The Queen of Love: Saving a tribe

By Bangladesh’s standards, Nerola is a famous and wealthy woman, but it is her love for humanity and nature which makes her stand out of the crowd. It is common practice in Bangladesh, where the class system is still very much a live, for wealthy people to treat those in the lower rungs of the social ladder, as if they were sub human species.

Here, some people are considered to be untouchable, and they are treated like animals. Indigenous tribes continue to suffer from all kinds of racism. Employers have little or no regard for their employer’s rights, and they often force them to work for abnormally long hours, with hardly nay break. As a matter of fact, many employers command a near godly status, and they carry much pride in this.

Animals are generally mistreated, and there is no such thing as animal’s rights anywhere in Bangladesh, except in Nerola’s kingdom. Nerola’s love for humanity defines her entire existence. She spends much of her time trying to take care of her people’s needs, most of whom live in abject poverty. She has given much of her land to them, at a more or less give away price.

“What else can I do?” she asked me, with a sad look on her cute face “I can not just let my people starve to death when I still have land.” But as fate would have it, many opportunists are now grabbing her land.

Gina Dizon, in her book ‘Discourses on Policy Perspectives on Land Rights and Adibashis of the Plains of North West Bangladesh’, reveals that the lives of more that 10.000 Khasis are at stake because their land is being eaten away by the expanding Pyian river, as a result of heavy stone mining in the river.

“We lose at least 50 to 60 feet of our land to the river every year.” Said Nerola, sometimes referred to as a Montri (Village head woman). On a daily basis, one can see massive trucks mining rocks from the river bed, and hundreds of people digging the river bed with crude implements, in search of rocks, which are used for all kinds of construction activities in Dhaka and else where in Bangladesh. (Continued next post)

The Queen of Love

The whole village was thrown into a state of panic because, wherever it passed, villagers screamed out in fear and took to their heels at break neck speed. At keron’s home, everyone in the house was fast asleep. The tiger planted its huge paws on the front door and began to scratch it as it roared softly. The loud noises it made woke up Karon’s relatives, who flung the front door open in anger.

That is when they came face to face with the tiger. There was a brief moment of stone cold silence, and then it moved to the side, so that the children it had brought back home became visible. It was at this point that the previously calm tiger went into a rage, roaring out with all its might, and sending massive waves through every solid structure in the neighborhood. Karon’s relatives fell to ground, trembling in fear. They implored the tiger to spare their lives, promising it that they would never torture karon and her siblings ever again.

“We will be their loyal servants,’ they said to the angry tiger, which seemed bent of devouring them “we will never do anything to hurt them again.” A huge crowd of curious villagers gathered at the scene to witness this miracle, but the tiger paid no attention to them. It kept its eyes focused on karon’s relatives. When they had pleaded enough, it fell silent and retreated calmly into the darkness. No one ever saw it again.

“My grandmother and her siblings were saved by a wild Bengali tiger.” Nerola said passionately, “And because of that, she made sure that everyone in her tribe respects the tiger. She ordered the killing of all tigers, and the mistreatment of all animals or creatures to stop. She also declared that from that day on words, every man and woman in my village would be loved and treated equally.

‘We were once ordinary people who almost starved to death.’ Karon used to say “We have suffered just like any ordinary person. We lost all our wealth and power. We have what we have today because of a Bengali tiger. Let’s never forget that, and let’s never forget that we are all equal.” ( continued next post)

The Queen of love:

Nerola’s egalitarian views were born out of a very bitter experience many years ago. When her great grandmother died, her grandmother, Karon Pohty Tynsong, was supposed to have been enthroned as the queen, because that is the practice in this matrilineal society. But Karon was still a young child, and so her relatives took over power, promising to hand it over when she became an adult.

But as fate would have it, Karon’s relatives began to plan a coup de tat. They starved her and her younger brother and sister, in addition to subjecting them to all kinds of inhumane treatment. The plan was to starve them until they died, so that there would be no heir to the throne. One day, Karon gathered her remaining strength, and fled into the Darang jungle with her emaciated siblings, swearing never to return.

