A Sense of Home

In a time of bewildering and often thoughtless change, A Sense of Home: Abujhmad and a Childhood Village offers a glimpse of another lifestyle, one more bare and closer to nature, but perhaps more complete in its pace and aspirations. A sequel to the acclaimed Bastar Dispatches, it reflects on the life of the Abujhmadia as also that of the people in Ramala, the village of author Narendra’s childhood — their shared rhythms and concerns, and the flow of everyday activity. A keen observer of his surroundings, Narendra provides vivid descriptions. Elders and children in the jungles and villages, habits of hygiene, dogs and pigs and their ways with humans, leopards and other nocturnal visitors, close encounters with tigers, Maoists and missionaries — all populate his narrative. There are vignettes of life in a joint family in western Uttar Pradesh where men and women lived separately — in the mardana and the zenana — and the matriarch of the family called the shots. Life in the village seemed quintessentially Abujhmadia — people being content with what they had and not wanting more, for themselves or their simple relationships, families and villages. A Sense of Home is a gentle but strong reminder of the value of what we might be missing in our lives.