Author Archives: Jay Berajawala

Puri Ek Andheri Ne Gandu Raja – Indian Tale

Nationality: Indian
Age: 68
Occupation: Electrical Engineer
Residence: Carlisle, MA
Performance Date: 3/19/2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Gujarati, Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, French

Folklore Type: Tale

 

Informant Bio: Informant is my father.  He was born in Mumbai, India and moved to the U.S. when he was 22.  He still remembers many of the poems and songs from his childhood.  He is fluent in over five languages and provides the original folklore and translations below.

 

Context: I was interviewing the informant about childhood traditions, rituals, songs sung and tales performed.

 

Item: “પૂરી એક એન્ધેરી ને ગન્ડુ રાજા  “Poorii Ek Andherii Neh Gandoo Rajah

ટકે શેર ભાજી ટકે શેર ખાજા                   Taakeh sher bhaaji taakeh sher khajha

બધી ચીજ વેંચાય જ્યાં ભાવ એકે         badhi chija venchay jyan bhav aekae

કદી સારી બુરી ન વેચે વિવેકે                 kadi saari boori na veche viveke

ત્યાં જઈ ચડયા બે ગુરૂ એક ચેલો           Tyannh Jaai chaadya Bae Gooroo aek Cheloh

ગયો ગામમાં માગવા શિષ્ય પહેલો       Gaayo gaam-manh mahgwah sheeshya pahelo

લીધી સુખડી હાટથી આપી આટો           lidhi sukhadi haat thi aapi aato

ગુરૂ પાસે જઈને કહે ખૂબ ખાટ્યો                        guru pase jaine kahe khub khatyo

ગુરૂજી કહે રાત રહેવું ન અહીં                  guruji kahe raat rahevun na aahin

સહૂ એક ભાવે ખપે ચીજ ત્યાહીં              sahu ek bhave khape chij tyanhi

હશે ચોર ને શાહનો ન્યાય એકે               hashe chor ne shahno nyaya ekay

નહીં હોય શિક્ષા ગુનાની વિવેકે              nahi hoy shiksha gunani vivekay

ન એ વસ્તીમાં એક વાસો વસીજે           na e vastiman ek vaso vasije

ચલો સદ્ય ચેલા જવું ગામ બીજે                         chalo sadhya chela javun gaam bijay

કહે શિષ્ય ખાવા પીવા ખૂબ આહીં          kahe shishya khava piva khub aahin

તજી તેહ હું તો ન આવીશ ક્યાંહી            taji teha hun to na aavish kyanhin

ગુરૂએ બહૂ બોધ દીધો જ ખાસો            guru  ae bahu bothe didho ja khaso

નહીં યોગ્ય આહીં રહ્યે રાતવાસો                        nahin yogya aahin rahyo raatvaso

ન માની કશી વાત તે શિષ્ય જ્યારે        na maani kashi vaat te shisya jyare

ગુરૂજી તજીને ગયા ગામ ત્યારે               guruji tajine gaya gaam tyare

રહ્યા શિષ્યજી તો ત્યહાં દિન ઝાઝા         rahya shishyaji to tyan deen zaza

બહૂ ખાઈ પીને થયા ખૂબ તાજા                         bahu khai peene thaya khub taja

પછીથી થયા તેહના હાલ કેવા               pachhithi thaya haal tehna keva

કહૂં છું હવે હૂં સુણો સદ્ય તેવા                   kahun chhun haave hoon suno sadhya teva

તસ્કર ખાતર પાડવા ગયા વણિકને ઘેર Taskar khaatar paadva gya vanik-ne gher

ત્યાં ભીંત તૂંટી પડી ચોર દબાયા ચાર   tyan bhit tooti padi chor dabaya char

માત પ્રભાતે ચોરની ગઈ નૃપને ફરિયાદ           maat prabhate chorni gai nrupne fariyad

શૂળી ઠરાવી શેઠને ડોશીની સૂણી દાદ                shudi tharavi shethne doshini suni daad

વણિક કહે કડિયા તણો એમાં વાંક અપાર           vanik kahe kadia tano ema vank apar

ખરેખરી એમાં નથી મારો ખોડ લગાર                khare khari ema nathi maro khod lagaar

કળીઆને શૂળી ઠરી વણિક બચ્યો તે વાર          kadiane shudi chadi vanik bachyo te vaar

ચૂકે ગારો કરનારની કડીએ કરી ઉચ્ચાર                        chuke gaaro karnaarni kadi-e kari uchaar

ગારો કરનારો કહે પાણી થયું વિશેષ                  gaaro karnaro kahe pani thayun vishesh

