural that the bus embodies for people in urban Shillong. Another intention behind these two scrap books is to try and open out this line of enquiry. People who view the book are free to add on to it in any form – photographs, writings, sketches, objects, observations, opinions- and to let new narratives of the bus emerge.
Tracking the journey of the BUS.
J.S TRAVELS
SHILLONG -MAWLANG – MAWJATAP- NOHRON
ML 05 B 6055
…….the engine warms up slowly with slight, consistent acceleration and the horn blows- Teet Teet, tearing through the silent hours of the morning. Its 4.30 a.m and only a few can be seen, walking towards the greens to perform ablutions. Mawlang rests peacefully for it knows that the bus will return after collecting passengers from Mawjatap. By 6 a.m. So there is still time.
Paiyyu(meaning “Brother” in Jaintia, since he hails from there), the driver, steers the bus through a jumpy, kutcha road (as the windows rattle and puddles splash) and announces with aplomb- a loud Teet Teet, twice over, his arrival at Mawjatap. He swerves the big green striped body of the bus- back and forth, reading the road back and front and when satisfied, parks it- a general invitation to passengers to board on.
Steps down then, enters a small tea shop, preparing for the long hours ahead.
After an hour, the bus becomes fat- with mothers and their little ones tied securely to their backs, a village headman from neighbouring Siangkhnai (a fifteen minute walk away from this bus point), a young college girl returning to Shillong after the weekend from Nonghulew (who has walked for an hour and half to catch the bus), the young and the old enter and slowly fill up the empty bus.
packets dangle from the iron lattice that divides the bus in between and things squeezed on the small top compartment chatter when they hit against each other as the bus rolls out, leaving a big huff of dust clouds
Mawjatap, Mawlang, Umsawar, Pashang…..and many a rattle later…..the bus, as if swelled up with pride at its generosity, rumbles on
things get piled up on its wooden floor, seats dismantled to stuff load within extra seating, planks joined to provide for additional space, faces next to faces, about seven in a row, covering the aisle and all, rows after rows, looking ahead
from the top, feet dangling down, perched on goods sometimes, hands grabbing on tightly against the notoriously wild rhythm of the bus as it leaps over bad patches of road.
Fattened thus- with friends and relatives, with goods to sell and buy, with the clamour of voices-
With things to do, the Bus makes its journey to the city.
The buses that start from Mawlang, Syntung, Nohron, Mawlat, Kharang and Diengling connect a particular set of villages in East Khasi Hills to Shillong. Their routes overlap and diverge after a point.
Unlike the other buses that ply from fertile areas of the East Khasi Hills like Sohra (Cherrapunji), Pynursla or Dawki (which face the Bangladesh plains) or the Ri-Bhoi district, these buses do not carry much agricultural produce to sell at Iewduh. A fact that signifies the low fertility of this area, and that there is, for some villages, not enough produced for it to be sold outside.
However the villages of Nohron, Syntung and Mawlat, due to their proximity to the low, flat terrain of Bangladesh, are suited to grow tympou (betel leaves). Given the large demand of tympou and kwai (areca nut) all over Meghalaya, these villages show signs of relative prosperity compared to their neighbors. The buses from these villages come laden with bamboo baskets, filled with tympou and the promise of a good sale.
For other villages which sell seasonal produce in small quantities, it is for small chores and daily necessities that the journey from the village to the city becomes inevitable. Buying a cough medicine for an ailing child, purchasing bags of cement for a half constructed house, tin sheets for a new village shed, to a pair of new school shoes- the bus fulfills all these needs and much more. And if one wishes to avoid the trip to the city- list out all the items to the driver or manager, hand over the money, wait for the bus to return. The handyman of the bus will tow the goods personally to the owner- no matter how big or small the thing might be.
By afternoon, when it is time to make the return journey, the buses are usually overloaded- a mélange of goods and people interspersed with each other. As it drives out of the city limits, the bus enters the semi-urban township of Smit and then stops a while for new passengers to get on. People wait uncomplainingly as goods are loaded/off- loaded by the manager and the handyman, while the driver, enjoying his scarce moments of respite, ‘oversees’ or simply gets off for small talk with a few regular faces. Ahead of Smit, the bus stops at villages on the way, patiently repeating its well- practiced ritual- loading and unloading of people and goods, even as some passers-by drop in to greet their passenger friends or to deliver some news via a traveller to a particular village.
