Today we spent a good portion of the day in Chhat Village (not a typo but the actual name). It is about a 1/2 hour drive from our home in Chandigarh and is the village where Paul Wadhawan grew up.
We travelled to Chhat with another of Paul's friends from Abbotsford, and started with a visit to his family home, now the home of his sister and brother-in-law.
The home has a traditional enclosed courtyard surrounded by various rooms. There is a rooftop deck where Paul says he often slept in the summer when he was young.
Oh the food! We were served a cold beverage, fruit, and delicious parantas--with melted butter. These were like two roti with fried onions in between. Yumm! I ate three and George would not disclose how many he had. And, of course there was tea.
It was all necessary fuel for our walk around the village.
This water buffalo was quite suspicious of some stranger wanting a picture taken with her.
In addition to milk, the water buffalo provide another necessary item. Their dung is formed into paddies (about 10 inches in diameter) and laid out in the sun to dry.
The dried paddies are then stored in silo structures. These are scattered throughout the village and keep the paddies dry.
Then, they become the fuel that is used in cooking on traditional outdoor fire pits found in the courtyards of many homes.
On our walkabout the, we met these students on their way home from school. We are impressed with the uniforms worn by all elementary and highschool students. There is an whole variety of colours and styles, and it is easy to identify groups of students. They look very smart!
This is the beautiful white village gurdwara. The gentleman in white is a retired military man who lives in the village. He joined us on our walk after we were invited into his home for a cold drink.
Across the street was the Hindu temple and in the distance we could hear the call to prayer at the mosque.
This is one of the schools in the village and is the one Paul attended up to grade 10. He continues to offer financial support to help maintain and upgrade the facility. Unfortunately for us, the students weren't in class when we visited.
A few kilometres away, we stopped to look at the Wadhawan farm property. Currently, it is rented out to other farmers who now have a maturing crop of rice.
Chhat Village is located in the state of Punjab and is surrounded by this rich farmland.
Village life is another facet of fascinating India. How great it was to hear about it from someone who grew up there.
Did he really ride his bike all the way to Chandigarh?
