Mirzapur Adventure

Dear Readers.

Here are some excerpts from field notes of mine in case you are wondering what my life is like doing research:

I went to the shop at 9am – like I was asked to and found Niyaz, Istiaq, Ronu and Monu asleep on a carpet that was left over from the time when that shop had once been a concert hall. They brushed their teeth, I ordered chai, and then we headed off to Mirzapur. There is no highway to Mirzapur. Even though it is another town about 50km away, you seem to just wind through the alleys of people’s neighborhoods until you hit the rail road tracks. After following the tracks for a bit and ultimately crossing them, you start to get into farmland with its green fields and stacks of drying cow manure that are so very typical of Uttar Pradesh. After awhile you have to cross the Ganga. Since the water level is low right now, you have to forge through quite a bit of sand in order to reach the floating bridge. Over the sand metal sheets have been placed in order to give the cars traction, but I still saw one jeep that had ventured off to the side just spinning sand.

Crossing the Ganga to Mirzapur from Nikki on Vimeo.

The Floating bridge was pretty cool, because it undulates with the weight of the cars. Unfortunately the video is of the small one, we didn't stop when we approached the big one and the motorcycle was bouncing so much that the video is unwatchable. Apparently during the rainy season this bridge simply doesn’t exist and everyone must go a much longer distance to get to and from Mirzapur. I noticed that there weren’t any busses going across, so they probably have to go the long way (wherever that is). That floating bridge is also the first toll road I remember seeing here. You have to pay 15 rupees to cross it.

I won't put in the parts where I actually interviewed people simply because I am not sure what to tell the world about yet. That will come out in my dissertation. Here are some pictures from the shop, however.

After Interviewing Shamsuddin (above), I went for a walk through the Brass making neighborhood of Mirzapur. It seems that brass work is their major industry. They, unlike many parts of the world, melt down scraps and make their own sheets. Apparently other countries actually export scraps of metal rather than melt it down themselves – which is something I don’t really understand. But it was kind of cool to see where they melt it down and make little disks. I can only imagine what it must be like to work next to those fires in the summer. The whole town seemed to be buzzing and reverberating with the sounds of hammers and metal sheets. Everywhere you looked it seemed like there were piles and piles of plates and bowls and jugs. Apparently most of the items are used in weddings and other rituals. The most interesting piece I saw was a brass damaru that was being re-headed for Shivratri.

Walking through Mirzapur's Brass Making District from Nikki on Vimeo.

Surprisingly, it was only about 8 years ago, when one of the brass workers started making Bayas. Shamsuddin taught him how to do so. Now he can get his brass locally and cut down on costs. You would think that with such a robust business of brass, they would have been making these for a long time. But maybe the market for them hadn’t reached Mirzapur yet. I am not sure, but I find it fascinating.