Not all the villages fall on assigned bus routes. Sometimes, people have to wake up in the wee hours of the morning and walk for hours to make it in time for the bus. During the heavy monsoon, not so firm patches of the road relent to ceaseless showers and cave in. Then the buses do not go all the way back to their original village heads and rest on safer ground, perhaps a neighboring village.
Even though the distance from Shillong to some of these villages is not much, maybe 50-70 km, the bus often takes about 3-4 hours time to cover the route, given the intermittent breaks where it waits for people to get on or for loading, unloading and transfer of goods by the handyman.
The road too, surprisingly smooth in parts, breaks out in long stretches to reveal freshly formed ditches or long ignored wear and tear, slowly gone from bad to worse. At times, the tar gets washed away by incessant rains and makes it difficult for the wheel to get a firm grip on the road. Perhaps that is why the drivers’ peer out of their windows, throwing side-long glances onto the moving wheels while their skilled, practiced hands maneuver the steering wheel. By studying the wheel and gauging its alignment to the road, the drivers steer their way through thick fog or rain, even if visibility is extremely poor. This comes with years of expertise and knowing.
Bah Deng Nicholas
The village called Pashang is at a crossroad. The tarred road from Smit ends here. Further south of Pashang lie the villages of Mawlang and Syntung. If one goes west, he would reach the relatively prosperous village of Nohron. Pashang, also known as Mawkhoh, is located at this intersection and is a fairly new village. People from nearby villages started settling in Pashang only about thirty five years ago.
Nicholas is referred to as Bah Deng – a Khasi term of address for the middle brother of a family. His name is pronounced as “Nicholat” (with a - t) in Khasi. Thirty three years old, he is originally from Pashang and works in the state horticulture department in Shillong. He lives with his wife Kong Rit and three year old daughter, Andressa in a small rented room in Shillong.
Bah Deng finished his middle and high school from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya at a place called Nongpoh, about four hours away from his village. Before that he studied at the lower primary school in Pashang. He remembers the time he went for a school picnic from Pashang. That was the first time he ever sat in a bus. Recounting this trip, he told us of how he was initially not at all excited about going for the picnic. But the moment he heard the horn of the bus in the morning and saw his friends trooping towards the bus, he could no longer resist. To top it all, the bus broke down on its way back to Pashang and they had to come back in a jeep. He remembered his excitement about that day when he got to sit in a bus and a jeep for the first time – both on the same day! He fondly remembers that trip and said it was much more exciting than forays with his friends to the nearest village on market days, hitching rides on trucks.
Even though Bah Deng lives in Shillong, he tries to visit Pashang as often as possible. His ageing parents are still in the village and his daughter loves the company of her innumerable cousins and relatives there. He has the choice of taking three buses to his village – the Mawlang, the Syntung or the Nohron bus. However, he always takes the Nohron bus. The driver of the Nohron bus – Bah Synshar, is a good friend of his and Bah Deng cannot think of travelling on any other bus but this one.
Bah Deng had agreed to take photographs for us on one of his journeys to Pashang. The day he was travelling with the camera, his daughter and niece were also going with him to Pashang. His niece met a friend who was travelling on the Mawlang bus and she wanted to go with her on that particular bus. Bah Deng, of course, could not think of travelling by any other bus but Bah Synshar’s. So he simply let his daughter and niece take the Mawlang bus while he took the Nohron bus. When asked if he was not worried about his three-year old daughter travelling alone, he stated nonchalantly, “she’ll reach home”, and shrugged his shoulders.
Bah Deng took photographs of the buses at Smit, of people squished against one another inside the bus, of people sitting on top of the buses, of Sumo taxis parked at Smit, of his family and relatives in Pashang.
Kunum
Kunum (Khasi for brother-in-law) is the conductor of the Mawlang – Mawjatap bus. We never got to know what his real name is, everyone calls him Kunum. He ties a gamcha or a muffler on his head all the time, knotted in a style distinctly his own.
The bus conductor, generally referred to as the manager, is responsible for collecting fare from the passengers – not only those sitting inside the bus but even from those on top. Kunum goes in and out of the bus comfortably even when it is moving- through the door, through the window, up the iron ladder at the back of the bus to the roof. As the bus enters the city limits of Shillong, all the passengers sitting on the roof of the bus are herded down by him. The bus could be penalized for this.
