Basila village: Where sowing is a festival of songs

Mail News Service

Jamshedpur, Aug 10: As one nears villages in Potka Block, synchronized, tuneful choral voices transform the sky into colours of melody. Basila village is one such fountain where prayers to the God of Harvest, Marangburu are sung by women in their simple yet multihued attires bent over in transplanting young paddy shoots in the tilling fields that would be the culmination of the sowing part.

The women sing to keep themselves entertained and the songs, which are in actuality, prayers to the God of Harvests for bounteous crops, keep their zing and zeal intact through grueling heat, pouring rains and other obstacles and keep them going.

Rural social worker Dilip Kumar Besra said that cultivation entails hard work on the face of unfriendly conditions. Cultivation is survival for every village family. There is no better way to meet the obstacles head on than to turn the mind away from natural vagaries like heat, scalding sun and heavy downpours and these women of almost all ages keep themselves entertained by singing these uniquely tuned lyrics that emanate from rustic yet simple hearts. There are many who could take a leaf out of this unique art of singing away the blues of turmoil and struggle to survive. Basila village in Potka could be one such learning centre.