With Winter come the Camels and Sheep from Rajasthan to Mhow (MP); India

The other day I met a Rajasthani peasant near the Khadey Hanuman temple in Mhow. He was part of a group which was herding a few hundred sheep. He wanted to know if he could get some water nearby. I told him that the river Gambhir was close and though it is like a stream as it flows through Mhow his sheep could drink from it. I asked him where he was from and he told me that he was from the Pali district of Rajasthan. That he and his group had left Pali in the Bhadon month and would return after holi. That would be around nine months. When I asked him where he would be going from Mhow he asked me "Oh, is this Mhow?" I was stunned and I also smiled. He only had a rough idea of where he would be going but it seemed that over a period of a few months he and his flock of sheep would be back with plenty of wool for their employer - the Seth, as they called him.

This is an annual feature of winter in Mhow and Malwa and the local papers invariably print a photograph or two. Friends from the village tell me that if there are no crops in a field then the farmers like the sheep to graze there as they leave behind dung which fertilizes the field.

While going through my old photogaphs I found three which I had taken in the mid nineties. I am uploading them here. I am trying to click a few pictures of them this year as well. And the moment I do that I promise to upload the pics.