પુરપતી કહે પખાલીને જો તું શૂળીએ જાય         Purpati kahe pakhalin-e jo tu shudi-e jaay

આજ પછી આ ગામમાં એવા ગૂના ન થાય        aaj pachi aa gam-ma e va guna na thaay

મુલ્લા નીસર્યાં મારગે મેં જોયું તે દિશ              mullah nisarya maarghe m-e joyun te deesh

પાણી અધીક તેથી પડ્યું, રાજા છાંડો રીસ          pani adhik tethi padyun raja chhando rees

મુલ્લાજીને મારવા કરી એવો નિરધાર               mullahji ne maarvaa kari e-voh nirdhaar

શૂળી પાસે લઈ ગયા મુલ્લાને તે વાર                shudi pas-e lai gayaa mullah ne te vaar

ફડ જાડું શૂળી તણૂ મુલ્લાં પાતળે અંગ              faad jadun shudi tanhoo mullah paatde ang

એવી હકીકત ચાકરે જઈ કહી ભૂપ પ્રસંગ           evi hakikaat chakray jai kahi bhup prasang

ભૂપ કહે શું હર ઘડી આવી પૂછો કોઈ                  bhup kahe shun hargadi aavi puchho koi

શોધી ચઢાવો શૂળીએ જાડા નરને જોઈ              shodhi chadavo shudi-e jaadaa narne joi

જોતાં જોતાં એ જડ્યો જોગી જાડે અંગ               jotan jotan e jadyo jogi jaade ang

બહુ દિન ખાઈને બન્યો રાતે માતે રંગ               bahu din khai ne banyo rat-e mat-e rang

શિષ્ય મુદત માગી ગયો ગુરૂ પાસે પસ્તાય shishya mudaat maagi gayo guru paas=e pastay

ગુરૂએ આવી ઉગારીઓ અદભૂત કરી ઉપાય      guru-e aavi ugario adbhut kari upaay

જોગી શૂળી પાસે જઈ કહે ભૂપ સુણ કાન jogi shudi pas-e jai kah-e bhup soon kaan

આ અવસર શૂળીએ ચડે, વેગે મળે વિમાન ah avasar shudi-e chad-e vegh-e mad-e vimaan

ચેલો બોલ્યો હું ચડું, ગુરૂ કહે હું આપ                   chelo bolyo hun chadu, guru kah-e hun aap

અધિપતિ કહે ચઢીએ અમો પૂરણ મળે પ્રતાપ adhipati kah-e chadhi-e amoh puran mad-e prataap

ગુરૂ ચેલાને ગામથી પહોંચ્યા ગાઉ પાંચ                  guru chelan-e gaamthi pahonchya gau paanch

રાજા શૂળી પર રહ્યો અંગે વેઠી આંચ”                 raja shudi par rahyo ang-e vethi aanya”

 

 

 

Translation: “There was a weird city with a crazy ruler

Where it cost penny a pound for veggies or delicacies

where all things sell at the same price

never differentiate between good and bad

there arrived two – a monk and his disciple

headed to town to beg, the disciple first

he traded flour that he got for sweets

returned and told the boss, look, I won big

guru said we should not stay here any longer

where everything is sold at the same price

they must have the same rules for both thief and victims

with no regards for fairness, robber and the victim must be treated alike

we shouldn’t stay in a lawless place like this

let’s go, dear disciple, to another town right now

disciple said what? leave a place full of so many goodies?

No, No, I will never go anywhere and leave this place

Guru did his best to persuade him to leave

and not spend another night here

when the disciple didn’t listen to anything he had to say

guruji left the place and moved on to next town

disciple said that for many many days

and kept eating the goodies and got fatter and fatter

what happened to him afterwards…

Listen and I will tell you what happened…

Robbers went to a rich man’s home to steal

there the wall caves in four thieves got buried

mother of the thieves went to King to complain

upon hearing the old lady’s complaint, king ordered the rich man to be hanged

rich man said it surely was mason’s biggest fault

truthfully, I am not to be blamed for this

mason was sentenced to be hanged and rich man survived this time

mason said it wasn’t me, but the guy that mixed the concrete – he put too much water

concrete mixer guy said it wasn’t my fault, the guy that adds water added too much

king tells the guy who adds water that if you are hanged then

this kingdom will not see such a crime ever

guy that added the water says, while I was working, a Muslim monk passed by and I looked in his direction

and that’s why more water fell in the mix, so king, please understand – it wasn’t my fault

OK OK the decision is made to kill the Muslim monk (said the king)

