Panin

We arrived in Panin at around 11:30, and there was already a huge crowd in front of Jumma's house. Elizabeth and Elio, two filmmakers who are making a film about Dharohar's members, had stayed the night and the entire village was awake with feverish attention.

Jumma exudes a happy reserve which is immediately noticeable. High and round cheeks enforce this impression; his posture and comport combine to affect a kind of happy unselfconsciousness in those who surround him:


Jumma (middle) with John (right)

We went to the town mosque, which was surrounded by a chalky square. Behind the mosque, the town youth was playing cricket. I couldn't help but join in. They played with a bat which was little more than a two by four with a whittled-down handle.


Som joined in. He and I are very competitive and we immediately saw it as a chance to prove our athletic prowess.



The crowd seemed to follow people from our party around in accordance with some kind of unwritten rule which determined the relative interest of a person and the fraction of the party they composed. When Som, Jason and I left the shade of the mango tree to bowl, we were followed by almost the entire crowd. When Jason left, a small part of the crowd followed him back to the tree.


After John talked with some prominent village members, we went to Jumma's house.







I loved seeing Jumma's home. Village life is such an interesting aspect of human existence; in economic monographs and the news media, humans are usually divided between rural and cosmopolitan dwellers; the village is ignored as a completely unique mode of human interaction.