Gaut

Indian spirituality and religion are very deep, diverse, and layered, and in Uttarakhand, it’s at another level, as it is named Devbhumi. Here, the religious practices are very much a part of daily lives; wherever there is a source of water, there is a temple. It’s a common thing here to find a big or small temple at every bend of the mountainous route. On weekends, if I want to go out and search for nearby areas, most of the time I end up in a temple.

But here also, it is not free from biases and superstitions, and the concept of purity and impurity. Periods and worship here are the two extremes; there is a very strict rule to be complied with by women when they are on their periods. They cannot enter the kitchen, cannot touch anyone, are supposed to live in the restricted part of the house during those 5 days, cannot eat with others, and they even have a different set of plates to eat in those days. This all sounds like quarantine.

But here is an interesting thing or a patriarchal observation (you decide), though they are restricted to many things, but in that also society has managed to use their labour, they are formally allowed to work in the field, do farming and look after the field, and can even go to daily wage labour.

But think what if, unintentionally, they entered a restricted area or they touched anyone, then what is the remedy? Now, here comes the heading of the blog that is, GAUT (गौत), it’s basically cow urine. So if a married woman comes in contact with a person, then some drops of goutareg sprinkled on them, to make them pure again.

I was once out in a village to find more ladies foe the Hamari Bakhli women collective, and i was interecting with women going door to door, suddenly when I was about to move to next house, a girl came carrying a half cut plasting bottle with sonme liquid in it and spread some drops of it on my foot with the help of some grass.

It took me 5 seconds to process it, and then I asked her what this is, and she replied- “Mam wo chavhi bahar ko hai na, aap unke jyada pass chale gaye the esliye, gout dala hai, ab sab thik hai aap ja sakte hai ho aage”.

In another story where I was having a meeting with some ladies of the Chousali village at Tara Di’s house, everyone was sitting inside the room of Tara Di including me, except Tulsi Di, whom I initially thought was not there, but then I heard her voice from out of the room, I went out to call her in and join us, but in one go they all where like “Are nahi nahi mam, ye abhi bahar ko hai kisi ke sath nahi baith sakti” On that I learned that Bhahar ko means they are on ther periods. And ironically, I was also on my period at the same time, and I was inside the room sitting next to them.

Meeting in Chausali Village

I already had some readings and knowledge about periods being tabooed like this. So above two stories were not that surprising for me, the thing that really took my knowledge about these things to next level, when my office executive told me that, she had to postpone a pooja at her home, because the Priest who was suppose to perform it, won’t be able to come because his wife got her periods on the same day.

It’s wrong and there is no argument to support it when we have progressed so much in science, and we have lots of things to manage periods with daily life affairs. Women in the villages of Uttarakhand are super-duper hardworking, and hardwork is not a choice but a need, when men migrates its only the women kids and elderly who are left behind, and all the responsibility shifts to them, they hardly get any time for themselves, and this social taboo comes as one blessing in disguise where they actually get some rest and self time.