Muslim monk was brought on the hanging platform

noose on the hanger was too big to fit the thin monk

so reported the hang-man to the king

king said why do you keep bothering me with such silly matters

simply go find a fat guy and hang him

looking they found the fat disciple

all that eating had made him really pinkish and juicy

as a last wish the disciple went to the guru, repented and cried

guru returned with the disciple with an ingenious scheme in mind

guru approached the hanging platform and said listen to me, your highness

this very moment stars are lined up such that who ever hangs, is destined to go straight to heaven in an airplane

disciple say let me hang, guru said no, no, let me hang , me please…

king said I will be the one that will hang, so I can reach the paradise right away. I will not let this chance pass me bye.

guru and disciple went miles away from this place in a hurry…

… while the king lay dead on the hanger”

 

 

Analysis: This tale is a cautionary one against the government/authority figures seeking extreme equality of results.  Those who do are engaging in a futile act, and, worse, can end up doing more harm than good.  The king, who was a fool for presiding over such a system, ended up being tricked into death by a more rational man who did not like the equality-at-all-costs system.  The disciple, though he became sidetracked and lost his way, was eventually saved by the teacher when he realized he was lost and begged for forgiveness and acceptance by the teacher.  Many stories feature distractions and a character being sidetracked, and eventually being redeemed or choosing the right path, as seen in this story.

 

Burgers for Soccer Goals

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/28/2012
Primary Language: English

Informant Bio: Informant is my friend from high school who also goes to the University of Southern California.  We currently live together and he is a third year electrical engineering major.  His dad is from Concord,  Massachusetts and represents a large blend of different cultures.  His mom is from upstate New York and is mostly of Hungarian, Italian and American ancestry.

 

Context: I was interviewing the informant about childhood traditions and rituals that he remembered well.

 

Item: “For our family and sports, if you played soccer or something, for us it was soccer and hockey, but we almost never ate fast food because our parents were healthy and against it.  But as kids, we still wanted fast food since it tasted good.  The way we would get fast food is that for every goal we scored we’d get a burger.  It worked surprisingly well (laughs)”.

 

Analysis: The informant shows some of the views very apparent in Massachusetts that fast food represents some of the most unhealthy food you could eat.  Although the health food craze is not as fully developed as in California, many families prefer home-cooked foods using natural, organic and locally procured goods.  There are still many farms located in our area (there are three alone within a one mile radius of my home in Massachusetts).  The rewarding with food also follows along with the informant’s recounting of his family’s graduation party tradition that heavily surrounded food and positive reinforcement as well.

Graduation Party

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/28/2012
Primary Language: English

Informant Bio: Informant is my friend from high school who also goes to the University of Southern California.  We currently live together and he is a third year electrical engineering major.  His dad is from Concord, Massachusetts and represents a large blend of different cultures.  His mom is from upstate New York and is mostly of Hungarian, Italian and American ancestry.

 

Context: I was interviewing the informant about childhood traditions and rituals that he remembered well.

 

Item: “So, essentially, uh we had some middle school graduation parties but they were definitely less extreme, mostly because we cared less about graduating middle school; it was harder to motivate us.  Um, but, our high school graduations (I grew up with three siblings, I’m the youngest), they were all pretty comparable.  We have a pretty big back yard at home, um, so we would do a lot of outdoor cooking and grilling.  One of them we did a roast with our backyard fire.  We invited a bunch of extended family (I have a lot of that live in Massachusetts).  So we invited grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles and it was usually always pretty low key events.  What typically would happen would be our immediate family and a couple other people would be there for like six or seven hours.  And then there would be more of a steady stream, kind of an open place for people to come give congratulations and thanks.  It was kind of low key because it was never at any point too packed.  Um, so essentially in terms of traditions and things that were always the same, there was always lots of food.  Everything seemed to revolve around food, with a large table that was sort of the centerpiece, the center attraction.  Typically, there was lots of grilling, and, my dad, who’s a pretty good chef would always ‘go big’.  It sort of fell in the holiday category in that regard where like whoever is graduated would get nagged about what they want to eat all the time.  Some of the things we’d always do…strangely enough bocce was always a regular habit.  Um, so big family bocce games, and then, uh, definitely a lot of drinking (laughs) at least amongst the adults.  Like when I was younger not so much since I had older siblings but the adults would always were like drinking to celebrate and make it festive.  Um, also it was more formal in that people would actually dress up and treat it as a big deal.  It was sort of ceremonious in that regard and wasn’t just a thrown together party”.

