‘They are all my people’: The ties that bind Adivasi life – from the Western Ghats to Jharkhand

My journey in a long chain of carriages
I’m travelling in it too
The repeated thuds of wheels on the tracks –
Is there any connection with the bounding wildlife of the montane forests?

I am moving on a single path of the double tracks
From one town to another, far away
The train connects the otherwise unconnected
What can I say, how can I say
Only lovers of long-distance trains will understand
The journeys a train makes on these iron tracks.

A long journey

The Omon Mahila Sangathan – a women’s self-help group in Noamundi, Jharkhand – had invited some of us from the Thulir Magalir Kuzhu, a women’s self-help group I belong to in Kodaikanal, to join their Women’s Day celebrations on 8th March this year.

Three of us – Valarmathi, Kaleeshwari and I – took part, accompanied by my father, Balamurugan, and Vaibhav Vaidya, an acquaintance who works with our group. This was our first train journey, and we were travelling to Jharkhand to meet other Adivasis, making the whole experience new and exciting for us.

The train started from Tirunelveli in the south of Tamil Nadu and went on to Purulia in far-off West Bengal. We boarded at Dindigul, the station nearest to Kodaikanal. The sight of multiple trains simultaneously arriving and departing Dindigul Railway Station filled us...

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