“Gaine Halwa”  (Story)

We looked forward to the fall festival - the Dasserah, the festival that celebrates the good over the forces of evil.  Ten whole days of celebrations at my grandmother’s before having to return to school to prepare for our final exams of the year.  There were lots of comings and goings of friends, relatives and folks from the neighborhood, who came to pay respects.

Among the people who dropped by was our Gaine (pro: Gai-nay). This is one time he was permitted to enter the drawing room.  He would take off his worn slippers, lay them neatly by the outer doors and shuffle in.  He would lovingly unwrap his sarangi (looks vaguely similar to a violin,) tune it a little and start entertaining us and any visitors who dropped by.

With vast earnestness and eloquent expressions, he would recite songs from the Ramayan – the Hindu epic of the battle between good and evil.  He was invited to the daily feasts.  We used to watch him gently wrap the leftovers to take home for supper.  We saw him only during the Puja holidays.  I was told he would drop by at other times and play a tune or two for my grandmother - for a meal and some old clothes and coins.

Gaines (itinerant minstrels) usually reside in the high Himalayan foothills of Nepal. A few groups had settled in the mountains around Darjeeling.  Our Gaine was one of these musicians.

I doubt if there are any such minstrels left around the Darjeeling area.  In Nepal, Bollywood and western music have now displaced the songs of these minstrels. The Gaines, often young children, now wander the tourist infested streets of Kathmandu singing their ballads for survival and hoping someone will buy a toy sarangi.

But our Gaine from those far off days was an essential part of the world we lived in.  His music was part of the festivals; he was part of my childhood years.

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"Gaine Halwa"  (Recipe)