“They were almost starved to death by that time,” said Nerola “and the jungle was their only hope of survival.” After trekking in this jungle for several hours, they became too exhausted to move on and had to find a resting place. Strange as it may sound, these children some how survived on rare fruits and roots, for several days.

Eventually, they began to succumb to hunger and fatigue, and they lost hope in life. In the middle of the night, as they rested on a rock, each on the other’s shoulder, shivering in the jungle’s cold, they were suddenly awoken by the roar of a Bengali tiger. Karon’s younger brother and sister took cover behind her, as they all trembled in fear.

“They all knew that they were going to die that day,” said Nerola “because no human being had ever survived a face to face encounter with a Bengali tiger. But Karon stood her ground and looked the mean tiger straight in its glowing eyes and said, ‘I know you have come here to eat one of us, but we have all suffered too much already and we are tired of living. Please, if you are going to eat one of us, you might as well eat all of us. I beg you not to leave any of us behind to suffer.’ ”

When Karon was through with talking, the tiger stopped roaring and edged closer to the three children, circling them, and sniffing them. They were trembling madly with fear, but none of them moved. Then something strange happened. The tiger began to tag at Karon’s dress, pulling her forward gently. Karon could not understand what was happening, until one of her siblings whispered softly in her ear, “It wants to take us somewhere. Let’s follow it.”

And then the three children followed the tiger for several miles through the dark jungle in total silence. After a while, they spotted their village at a distance, but they continued to trek behind the tiger in silence. It took them out of the jungle, and through their village, until it stopped at the front door of their home!

Posted by Caring Lives at 3:10 AM

The Queen of Love

Heavy Indian rock music, spiced with a tinge of contemporary Bangla, repeatedly punctures the darkness of the night. A bunch of teenagers, visibly rattled by these oriental rhythms, scream their hearts out as they plunge into some kind of wild dance. Within a couple of minutes, the village kids also make their presence felt, by blending in with the rest on the dance floor. In a short while, this fever of wild dancing grips us all, and we join the dancing crowd. This was the scene of an ordinary wedding in Jaflong, a remote village in Bangladesh.

Somewhere, in the midst of this excitement, was Nerola Tynsong, the Queen of a Khasi tribe in Jaflong, Bangladesh. I was stunned to see her dance along with everyone else, as if she wasn’t their superior in any way. In fact, with the exception of her expensive garbs and jewels, there was nothing else about her to show that she was of royal stock.

But as the dancing mood reached its climax, two elderly men, with thick curly hair, bow legs, ragged teeth, and rare dancing strokes that raised a thick cloud of dust off the solid ground, took a dive and began to kiss her feet. That was the first signal of the presence of royalty in our midst, and it was met with a prompt response from Nerola, who kept shouting at these men, “Hey! What’s wrong with you? Stop that! Don’t do that! Get away from here!”

At the end of the wedding party, we retreated into the cozy confines of her mansion. But even there, I was amazed to observe that ordinary people just walked in and out of her residence as they pleased. She ate from the same plate, and drunk from the cup, as the most ordinary of her subjects.

“We were brought up to love every human being, and every creature, equally” she said, when I inquired about her unusual behavior. “In my tribe, we worship nature, because we believe that there is God in nature. Therefore, we also hold nature in reverence. I have been brought up to believe that in this world, regardless of what we do, or who we are, we are all equal and deserve to be treated with love.” (continued next post)

Saving kittens to save the girl child:Mredula

Through my interaction with her, I came to learn that Tushi suffers from some kind of severe trauma, because she was found unconscious in a pool of sewage when she was rescued. She has a phobia for water, and dreads human contact, even that of those who are close to her. I was amazed to observe that she rarely permits her own family to touch her.

“Tushi will only come out of hiding when my mother is in the leaving room alone,” said Mredula “and then she will jump on her thighs, crawl to her neck, and lick her for a long time. I think it is because my mother was the one who rescued her from the drainage.”

In a country where most people live on less than a dollar a day, few people can sacrifice their meager earnings to take care of cats. But this family feeds, and bathes its cats as if they are human. Each cat has its own preferences when it comes to diet. Comly for instance, only eats bread and fish, and she is very fortunate because her closest friend, Alam, makes sure that she has her meals on time. Even if he is deaf and dumb, and even if it is extremely difficult for him to cater for his own needs, at the end of each day, he makes sure that Comly has had her meal before he takes his own!

