In our native village, the Vaisakhi Mela (a fair taking lace in the month of Vaisakh) is held on the bank of the river Ichhamati every year. I was born and brought up in the town, as my father was in service there.
So our family lived there. But my uncles lived in our village which is not far from the town. During the vacation, we used to visit our native village and spent some days with them.
My cousin asked me to visit the Vaisakhi Mela taking place in our village. I gladly agreed. It was, no doubt, a new experience for me, because I had never seen a mela (fair) in the past.
There is a piece of vacant land on the bank of the river which passes by our village. On the other side of the river, there is a bus stand, from where buses ply daily to the town.
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There is also a ferry boat carrying passengers to the other side of the river. The ferry ghat is broad and attached to a small jetty. There are a few permanent shops near the ghat, selling various essential articles to the passengers and also to the local people. But on the occasion of the mela, many crop up on the sport.
In the mela, one can find the shops selling fancy goods,’ sweetmeats, grocery items, such as spices, stationary goods, utensils and crockeries, shoes and garments, glassware’s and earthenware’s, balloons, dolls, ribbons, whistles, looking glasses and combs, and similar other things of various types and qualities.
The buyers, who assemble from far and near villages, bargain and buy articles after their choice with great enthusiasm. The mixed crowd of men, women and children create a peculiar noise in the fair ground by their joyous conversation or bargaining spirit with the shop-keepers.
A big crowd was noticed about the place where the jugglers exhibited their tricky feats. There (was also a tent f0r the dancing dolls. A mini circus party came from another state that drew a special attention of the visitors this year inside the circus tent, there were monkeys, birds, a tiger, a lion, and an elephant. So the village folk stood in queue in front of the circus tent to purchase tickets not only for the kids but also for the grown up members of the family.
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I walked from one end to the other in the fair ground to see many more strange things. The women folk were found busy in purchasing glass bangles of different colours and designs from a series of shops placed in one corner of the fair. There were also shops of woolen garments and mufflers, napkins, sticks and cutleries, fresh vegetables and fruits on the other corner.
Hundreds of people from many villages came there to attend the mela by bullock-carts or old-model buses emitting black smoke and blowing the old type mechanical horns to disperse the scattered crowd on the road in order to make their easy way to the fair ground.
I felt tempted to eat some hot pakoras and papads instantly fried on large pans at the mela. I sat there on a bench along with other customers and enjoyed the taste of such things. Soon some school students also came to join us. Some of them were my cousin’s friends.
However, I had a strange experience about a country fair which was something different from the town shops or markets in its spirit and character.