Under the April Moon

The dabbawala charity trust president Raghunath Medge is back home too, with news of the Charles-Camilla wedding in London. Everyone just wants to know what he ate there.

Apart from Audar, villages across seven districts in Pune8212;Ambegaon, Akola, Junnar, Mulshi, Mawal, Rajgurunagar and Sangamner8212;await the dabbawala homecoming every April.

At nightfall, the village falls into an easy sleep; there8217;s no street light streaming in through the windows. The waxing moon will complete its circle a day later on chaitra poornima April full moon, when Hanuman was born.

A small stage has been erected in front of the village temple where kirtan singers8212;men and young girls8212;huddle around a microphone wrapped snugly in yellow sacred thread. Whining pipanis pipes, jangling manjiras cymbals, and low-pitched faqhwats drums accompany the kirtans that celebrate his birth.

8216;8216;Our native God is Khandoba,8217;8217; says village priest Maruti Maharaj, who moved to Mumbai over four decades ago. He points to the silver-coated idol paired with a figure of Goddess Durga. 8216;8216;Khandoba is an avatar of Shankar bhagwan and every couple seeks his blessings as soon as they wed.8217;8217; After the gruelling bicycle grind on Mumbai8217;s streets, Maharaj turns to the Bhagwad Gita and religious literature on the life of Sant Tukaram.

Beyond the hibiscus-pink and copper sulphate blue-walled houses in Audar, five villages away, lies Kadus. No giant rumble from the sky is going to put an end to this other favourite sport of the dabbawalas.

Trucks filled with men and bulls are parked along a trench some 10 ft deep and six metres wide, adjoining a paddy field. The bulls are splattered with turmeric and whipped into a frenzy.

Dabbawala Santosh Ganpat Medge8217;s two bulls are tied to a mango tree. 8216;8216;They8217;re just being readied for the race,8217;8217; says 26-year-old Medge, quickly defending the sport, 8216;8216;We don8217;t mean to hurt them.8217;8217;

There8217;s no sign of women among the spectators, who throng both sides of the trench. The commentator8217;s fierce 8216;8216;Hrrrrrrr8217;8217; that begins the race rises to a deafening pitch, while the bulls, tied to a plough, stir up a yellow storm. The peacock plumes fitted to the ploughs dance through the madness.

8216;8216;At least 200 bulls will race today,8217;8217; yells Medge over the din, 8216;8216;and the baksheesh is Rs 5,000.8217;8217; A saffron flag cuts through the air at the finishing end of the trench, though the bulls continue racing into the fields, chased by a few villagers who struggle to catch up.

MULSHI, a district with the third largest dabbawala population, boasts of its own 8216;London-returned8217;. A winding road along the lake, shaded by pregnant jackfruit trees, leads to 49-year-old Sopan Laxman Mare8217;s village, Shirgaon. Mare8212;his gold-rimmed sunglasses are a permanent accessory8212;busily supervises the construction of a new Maruti mandir.

8216;8216;It should be ready in 15 days,8217;8217; he says, looking at the cement structure with bamboo poles gripping its insides. The idol of Hanuman daubed with flaming vermilion has already checked in for the big puja.

Sarpanch Dilip Mare, 32, is highly impressed with his dabbawala supremo. A year ago, anyone visiting the hamlet had to take a rowboat across the lake and walk 7 km to reach home. Today, there8217;s a dirt track, courtesy Sopan.

8216;8216;He does the regular wheeling-dealing with the local politicians,8217;8217; he says, 8216;8216;Now we8217;re hoping for telephone connections.8217;8217;

Tugging at his tulsi mala, Sopan tells us why his festival doesn8217;t have a tamasha or a cricket match on its list: 8216;8216;The bigger the village, the bigger the programmes, besides bhagwan ke bina shanti nahin hain There8217;s no peace without God.8217;8217; So while all-night bhajan mandalis spiritual recital gatherings attract most adults, ask a child what8217;s happening at the festival and she goes: 8216;8216;Cinema dekhenge We will watch films.8217;8217; This year, 8217;80s laugh riot Eka Gadvacha Lagna unfolds on Mare8217;s brother8217;s VCD player.

Mare guides us to a larger neighbouring village called Vandre, with a population of 300, including 40-odd dabbawalas. 8216;8216;Everything has changed today,8217;8217; says 60-year-old Baban Baburao Walans, the oldest dabbawala in his village, 8216;8216;People in the city looked at an old dabbawala with more respect in the past.8217;8217;

His village will soon have a secondary school, and a tar road is just being laid. 8216;8216;But thank God, there8217;s no factory here, no offices,8217;8217; says Walans, 8216;8216;It takes a day to acclimatise when I go back to Mumbai.8217;8217;

OUR journey began a week ago, when a pink slip arrived with the lunch dabba. Headlined 8216;Appel to Our Patrons8217;, the dabbawalas explained why there would be no service in Mumbai for four days.

It led us on a three-day quest through their villages. 8216;8216;All our customers understand why we have to take off,8217;8217; says Sopan, 8216;8216;They never cut our salary for these four days.8217;8217;