Once the bus parks itself at the bus stand opposite Anjali cinema in Shillong, Kunum has a lot of work to do. People from villages along the route, especially from villages where the bus starts from, give him money and a list of things to buy from the market in Shillong. He keeps a note of the things he has to buy on the currency notes that people give him, each bundle of notes kept separately. His work load increases if there are orders from the village dorbar (the unit of local governance at the village level) to collect rice or other such goods for the entire village.
We asked Kunum if he could take photographs of his bus, the journey and villages that lie along the Mawlang route over two or three days. Unlike what we were expecting, he only took a few photographs of Mawlang, the point of origin of his bus. The bulk of the photographs were of two girls, in different clothes each time, framed against trees, fields and the horizon. One could tell that he knew them well – they seem to have enjoyed being photographed. Maybe they were from his village. Except for a couple of photographs of the village landscape and the bus, we decided not to use these photographs of the two girls. These photographs seemed extremely personal and intimate and we did not think that these images ought to be exhibited.
Loi
Loi is the manager of the Nohron bus. The Mawlang and the Nohron bus take the same route from Shillong till the detour from Pashang, about three hours from Shillong. The Nohron bus turns right from Pashang and the Mawlang bus takes the kutcha road from this point.
We did not know Loi very well; in fact, we had never spoken with him. However, Bah Deng Nicholas, a regular of the Nohron bus, suggested that he would ask Loi to take pictures of his bus, the journey and villages that lie along the Nohron route.
Getting the camera back from him was a trying experience. Three days, one week, ten days, almost two weeks passed by. Every time we would meet him at the Anjali bus stand, we would ask him if he had finished the roll. The constant refrain – he had finished about 20 and couldn’t click more because it had been raining at his place. We did not know what to think- did he take similar pictures like Kunum and was shying away from giving us the roll? Did he spoil or lose the camera? Did he want to keep the camera for himself and not return it at all? Finally after about two weeks we managed to collect the camera from him and on developing the roll, realized that it had been well worth the wait.
Loi took his pictures at leisure. They were many photographs of the village and the landscape – mountains, clouds, and villages on hilltops. He took a few photographs of his friend, a road that was being constructed or maybe repaired because of the monsoons and some photographs of his bus. The photographs threw up a beautiful sense of his village and the terrain of the villages along the Nohron route.
Prince Thangkhiew
Prince divides his time between his village, Umsawwar (which lies on the routes of the Syntung and the Mawlang bus) and Shillong. On a Saturday afternoon, he took photographs of all that goes on in the bus stand for about half an hour before catching the Mawlang bus for Umsawwar. One and a half rolls of film finished in quick succession.
Prince, who primarily works on micro-credit programs for women across rural Meghalaya, has been a regular traveller in all these buses for almost a decade now. He frequently visits these villages that lie beyond Smit. Through his journey over the years, Prince seems to know, feel and experience all that happens in these buses. In recounting his experiences of having travelled in the bus over the years, Prince literally embodies the spirit of the bus. Prince’s pictures highlight each and every little thing of the bus stand. How people from the village carry food from home and eat in the bus, how mothers feed their babies in the bus, how people end up wasting their money on cheap goods and things that are sold in the bus stand. How dirt, noise and smoke around the bus stand affects the health of children, women and men alike. How porters carry heavy loads on their heads, how the bus feels like home for people of the village who come to Shillong for inevitable reasons.
Rubina and Spilin
Rubina and Spilin study in Sankardev College, Shillong. They are from Siangkhnai and Nonghulew, both of which do not fall directly on a bus route. Although Siangkhnai is just a fifteen minute walk from the nearest bus point- Mawjatap, Spilin has to trudge for a long hour and a half from there before she can get to her village, Nonghulew. On the day she has to return to the city after a family visit, Spilin’s day starts early as she has to make it in time to Mawjatap and catch the 5 o’clock bus, back to Shillong. Both the girls take the same bus since there is only one option available to them- the Mawjatap- Mawlang bus.
The girls share two rented rooms, walking distance from their college. Recently, Spilin’s younger sister who is currently in class twelve has also joined them. Like typical adolescent girls, Rubina and Spilin had squealed and giggled when we asked them to take photographs. Could they show us some places in the city that they visited often? What did they like about Shillong? If they were to take us through their city, where would they take us? What would they show? After initial coaxing, the girls agreed to let their camera do the talking.
