There was confusion in the eyes of the seven year old Surangi as they dipped mango leaves into the sandal-turmeric paste to anoint her. She did not know what marriage meant, she was just told that she would move into a new home in a village far away...
In the weeks between her wedding and the onset of the monsoon, each morning Surangi would follow Madhav and Waman to see the orchard being irrigated with the rehat. The rehat was a water wheel combining a pulley and axle, fitted upon the large well in the patch cultivated with rows of coconut and betel leaf palms. A row of buckets was fitted on the vertically mounted wheel. This was attached to another horizontal wheel to which a pair of oxen would be yoked. As the animals walked around a circular path the main wheel would be set in motion drawing up the well water in the buckets. This water was led into a main irrigation ditch from where it could be channeled through smaller shallow ditches that conveyed the water to the rows of trees.
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As the little rivulets of water rushed through these shallow ditches, the children would race along with it till it pooled around the roots of the trees. The farm hand used a spade to open or block the various channels by moving or piling up soil as a barrier to regulate the flow of water to the orchard. Similarly the water drawn from the well was used to fill the drinking trough for the cows and the buffaloes who drank there usually after milking and feeding. The curious child in Surangi was constantly investigating. She discovered that while majority of the animals would simply dip their snouts in the water and suck it up, others used their tongues to lap it for a while before drinking, and still others would stick their nose in and blow bubbles for a while before drinking. Must be their way to kill boredom, she would think.
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She observed the cattle constantly, how they fed while standing but chewed the cud sitting down, and how they licked their noses with their long tongues to clean them, keeping their muzzles moist. After the animals became familiar with her and started to recognise her by sight and by smell she would carefully scratch them on the neck and behind their ears. Most of the vegetable and fruit peels from the home kitchen were fed to the animals, along with the wash water used for cleaning rice. She would hold watermelon rinds close to the muzzle till the animal accepted it. Around milking time she would wait near Chandri's mother who did the milking using a pail, but unlike Chandri she would not dare touch the animal's udders for the fear of being kicked unceremoniously.
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