Taking care of these cats is a very complicated business in a country like Bangladesh. Mredula has had to endure the trauma of the neighbor’s dogs attacking her cats, and that of the neighbor’s children beating up the cats, whenever they get the chance to do so. But in spite of the odds, this family has not lost its will, to save both the female kittens and the girl child.

“I really wish some one out there could join hands with me,” said Jackia “so that we can raise enough money to adopt more female kittens.”

IF YOU WISH TO ADOPT A KITTEN AND SAVE THE GIRL CHILD: If you wish to adopt a kitten, and save both the female kitten and the girl child, you can contact Jackia on mobile number +8801670736123, Vatapara, Rajshahi, Bangladesh, or you can contact me directly at: obamuhigire@yahoo.com, and I will get you in touch with Jackia and her family.

Saving kittens to save the girl child:Mredula

“My mother wanted to throw Comly away,” said Mredula Ahmed, Jackia’s teenage daughter, “but I refused. I took it from her and continued to look after it until it recovered.” The two of them stare at each other for a while, and then burst out laughing. “We decided to start adopting female kittens, which are abandoned in dirty drainages, because we want people in Bangladesh to start valuing females.”

Jackia said somberly, “I don’t know why people hate girls. Men in Bangladesh and India have been killing their daughters for a very long time. There are many cases where a man will walk into his wife’s bedroom, right after she has given birth, so that he can establish the sex of the newly born child. If the child turns out to be a female, he then strangles it with his bare hands until it dies.” Jackia fell silent for a while, obviously moved by her recollection of such brutality.

I sense that my colleague, Gina Dizon, is also just as deeply moved, and after a while, we all get submerged in an intense discussion about female infanticide in Asia. Eventually, our conversation swings back to Jackia’s moving tale, and we bombard her with intriguing questions.

“I am a poor woman, and I can barely take care of my family, but I will not sit aside and look on helplessly when men are killing off female cats and girls. Together with my daughter and son, we will continue to adopt cats which are abandoned, until people’s attitudes towards females in general, change.”

This family of three- Jackia aged forty, her daughter Mredula Ahmed- aged thirteen, and her son, Jahangir Alam- aged twenty, now take care of three cats, namely: Comly- aged one year, Pushi- aged six months, and Tushi- aged three months. They have become so attached to these cats, so much so that they talk about them as if they were an integral part of the family, and indeed they are. But of all these people, it is probably Mredula who has developed the strongest social bond with these cats, partly because she is often left in the house with them for hours on end.(continued next post)

Saving kittens to save the girl child

Jackia Aktar was strolling back home one day, when she spotted a kitten floating lifelessly in a pool of sewage. It had been a hard day at work, and at the age of forty, the scotching heat was a bit too much for her to bear. She had many things to think about- her alcoholic husband who had battered her for ages, had left to marry another woman, leaving her to single handedly take care of an eleven year old daughter, and a deaf and dumb teenage son.(In photo is Jakia with her daughter and son)

There were other problems too, many of which weighed heavily on her, but her eyes remained transfixed on that lifeless kitten in the filthy drainage by the road side. Just like any other town in Bangladesh, Rajshahi also suffers from a thick population density, which chocks the streets, day and night, with human traffic. There were people everywhere, and all round, but no one felt moved, for even a second, by the sight of that dying kitten.

In Bangladesh, like much of the third world, domestic cats and dogs and not that much valued. In fact, to most people, they are considered a nuisance of the highest degree. But Jackia chose to do something out of the ordinary, and drifted steadily towards that kitten.

“I pulled it out of that stinking sewage with my bare hands, and took it home.” She said happily, gesturing towards one of the several cats she has since rescued. “When I got home, I cleaned it and fed it, but it was so lifeless, I did not think it would survive.” I turned and looked at Comly, the female cat she was talking about. He was playing with the other cats in the leaving room, and was in a very impressive state of health.(continued next post)