A marriage by the pond

With the death of their pond, Kolovery Village locals have created an artificial one in order to keep their customs alive

What used to be a 7.5-acre, four-century-old pond, teeming with birds and marine life, now stands covered with mud and debris at the Kolovery Village in Kalina. The pond, which was a natural open and underground reservoir till 2001, allowed rainwater from the Air India Colony to go via Resham Singh nullah and flow into the Mithi River.

But the ancient Kalina pond was more than just a means of supplying water to the locals. It played a key role in the time-honoured tradition called the `Umbracha Pani', a ritual observed on "Wedding Saturdays", a day before the nuptials, in this predominantly East Indian Christian community.

And the residents are not thwarted by the disappearance of their pond; they have created an artificial one to adhere to their ancient customs, with the pond water being replaced by the BMC's tap water.

Cut to their wedding customs and day one: Monday morning begins early with the pounding of rice, to prepare `wadas', `fuggias' and `papdis' for the wedding feast. Tuesdays are devoted to making a dosa-like batter with fish curry to serve the guests who've come from neighbouring villages.

Wednesday is marked as an important day for the women-folk, who are engaged in preparing the wedding pickle called `Varradaccha Lonche', made in large quantities out of papaya, carrots and chillies. Villagers get together to set up a pandal of palm leaves on Thursday.

Friday is the day of the feast — sorpotel and vindaloo are on the menu. "There's a shortage of pigs who used to roam freely in the paddy fields. So now we use goats instead," says Robert Jacinto, a local resident of the area.

Then, comes the day of the  'Umbracha Pani', where relatives and guests go dancing to the pond to draw water in pitchers. "The couple is blessed with the water from the pond and are made to bathe in it the next day," said Jessie Rodrigues.

They take pride in this age-old custom. Locals say that some of their Marathi customs could even put political parties like the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena to shame. "We, the East Indian Christians, are the original sons of the soil, original Mumbaikars. But we don't like to make a song and dance about it as we are all Indians first," says a senior citizen from the village.

Most of the villagers may have Portuguese surnames, but their mother tongue is Marathi.  They follow ancient Maharashtrian wedding customs and play musical instruments like the `ghummat' during the wedding procession.

Today, all the villagers have come under the banner of the ‘Kolovery Welfare Trust' to fight a long drawn out battle with the BMC and the local politicians on the revival of their pond. With the opening of our pond we hope to revive our customs in natural surroundings instead of the artificial pond created by us. The old pond was our lifeline," says Angelo Galbano, a resident of Kolovery Village.
b_linah@dnaindia.net