Migratory species

One of the best things about the trip was the varied kinds of people that we met. Out of all these interactions interesting patterns of migration started emerging. Until now my definition of migratory species was limited to birds and animals. Slowly humans started entering the list and their varied reasons for migration has made this list very interesting. Here are few examples.

Rabaris at Okha, Gujarat

The Rabaris : Many people might be aware of this very interesting and mysterious group of people. Nobody has been able to pin down their origins but they originate in my knowledge from Gujarat and Kutch. They are essentially cattle rearers and travel with their livestock in search for pastures - one of the classic human migrations. In today's day and age they continue doing the same through urban and non-urban areas. They 'wear' all their belongings and lately they have started 'owning' homes, fields and settling down. They travel as far as Pakistan, Afghanistan to Karnataka, Andhra in the south and Bengal in the east. In an extreme capitalist sense their assets are worth lakhs of rupees with each rabari family owning around 40 to 50 cows, buffaloes and other livestock - each worth 40 - 50 grands.

Bee boxes in poplar field near Hoshiarpur, Punjab

The Beekeepers : Another human migration dependent on the 'livestock' are the beekeepers that carry their bees in boxes. We met this beekeeper in Punjab in a poplar field. He originated from Bihar and would roam from Nepal, Kashmir, Rajasthan to Orissa. He would rent a field that is at the stage of flowering and the bees would make/collect the honey from these flowers. According to him sarson flowers were the best bet for making honey.

Labourers from MP in Batala, Punjab

The laborers : Another classic human migration is of and as labourers. Here I want to distinguish immigrants from the migratory species. We came across interesting temporary housing in Punjab and stopped to interact with the occupants who were brick kiln labourers from MP. They would roam the states of UP, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana every 2-3 months before coming back home near Khajurao every June/July.

The mobile mochis at Garhshankar, Punjab

The mobile mochis : In Punjab early one morning we met an interesting group of people at a chai tapari. They were mobile mochis all from Rajasthan. They had customised bicycles and lunas on which they would travel from one village to the next, 9 months of the year before heading back home in the summer. All of them were from the same village in Rajasthan but knew of many such Rajasthani 'artisans' that roamed with their mobile shops through the country. They would start each morning with no fixed destination in mind but a general direction and which ever place felt lucrative would stop there for a day or two before heading further. Our obvious question was that wouldn't it be more profitable to carve a niche at a single destination for their business to grow. Their matter of fact answer was 'the hunger of the tummy can be satisfied even in Rajasthan but soul's hunger is satisfied only in a travel'. (it wasn't an awkward one liner but half hour long philosophical conversation)
And all this while we considered ourselves to be out of the ordinary for our travel hunger.

One of the major myth busters on this journey was that human beings engage in art, craft, travel, philosophy, etc.or in life beyond the basic survival only after their food, shelter and clothing is secured. But like these mobile mochis most of the people traveled because they wanted to travel.