There is a sense in me which tells me that world has not evolved in greater technology and life style but it is degraded in lifestyle and technology. Now a days every body tells that now technology is much developed, we can reach to others fast, we can talk to anybody sitting in any corner of world.
But Why? Why do we need to talk to persons sitting in other corner, why not sitting besides me or living besides me? Our lifestyle has become so low and unsatisfied that we are unable to entertain ourselves. We are bored very often. We have TV, Computers, Internet etc. still we are bored. So we come to conclusion that these things can not entertain us for long time.
Now I want to go a little back. I have seen my mother and grandmother in my childhood, they were never bored, always busy in something, and even then got some leisure time. My statement may look contradictory, but if we try to understand it makes sense.
There was some form of art involved in every daily work of their life. For 3 times they would cook food, 2 times they would prayer to God, cleaning home once in morning. This is daily routine. Other than this there are many works which are not in daily routine, but these works collectively cover all the days. And these works used to be done in groups of ladies from neighborhood. There were usually different songs for each of these works. The sound of collective singing would always be so sweet to hearing glands. Following is a list of these different kind of works:
1. Making pickle of different fruits like raw mango, lemon, Amla. And these would be made in their respective seasons. e.g. raw mango comes in April, May and it is cheap also that time. They would use a tool called
Sarota for cutting raw mango in small peaces. And then recipe itself is very specific, you can not miss even one ingredient, otherwise pickle will become inedible soon.
2. Making Laddoos of different source material like Til, Cholai, Besan (gram flour), Wheat flour etc. These also are according to seasons. E.g. Til is hot by nature, so Til Laddoos are made only in winter time. Especially on Makar Sakranti (14 January).
3. In our home we never bought flour from market. We would bring wheat in our home, clean it, wash it and dry it. Then we would take it to some grinding machine (In Uttarakhand we have
gharats, which use the power of water) and will bring wheat flour back. Thus A very less amount of nutrition wastes.
(I am sure that in older days, people had hand grinding machine in their houses, so that they would make the flour in house only, it would also improve their health and no nutrition would be wasted).
4. In older days, we used to make our beds (charpai) also at home. We would bring a wooden frame of charpai from a carpenter and buy some rope (made from Jute) or Taat ( i dont have its english name), and would weave out charpai ourself.
5. On Festivals, mothers used to prepare edible things, things for Pooja, and other things much before the festival day. E.g. on Holi, My mother used to prepare Chaat, Pani Puri, Gujiya, and many other things 4-5 days ahead. (I am sure, people used to make colors for Holi also at home, not in our home)
On Diwali, we would prepare many decorative things like bandanvaar, Gralands etc. days ahead of diwali.
6. Some people would also do gardening , and grow some basic vegetables and fruits. We had a big Guava tree, in our garden. My mother and grandmother used to grow tomatoes, Chili, Lady Finger, Mooli, etc.
7. At special occasions like marriage ladies from neighborhood and relation will gather and will celebrate with dance, music, songs and many things.
These all things require a great work of Art. Thus art was a inseparable part of life at that time. We are losing this art and searching art in other things, we go to museums, concerts and many other places. I am not saying that we should not go to these places, as they are also a form of art, but after loosing it from our daily life searching it anywhere else is not wise.
