Today morning, I was watching DD Bharti channel on television. This channel is a repository of invaluable programs. It has a nostalgia attached to it due to its being the only channel which was first seen in Black and White and that too for few hours in the evening. We have grown up with it. It is the government controlled channel.
The programs telecast on it are generally those which have recorded long back and relate to us. The faces of the presenters in some old programs send the mind in the old alleys.
Anyway, it was telecasting a documentary film on Malana village which is situated in the Parvati valley. As the name goes, Himachal is the abode of Gods, being so beautiful, it is like a heaven on the earth.
The village has kept itself insulated from the outside world and its inhabitants have been guarding its their unique customs and culture closely. The village is situated on a plateau.
The documentary depicted the villagers. The women are very beautiful and men are very handsome, though it is all natural that they may not be aware of it. Outsiders tend to compare because they have seen different races of the people.
One very prominent feature of their physique is the resemblance to the Greek people with sharp patrician noses and sturdy bodies. It is not surprising because the people living in colder places are generally fair colored. It is said that they are the descendants of the Greek soldiers of the Alexander’s army who settled in this beautiful valley.
The villagers has a Devta named Jamblu Devta which is supposed to be presiding over them through a council of members.The villagers follow the Devta in all the aspects of life and His decision is all abiding. The village follows democratic rules and is said to the oldest democracy in the world.
The customs are strictly followed. For example, the love marriages are considered very bad and an offense punished which is punished like the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Eden Garden for disobeying the God and eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge although in this case their was the snake who convinced the Eve that after eating the fruit they shall have the true knowledge and become as wise as the God itself.
Lets us hope that this village remains unaffected by the outside influences where so many bad things like corruption, crimes are happening and people are destroying the nature unawares that they are chopping off the very branches of the tree on which they are perched.