BOL BUM

It was really difficult for me to drive through the one-way with the kanwarias trotting around the other half of the road. But somehow I managed to reach the pandaal where I had been invited to serve the kanwarias. The music was so loud and shrill, that I had to find a place away from the sound box. The first job which was assigned to me was to sit on a chair in the middle of the road with a long bamboo in my hand and divert the traffic to one side of the road, leaving the other empty for the kanwarias, the people who carry the holy “ganga jal” from pehleja ghat and are on their way to baba garibnath shrine in muzaffarpur. Being Monday tomorrow, the followers run all the way barefoot, from pehleja to muzffarpur, carrying the water on the kanwars which rests on their shoulders, hence the name – “kaanwarias”. After sometime, I was providing water to the people, tired, exhausted people, but still shouting the name of their beloved God. Bol Bum!! There was another person standing next to me with a hose in his hand spraying luke warm water on their feet and the road. Their feet were swollen to unimaginable sizes, but they were walking, with the unbearable pain. Some slowed down to have a sip of water, others for aspirin. One of them, I guess, atleast an octogenarian, was bleeding, but smiling. Someone ran to him, cleaned the wounds on his sole and provided a new bandage. The man carried on shouting “bol bum”! I was speechless. Not only him, there were children, half my age, ladies, double my age, and men of course, all dressed in variants of saffron, red and yellow. For sometime I was really lost in a different world of dedication which I could see. Be it dedication towards the Almighty, or towards your work, one thing I learned today, that if you are determined towards any damn thing, you show your dedication , and you will surely get through.