Chirgaon, a place to be discovered

Shriniwas Joshi

Advertisement

Recently I visited Chirgaon after almost 35 years. A place in the interiors of Himachal Pradesh in those gone-by days with dusty, tough and jolty road, a difficult place and only a couple of traditional Himachal houses with thick forest all around and the Pabbar river flowing in all fury.

Only 15 km away from Rohru, the apple economy has now been converted it into a town-like place and the police have displayed ‘obey traffic rules’ board here (See Photo).

I do not know how much of it is obeyed because I did not find any difference in traffic rules being obeyed at places where the board was not erected. Anyway, it is a good ritual and a motorist cannot say that he was not aware of the penalty provisions.

Chirgaon is the headquarters of Chhohara Development Block. Etymologist Dr Vidya Chand Thakur writes: “There are four areas – Ransaar, Jigaah, Tikraal and Dodra-Kwar – included in Chhohara. Because of these four areas, it was named Chohara (four places) earlier but, now, corrupted to Chhohara.”

He, however, is silent over the name Chirgaon. The Block Development Officer also expressed his ignorance. Actually, the old order of reading Wajib-ul-Arj (origin of names), a part of revenue record, has ‘changeth, yielding place to new’. I am not telling what the new order is.

I consulted the Pahari-Hindi dictionary and found that ‘chir’ means the cracking of skin due to extreme cold. So, a village where the skin gets cracked during the winters could be one reason why it was named Chirgaon. Another word close to ‘chir’ is ‘chiri’ which means a piece of ornament that is put on hair, so Chirgaon could be the ornament of forests.

It has a population of 1,070 persons only as per 2011 census and that of females is about 48 per cent. The encouraging thing about this tiny village is that 61 per cent people are fully employed and they have work for more than six months and 39 per cent are marginally employed with work for less than six months. They appear to be a satisfied lot.

There are, however, two factors that need to be tackled in the coming years – its child (0-6 age group) sex ratio is 797, whereas that of the state is 909 and the village is less literate than the state as a whole. The female literacy rate is shockingly low. It is 68 per cent against 76 per cent for the state. Both these issues, the adverse sex ratio and the lower literacy among the women, are challenges for the social activists and the health providers, especially for the mahila mandals which are working in Chhohara Block. And there is no dearth of those.

With no proper accommodation in Chirgaon, we went to Sandasu, a small village about 2 km away, where a Field Hostel of the State Electricity Board existed. It was neat and clean and provided a comfortable stay. The only hitch of the chowkidar being away due to a death in the family was resolved by the resident engineer, Dharmendra Singh, by deputing another one who cooked meals for us. The home-like meals were tasty and digestive. The Pabbar river was clean with its crystal-like water flowing in its full splendour here. The green background added luster to it (See Photo). It runs like a sprinter defying the obstructions raised by rocks. At places, dancing to its tunes it floats like a ballerina. I was reminded of Joan Walsh Anglund who had said, “A brook can be a friend in a special way. It talks to you with splashy gurgles. It cools your toes and lets you sit quietly beside it when you don’t feel like speaking.”

Not far from the Field Hostel, stands a workshop of Sai Foundation which has been allotted a mini hydel-power project here. The quotation on the tin-shed attracted my attention: ‘Safety is Gainful; Accident is Painful.” We passed the night here and in the morning left for the pass of Chanshal, which is at the height of 3,750 metres.