Namita Waikar

PARI GSP Team

Swadesha Sharma

Illustrations

Dipanjali Singh

Editor

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Two women from Kolavade village, Pune, sing about a steam-pulled train to Mumbai, the journey on board and life that awaits in the big city

The train’s engine has a brass neck [chimney] The train comes from Boribunder, Byculla

In this ovi, singer Radha Sakpal, 72, describes a train with a “brass neck”, referring to the smoke-spewing chimney of its steam engine. Endowing the train with beauty and strength, the chimney booms in rhythm – bhakka bhakkaa, bhakka bhakkaa. Radha Sakpal and Radha Ubhe from Kolavade village in Maharashtra’s Pune district have sung this set of 13 couplets. Working at a grindmill, the women sing of a steam-pulled train, its passengers and their journey to the city of Mumbai. The ovi describes what life in the big city means for the people who migrate there in search of jobs and a source of income.In a couplet, a woman asks for a soadchitthi or a letter seeking a divorce from her husband before she boards the train. Could this be an outcome of the separation that the couple has to live through as one of them migrates to Mumbai for work? Or, the result of a stressful life of working long and hard hours in the big city? Or, the woman no longer wants to live with a cheating husband? As the train chugs along in the ovi, a woman anxiously asks her co-passengers, “Now, in which bogie is my brother?” and “Now, O woman, in which bogie is my son?” Alternatingly, the ovi states that she is travelling with her brother, son, or both. The narrative outlines a train abuzz with activity when the woman is separated from her co-travellers.

The next few couplets teem with striking imagery. The billowing smoke emanates from the train’s chimney in colours “black and blue” as the whistle is “roaring and shouting”. The profusion of noise and colour in these lines reflects the woman’s sense of panic. Estrangement from the familiar and a more immediate separation from her travel companions worsens the woman’s disquiet.  Every object has a gender in Marathi; interestingly, a train is deemed feminine. The ovi parallels the chaos during the journey with the woman’s anxious search for her companions. The woman calls Boribunder (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) both the train’s parental and marital home. The train rests momentarily when passengers get off and empty the compartments at this last stop.Soon, a new set of passengers get on. The train must diligently carry them all to their destinations – an unrelenting routine similar to a woman&#39;s who carries out all her daily chores from morning till late at night.

In another couplet, the singer mentions that building a train would have required melting a lot of iron. She says this fact would surprise &quot;a woman who has no daughter,&quot; implying that raising a daughter requires continual negotiations with patriarchy. The woman sings that bringing up a daughter and seeing her well-married and settled needs a lot of effort from the parents, and only someone who has a girl child would understand what it means. The narrative of the ovi progresses to describe the life of a woman migrating to Mumbai. The last five couplets trace both her excitement and her nervousness. “To go to Mumbai, the woman was all decked up,” the ovi describes. As the train passes through the hilly terrain of Khandala ghat, she remembers her parents. The treacherous stretch of the train route brings to her mind the difficult life ahead away from her parents.  When in Mumbai, the woman does not like the fish she gets to eat. She misses her lifestyle in her village where she ate chila (pigweed). The woman recounts that whenever she went back to her village, she would wander the familiar fields looking for them.

Samyukta Shastri

The ovi describes how the woman’s life changes in Mumbai. She runs an eatery and devotes herself to cooking and serving her customers, often migrant men. At first, she takes pains to adapt to the ways of Mumbai – she applies oil on her hair and combs it neatly, she no longer sits on the floor like she did in her village. Soon, she becomes so engrossed in her work that she has no time to oil her hair or even eat. Grappling with the work in the eatery, she begins to neglect her husband – “she attends more to her customers than to her husband,” women sing at the grindmill.  This last couplet signals marital discord and the divorce letter, prophesied when the ovi began.

Let us listen to the songs of the train and life’s journey chugging along.

The train’s engine has a brass chimney The train comes from Boribunder, BycullaThe train has a brass strip along its side The woman asks her husband for a divorceHere is the train, spewing smoke bhakka bhakkaa! In which bogie is my fellow-traveller, my brother? Boribunder is the train’s parental home  My son is now ready to go, with his ticket purchasedBoribunder is the train’s marital home  My son is now ready to go, with his ticket in handA whole lot of iron was melted, to build the train This fact surprises a woman who has no daughterO woman, the train is roaring and shouting Now, in which bogie is my brother?O look, the train spews black and blue smoke Now, O woman, in which bogie is my son?To go to Mumbai, the woman was all decked up In Khandala ghat, she remembered her parents The woman goes to Mumbai, she does not eat fish She misses chila vegetable, and looks for it in the fieldThe woman goes to Mumbai, she oils and combs her hair She attends more to her customers than to her husbandThe woman went to Mumbai, she does not sit on the floor Woman, she has no time to apply coconut oil on her hairThe woman goes to Mumbai, she has no time to eat chapati She attends to the customers in her eatery, neglects her husband

Performers/ Singers:  Radhabai Sakpal, Radha UbheVillage: KolavadeHamlet: KhadakwadiTaluka: MulshiDistrict: PuneCaste: MarathaDate: These songs and some of the information were recorded on January 6, 1996. The photographs of the singer were taken on April 30, 2017; at that time, we could not trace Radha Ubhe.

Poster: Urja<a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/the-grindmill-songs-recording-a-national-treasure/">Read </a>about the original Grindmill Songs Project founded by Hema Rairkar and Guy Poitevin.

The train chugs along, roaring and shouting

തീവണ്ടി കുതിക്കുന്നു, ഒച്ചവെച്ചും അലറിവിളിച്ചും

ಕೂಗುತ್ತಾ, ಘರ್ಜಿಸುತ್ತಾ ಓಡುವ ರೈಲು

सीटी बजाती धुआं उड़ाती, छुक-छुक चलती रेल

પાટા ઉપર ગાડી, કાળી ચીસો પાડી… ભકછુક ભકછુક…

ঝমাঝম ঝিকঝিক রেল ছোটে দশ দিক

बाई आगीनगाडीचा धूर निघतो भकभका

Pune

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The train chugs along, roaring and shouting

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