 

Informant Analysis: “My family’s significance…academics were always stressed in my family.  It was sort of not only stressed, but kind of like ‘you need to do this’.  I feel like, a lot of times, parents, uh it’s more on the negative side so if you’re slacking off in school you get in trouble.  But, my parents are more the opposite in that we were rewarded for doing well.  Back in elementary school, I remember my dad did this thing where if we got a’s on our report cards, he would give us 100 bucks.  Which, when you’re in elementary school is a ridiculous amount of money, so it [the graduation celebration] kind of was like a continuation of sorts where ‘you finished high school so we’re going to celebrate’”.

 

Analysis: My friend Max has had a rich childhood with strong family values and traditions.  The graduation party described above shows just how important academics are to many Americans, especially people in New England.  It is seen as the avenue to success and is treated as such.  Most celebrations heavily involve food, which is no surprise here.

 

The playing of bocce might seem a little curious, but, as the informant notes his family represents a blend of European ancestry.  No doubt some traditions have been carried over, adapted and otherwise blended together.

 

What does seem a little different here is the emphasis on extended family.  Many people in the U.S. have their family spread across the country, but, the informant notes that pretty much all of his extended family lives in Massachusetts.  The regular get-togethers show that they stay in contact and are relatively close and have developed roots in the Northeast area.

May Day in Kentucky

Nationality: American
Age: 58
Occupation: Programmer
Residence: Carlisle, MA
Performance Date: 3/19/2013
Primary Language: English
Language: French

Informant Bio: Informant is my mother.  She was born in West Virginia and spent her childhood moving around the country, eventually settling in Massachusetts.  She was exposed to many different traditions as she moved around the country as a child and still carries some with her to this day.

 

Context: I was interviewing my mother about traditions, stories and rituals she remembers from her childhood.

 

Item: “As a young child I enjoyed our May Day celebrations.  The flagpole in front of the county court house was “dressed” up with brightly colored ribbons.  The girls would each hold one ribbon and run around the pole.  The younger girls succeed in making a big mess of the ribbons; but, as the girls got older, the movements improved and the spectacle was really beautiful and choreographed by a teacher at the elementary school”.

 

Analysis: This May Day celebration centered around the Maypole, and was directed by an elementary school teacher.  It was a community wide event, much like May Day celebrations throughout history.  The above account, with brightly colored ribbons, seems to celebrate the arrival of summer but does not have the sexual influences of European versions.

 

Historically, May Day has been a very political issue in the United States, with the first one on May 1, 1886 that had workers garnering support for lighter working hours.  After World War II and in the wake of the Cold War, May Day was strongly associated with Marxists and the USSR and was thus white-washed from American culture and history.  This may be why there is no major prevalence of May Day celebrations in the U.S. unlike many other major holidays.  Recently, the Occupy movement has revitalized May Day in an effort to raise awareness and support for worker’s rights.  This is in contrast to many parts of the world in which May Day has a strong and consistent history of celebration.

Easter in Kentucky

Nationality: American
Age: 58
Occupation: Programmer
Residence: Carlisle, MA
Performance Date: 3/19/2013
Primary Language: English
Language: French

Informant Bio: Informant is my mother.  She was born in West Virginia and spent her childhood moving around the country, eventually settling in Massachusetts.  She was exposed to many different traditions as she moved around the country as a child and still carries some with her to this day.

 

Context: I was interviewing my mother about traditions, stories and rituals she remembers from her childhood.

 

Item: “Growing up in the Kentucky hills, Easter celebration is special.  Everyone dresses up in beautiful new spring clothes; the girls wore hats and white gloves.  First we went to church.  As a child it seemed to take FOREVER.  We had to wait for the service to end, the socializing after the service to end, AND THEN the good stuff started.  We got to go to my grandfather’s house.  He hid Easter eggs all over his yard. He had a HUGE yard and he loved to watch his grandchildren running all over frantically trying to find the most eggs!  We got a new basket to hold our eggs each year.  Also, my grandfather always gave my grandmother a chocolate rabbit as a gift!  Also, she didn’t like chocolate; but, it was his tradition, he always did it, and they laughed about it each year”.

 

Analysis: Easter seemed to be a very religious event for the adults but not for the kids.  Like Christmas, it seemed to bring people together (but to not as great an extent).  Easter also served as a way to usher in the changing of seasons, with the wearing of spring-type clothes, hats (for the sun) and white gloves (a southern tradition, but again showing the coming sun, brightness and purity that spring brings).

 

The grandfather’s house serves as the rendezvous point for the entire family, showing the prominent and important position that elders held in Southern families.  The inclusion of eggs and an egg hunt is prevalent throughout many Christian cultures and seems to define the whole experience for the children.  This may have served as a way to blend tradition and religious context with fun in a way that would reinforce the message about Jesus Christ while helping the children have an enjoyable experience and make memories after sitting through the lengthy Church service earlier in the day.