Rubina and Spilin’s impressions of Shillong were refreshing and made the city look different. The Don Bosco cathedral, though a much clicked tourist spot, looked like a new discovery- washed in rain, the Calvary of Christ from a distance, a faint image of a man outside the half open doors of the church, the staircase with the two friends standing and smiling for the camera, another friend posing, though with a frown on her face. Photographs of the Dhanketi street, with an open umbrella in a corner- probably a route they took often, and of Hydari Park – a botanical garden in Shillong, that they confessed to having visited the first time only now since they wanted to take photographs of the park. Even though they seemed keen on clicking their college, both Rubina and Spilin felt “too shy” to do so. They pointed out exact spots that they wished to photograph and urged one of us if we could please click the shutter shut! However, they did photograph their neighbourhood, with thickly forested hills all around and the road that leads to their home from college. As first timers using a camera, they said they thoroughly enjoyed taking photographs.
Shngain, Jed and Bah Hep
Shngain, Jed and Bah Hep have also got a one-year contract from the Municipality to collect toll from the buses on the ground floor. They are responsible for the upkeep of the entire bus stand and seem to be in the know of all that happens there. We had asked Shngain to take photographs of the bus stand and anything else that he felt would be relevant in the context of the bus stand and the area.
When we were sharing the photographs with Shngain, he told us that Bah Hep and Jed also took pictures. Almost all the photographs were of the bus stand and the adjoining areas of Iewduh. Shngain’s photographs were taken from his toll booth at the entrance of the Anjali parking lot. Jed took photographs of the bus stand at almost the same hour in the afternoon, when the buses were leaving the bus stand. Bah Hep (the Khasi term of reference for a middle brother) took photographs inside and outside the bus stand, the road leading from the bus stand to Iewduh and the old parking lot which was a slushy patch of land on the fringes of Iewduh. Everyone spoke about the mud and the filth of this place especially during the monsoons. Bah Hep used to manage the toll collection here earlier. Even though this was the first time that he had used a camera, he was very particular about all his photographs and he was very certain of the reasons for each of his photographs.
back>>>
William
The buses that come from villages all over the Khasi and Jaintia Hills are parked in and around Iewduh – the main bazaar of Shillong. The Department of Urban Affairs and Planning has recently taken up the task of constructing double and triple-storey parking lots for buses, taxis and other commercial vehicles that come to Shillong. Most of the buses from villages beyond Smit (the Mawlang, Syntung, Nohron buses among others) use the parking lot opposite the Anjali cinema hall – one of the oldest cinema theatres in Shillong (hence the reference “Anjali bus stand” or simply “Anjali”). This six month-old bus stand is three-storied - buses from the Khasi Hills use the ground floor, the basement is used for Sumo taxis from Jaintia Hills and the top floor is used by Sumos and commercial vehicles from other areas. The management and maintenance of this new parking lot has been contracted out to private individual parties.
William, a young undergraduate student living in Shillong, and his friend have a one year contract for the management and upkeep of the public toilet at the Anjali bus stand. As a caretaker of the public utility, William takes his job seriously. His services, he believes, are important to keep the new stand clean and hygienic and are instrumental in teaching the passengers a lesson in cleanliness. He recalled how he used to instruct baffled, puzzled first time toilet- users at the stand, to use the pot and the basin, making sure that the two utilities do not get mistakenly interchanged! In loose hip-hanging jeans and T-shirt, with a small black bag swung around his neck to fish out small change from, William pretty much waits around the toilet area all day, keeping a strict eye on who is going in and out, who is paying up and who is trying to give him the slip. He works on alternate weekdays, the duties having been equally divided between him and his friend.
In our first meeting, William had inquired inquisitively if we were from the press. Or the Discovery Channel perhaps? And on learning about our researching the bus, he had encouragingly advised us to use a video camera so as to capture the spirit of the din that the bus stand typified. Subsequent meetings with William revealed the keen observer within him- someone who thought practically, on his feet, and looked for minute details and connections.
Williams’s photographs captured the fleeting yet mundane- movements of buses coming and going, the shop lanes outside the bus stand selling medicines, hardware equipment, the whole-sale godowns- detailed photographs of all that happens inside and outside the parking lot, from early morning till late in the evening. Some photographs focused on the everyday hawkers who come to sell at the parking lot, on porters who constantly load and unload goods from the bus, of the overcrowded vegetable selling point at Iewduh- repeated, everyday activities, inspected closely.
back>>>