Can you imagine a situation where life comes to a standstill after night falls? Where you cannot cook, or sew, or read or do your homework after sundown. But that is the reality in the millions of villages across India where electricity has not reached.
Unless you fancy a garnish of insects on your food, dinner has to be had before it gets dark, and all you can really do after that is to sit around in the moonlight and talk or sing.
It is any wonder that a lantain is one of the most precious commodities in village homes?
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There are words, and there are words. Some words can be easily translated, others need to be described. In April, I’ll attempt to capture the Soul of 26 'Indian' words in a drabble of exactly 100 words.
5 comments:
I like it! Great word and I learned something new today...thanks for sharing, blessings!
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Natasha - I can well imagine that a lantain takes on very special meaning in villages where there is no electricity. That said, though, I love the idea of spending time as a family just talking or singing. I know the reality can be far uglier than that, but still...
Is it coincidence that it's similar to "lantern"? I grew up in a former English colony, and there lots of English words made it into local languages in slightly altered form (and vice versa - English borrowed words from its colonies, too)...
No electricity?? Planning to finish many things before dark would require a power outage here.
So very true! Electricity is a great gift that we take for granted.
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