Perek, a collection of short stories

Baromashi: The anguish of separation Little known by city folk, Baromashi is a tradition where rural women give voice to their woes and worries through song by Jackie Kabir Baromashi. The traditional music usually sang by women in the rural areas. The songs or poems are mostly to describe the anguish of separation from the people they love. The pain usually merges with the events or the work one has to do every month throughout the year. Sometimes it unveils the physical and mental hardship women go through during different seasons. Baromashi, as the name suggests, is a song that goes on for twelve months. Each month has a specific characteristic and a landscape. The songs are composed with the collective wisdom of the village folks. These are similar to seasonal songs or religious songs common to many countries. In those countries there are about four seasonal songs. What is unique about the Baromashi in Bangladesh and its neighboring countries is that they describe their emotions in relation to the surroundings naming each month. For example Boisakh is the first month of the Bengali calendar when spinach and jute grows, so it is said that (in translation): “All people eat spinach, the limbs of the wife are bitter. She cooked and prepared spinach and poured it on a plate. My dear merchant is not at home, to whom shall I give it? In the month of Jaysto hot is the sun Hundreds of mangoes are ripe and huge jackfruit I would eat mangoes, I would eat jackfruit, Milk of five cows. If my dear merchant were home, we would play together. In the month of Ashar, there is new water in the Ganges, The milkman shouts: ‘Take curds! Take curd!’ Whose curds, who will take, who would like to eat it? The merchant is not at home, my days pass in fasting. In this month of Sraban, householders cut the paddy The Kora birds call, sitting on the rice stalks Dak calls, damphala calls, bora calls, sitting there, The call of the cruel bird kokil made my ribs split. And it goes on for the twelve months In this month of Chaitra, the wind chaitali is at its height. The wife whose merchant is home is very proud What a wife is she whose merchant is not at home? I am unhappy wife, I am dying in pain. Professor Razia Sultana of the University of Dhaka did research on Baromashi and this is her book Shahitya Bikkhon. The paper gives an overview of the different kinds of Baromashi that are sung by the women of the rural areas of Bangladesh. According to their subjects they can be divided in many different genres. There are Religious Baromashi Harvest Baromashi Descriptive Baromashi Baromashi on anguish of separation. Soul searching Baromnashi Experimental Baromashi Personal Baromashi (one describes their personal feelings.) Baromashi songs are usually found in abundance in North Bengal around Mymensingh area. Most districts have their own Baromashi in their local dialect. Dinesh Chandra Sen had collected some of these Baromashi’s from Mymensingh area in his book History of Bengali Language and Literature. It was in the sixth and seventh century when the Baromashi on missing one’s loved ones was developed. It is mainly women whose voices are heard in the Baromashi. For example, there are hardly any poems or songs by Lord Krishna in Baishnab Podaboli. On the other hand, there are a number of Baromashi by Radha. Usually women lament or sing about missing their loved ones in the baromashis but there are some baromashis by men too. We are all very familiar with the song maiya bhul bhujish na by Bhupen Hazarika where the man makes excuses for not marrying the girl he dates by saying that each month has a unique problem like Baisakh, Jaysto and so forth. This was taken from one of the baromashi folklore and made into a modern song. In fact it is believed that marriage cannot take place in some of the months in the villages. The baromashi goes like “Shaown month is a dangerous month to get married The marriage is bound to be doomed if you don’t follow the rule. There was a beautiful woman who got married in Shaown Who lost her husband just the day after. It is forbidden to get married in Bhadra too. The reason? Well no one knows! Everybody around the country follow these rules Why won’t you? There are many different rules in different districts One, you must follow! “ This baromashi was collected by Chowdhury Golam Akbar from Sylhet. It can be found in the journal Lokshahitya Potrika published by Bangla Academy. There are health related Baromashi where health tips are given with existing vegetables and fruits in Bangladesh. “There are twelve kinds of fruits in the twelve months In Chaitra we get bitter Ghima (leafy vegetable) In Baisakh have Nalita in ghee. Jaysto is good for puffed rice. In Ashar the yogurt is great. Shaown is for water rice and yogurt. Don’t miss the taler pitha in Bhadra.” There are many more different kinds of Baromashi which are traditional components of Bangladesh. The urban people hardly know about the existence of these. It could be a very interesting thing to have them collected for the next generation to read and understand.