Life: Palanquin porters

“You are the first one ever who asked me to sit on a palki (palanquin) though I am a wife of a palki porter. I have been living with palanquins for 16 years. Today a long cherished dream of mine is fulfilled,” Mayna Das sighs. What an irony!Like Mayna Das it is a treasured hope of many girls of our traditional Bangali society to be brought home of her beloved husband, by a palanquin, after marriage. But those days are gone. In modern society, with the advancement of technology, palanquins have become a thing of the past.These days brides go to their husbands’ riding on cars. However, the tradition is not dead yet. Palanquins are still used for carrying brides in remote Bangladesh. In Mathbari, a far-off village in Sundarbans, some people still cling to palanquins. The palanquin-porters are saving a heritage, a century-old tradition of the soil, for the sake of living their lives in a miserable way.There was a happy time for the porters when their earnings were good enough to live up. But poverty, lack of respect to these untouchables, illness and uncertainty are trying to eradicate the porters along with the tradition.As the porters are not in a sound socio-economic position the mode of their profession is changed. They used to serve as cobblers to earn some extra money. But the life is getting so critical that they are compelled to adopt other professions. Moreover they serve an additional role of entertainers in wedding ceremonies.

Asha, in bridal make-up, she knows very well that riding palanquin is only a dream.

Jugal is getting water therapy in his house. He gets high fever when he was in bride’s house during work.

“You are the first one ever who asked me to sit on a palki (palanquin) though i am a wife of a palki porter. I have been living with palanquins for 16 years. Today a long cherished dream of mine is fulfilled,” Mayna Das sighs.