Far from the madding crowd as the old phrase goes, is Dubbaguda, a self contained small hamlet in the midst of the hills of Adilabad district of AP, India.
30 km from Adilabad town and bus or jeep ride of 45 minutes across dry copper coloured landscape and blue sky, you get off at this fresh ground water bore well point, with a view of Dubbaguda on the hill side across a spring water stream. You walk crossing the stream along cotton fields and reach this lovely set of houses, clean, paved in dung and bamboo thatch. You go sit in one of the patios of the houses and time stands still for next 15 days we spent there.
People of Dubbaguda belong to the kolam tribe of the region engaged primarily in agriculture cultivating cotton and pulses. Since bamboo is abundant in the forests around, it is a common household material used by all to make thatches, baskets of different sizes, fishing traps, etc. There are about 70 families in this hamlet.
The most fascinating thing of Dubbaguda is; the place is clean, no plastic wastes, no open dirty drainages, no TVs, no mobile signal, the bore water is mineral water and is very tasty clean, they don’t wash clothes or vessels at the bore but at the stream,no perceived politics as they all belong to the same community maybe, no daily drinking, happy drinking on festivals only, mango crop is plucked only after doing a ritualistic puja to the tree, same for tree they make their local liquor out of! They shop once a week in nearby Saidpur weekly market, eat 4 to 5 jawar roties with vegetable curry in the morning before work and eat again only in the evening after 8, mutton or chicken once a week, women wear captivating tattoo below the lower lip and above the eyebrows, there are rmp doctors visiting daily, a school for children with mid day meals, electricity though not so regular, no regular temple, mosque or church, only their village spiritual installations on the periphery of the hamlet, dead people are buried with all their belonging in the persons own land with not much cry, they smoke !! and are existential. This is the life in Dubbaguda in times when the world outside is at acidic pace.
30 km from Adilabad town and bus or jeep ride of 45 minutes across dry copper coloured landscape and blue sky, you get off at this fresh ground water bore well point, with a view of Dubbaguda on the hill side across a spring water stream. You walk crossing the stream along cotton fields and reach this lovely set of houses, clean, paved in dung and bamboo thatch. You go sit in one of the patios of the houses and time stands still for next 15 days we spent there.
People of Dubbaguda belong to the kolam tribe of the region engaged primarily in agriculture cultivating cotton and pulses. Since bamboo is abundant in the forests around, it is a common household material used by all to make thatches, baskets of different sizes, fishing traps, etc. There are about 70 families in this hamlet.
The most fascinating thing of Dubbaguda is; the place is clean, no plastic wastes, no open dirty drainages, no TVs, no mobile signal, the bore water is mineral water and is very tasty clean, they don’t wash clothes or vessels at the bore but at the stream,no perceived politics as they all belong to the same community maybe, no daily drinking, happy drinking on festivals only, mango crop is plucked only after doing a ritualistic puja to the tree, same for tree they make their local liquor out of! They shop once a week in nearby Saidpur weekly market, eat 4 to 5 jawar roties with vegetable curry in the morning before work and eat again only in the evening after 8, mutton or chicken once a week, women wear captivating tattoo below the lower lip and above the eyebrows, there are rmp doctors visiting daily, a school for children with mid day meals, electricity though not so regular, no regular temple, mosque or church, only their village spiritual installations on the periphery of the hamlet, dead people are buried with all their belonging in the persons own land with not much cry, they smoke !! and are existential. This is the life in Dubbaguda in times when the world outside is at acidic pace.
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