A very famous song in Kannada "Kodagana Koli Nungitta", been hearing for a very long time , up until now I did not know that it was composed by Sharif Shishunal. Google for more info on Sharif Shishunal.
In 2010 when I was working in Hubli I was invited by our office gardener to visit his village on the occasion of a village fair being held in honour of "Sharif Shishunal" . A friend who worked in the same office as mine had been to the place and soon we had a plan to visit the Jaatre.All plans made out me and Sikandar( my friend from office) rode out to the place which is about 70 KMS from Hubli. I do not remember the route, will update the blog once I confirm. I am not sure what the name of the village is where Sharif Shishunal Jatre (fair) is held, will update once I confirm.
Like all jaatre this one too was quite crowded, the govt had made extra tansport arrangements for the devotees , many of them had made taxis and a few die hard ones came by bullock carts. They had camped on the ground adjacent to the road and near the shrine of Shishunal. They had decked out the bullock cart and had made arrangements to cook and sleep and fodder for the cattle , the shrine management also provides food for the devotees and and all the holy people who visit the place and for the devotees too.
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The highlight of this fair is pulling of the tair (rath /chariot) where the devotees pull the chariot across a field.As I am uploading the pics , I realize that I missed taking the pics of pulling the tair, well another reason to revisit the fair!! There is a lot of dancing and singing and a even lot of smoking pot/weed/marijuana . There is a whole ground dedicated to this, people sit in circle and smoke pot,all of them use chillums to smoke , locally grown weed is openly sold here . And there is police too , but they turn a blind eye to this on this particular day.
A chariot decked out on a tractor with the image of Sharif Shishunal is driven around.
A saw many people selling chillums of varied shaped and sizes at very cheap prices , I got 3 of them for 30 bucks , before you get any ideas , I don't do pot , I have kept them as a souvenir in our house show case. I was wandering around as came across this group, who had this custom chillum adorned with rings and another group with a wooden chillum. It was all festive many of them actually smoking and asking for pics to be taken , me only too happy to oblige.
I found this very beautifully adroned chillum with finger rings , total bling!!!!
And another one made out of wood. I was gifted a chillum exactly like this by my riding buddy, who had had got them from Bombay ,again before the reader gets any ideas on what I do with a chillum , it is kept in my house as a decorative item.
As I had mentioned the food is provided free of cost by the shrine, it is a simple fare of jolad rotti and the round balls you see is called a "muddee" .
After spending some more time wondering around and getting lost in the crowd and finally finding my host , I was invited to our office gardeners house for dinner , me and my friend refused but they would not budge and we happily agreed , In India we never let a guest leave without offering something to eat or drink, in the city we no longer follow this strictly but in villages it is strictly followed. Again in India one must wash their hands and legs and wash their face before having dinner or lunch , so out we went to wash up , returning to find a scrumptous meal awaiting us. Food cooked on wood fire has a taste one can;t describe, to put it mildly it is amazing. The food simple and very very tasty with "Jolada Rotti " and badnikayi pallaye (brinjal side dish) and rice and curry and a sweet dish . Man was I one happy puppy!! They asked us to stay the night there and visit the fair again tomorow but we refused as we had office work to attend to. More than anything the hospitality of our office gardener humbled me. The jatre is definitely worth a visit if you stay near Hubli or surrounding areas.
Sikandar my friend, he runs a water rain water harvesting company who desgns and implement rain water harvesting units and infrastructure for small homes to big factories.
My hosts for the day, Mallayya, our office gardener and his dad .
