Jeeona the Drummer

By

Randeep Wadehra

After saying his early morning prayers he folded the mat and kept it in a corner of the room. Then he prepared his morning tea and drank with a stale roti made of maize flour mixed with a pinch of salt and red chilly powder. He loved the combination as a snack. After having finished eating he started getting ready for the day. He knew someone or the other in the village will call for him soon.

This season it had been unusually cold, but the cane crop was rich. Jeeona knew what it meant. There would be great demand for his labour in the fields. ‘Nobody can work as much and as fast as Jeeona’ proclaimed the village farmers – mostly Jat Sikhs. They paid him well both in cash and kind for his labour.

“Jeeona!” it was Jaswant, “are you alive or has your Allah claimed you?”

“O Jaswant, why do you speak ill early in the morning, and that too in the Pir Baba’s presence? Why have you come?” Jeeona asked.

“Have you forgotten already? Today the sugarcane crop has to be harvested.”

The season of gur and shakkar was approaching, as was the time for homemade liquor. Jeeona and other labourers like Yusuf the weaver and Kalu the teli [oil extractor] would be taking time off from their traditional trades to help in the harvesting. These people would be able to meet only a part of the workforce required for the job. People from other villages too would come and lend a helping hand. This had been the tradition in pre-partition Punjab.

The First World War had claimed a big chunk of the rural youth population. And the Second World War was now becoming increasingly vicious. Once again young men were being recruited in large numbers to go to distant lands to fight for the Crown.

Jeeona and other men, already past their middle age, were left behind to carry on the village chores under the watchful eyes of the elders. He put on a faded cotton kurta, tied his turban, slipped on the jutti (leather footwear) and, carrying a long bamboo stick, accompanied Jaswant to the fields. There, old women had brought pitcherfuls of buttermilk and loads of bread baked in tandoors. Clarified butter mixed with powdered sugar was the bonus.