We, the mundane dwellers in remote villages take pleasure in enjoying our lives as we witness a day go by after spending industrious hours in daily activities. We usually dispose severe ailments as ordinary ones. It cannot be said that in remotest areas like these the health care facilities are quite developed, even in the era of massive structural and technological progress in the fields of science and medicine. Apart from this, being economically fragile also adds to the existing psychological barriers that compel the villagers not to access medical facilities.  Therefore, this prompts the villagers to consider a local exorcist or an ayurvedic practitioner as available options. Since centuries, we have been dependent on these local practitioners, a tradition nurtured through generations.
Centuries ago, various diseases and epidemics appeared frequently, which, in turn, took away multitude of lives, and destroyed families in innumerable villages. There were no hospitals or doctors around and people only had the assistance of these local exorcists and ayurvedic practitioners. They used their knowledge and understanding of medicinal plants, roots and leaves of various trees to treat patients. Although these methods proved to be antidotes to their distress and provided them relief in some cases, mostly they were shaded heavily by superstitions. Even now, people across villages and suburbs can be seen practicing various forms of superstition.
Coming down to twenty-first century, however, the Bodo community has also imbibed elements of modernity in their lifestyle, like every other community. Many of the members of this community have established themselves in the fields of health, education and public service by becoming doctors, engineers, teachers, ministers and many more. The other members of the Bodo community who continue to live in remote villages preserve their own culture while still being dependent on the practice of using indigenous modes of treatment, involving roots and leaves of medicinal plants.
The Bodo community has also encountered plenty of epidemics since centuries and have overcome the crisis quite gallantly. The north-eastern part of India has always been prone to such miserable condition. Since the climate of the region is usually dominated by excess humidity and moisture, landslides are seen frequenting the region more often than not as a consequence of regular arrival of flash floods. This soggy climate also leads to epidemics like malaria, cholera, plague and pox. I have heard my mother say many a times that we lost my aunt to cholera and one of my maternal uncles to pox.
Since ages, Bodos are accustomed to live in a community cordially and harmoniously. This community used to live under the guidance of a leader, chosen as the head of the community. In recent times, this community doesn’t have any such leader in specific, but they can be seen following the instruction of the senior most member of the community whom they consider wise enough to guide them. This senior most person could be an exorcist or any wise man in the community. They would advise medicines if any member of the community suddenly fall sick. These indigenous medicines would then be applied to treat the sick person. These medicines, though, don’t cure the patients always. Considerable instances can be found where these procedures of treatment remain unfruitful. In such cases, the patients are advised to visit the nearest healthcare center by the exorcist or the wise member. However, the educated members of the community or the members living in suburbs or towns prefer to visit hospitals for preliminary diagnosis and treatment, instead of seeking advice from the local exorcist. 
Since my childhood, I have also seen fever and common cold being treated by using homely remedies. An indigenous medicine called ‘chokhkha muli’ is prepared and given to patients in these cases and surprisingly, it helps. In our village, when a member gets measles, the tender leaves of bamboo plants are boiled in water, and the residue is given to him as a medicine. It is believed that this procedure helps in killing the germs and ensures that disease will never return again. When I was down with pox, pork was served to me. It was quite surprising because some of my friends also got pox and they were not even allowed to taste  all the vegetarian preparations, let alone meat and fish. They used to follow all the restrictions meticulously but they got severely affected by pox again, whereas it never came back to me. I am yet to perceive the logical explanation behind this occurrence, but it can be said that the indigenous modes of treatment might have a significant role to play. There are ample of such medicines prepared in primitive ways which are prescribed to us by the exorcists or the ayurvedic practitioners, but they refuse to reveal the natural ingredients or roots involved in the making.
Although the above-mentioned diseases with less severity can be seen cured by the exorcists or the ayurvedic practitioners, they couldn’t bring respite in the cases of diseases with severity, for example, during pandemics. Therefore, quite naturally, we are reminded of the pandemic that struck the world in 2019, Covid-19.
The Bodo community and the Covid pandemic:
Life is all about struggle. We all strive to survive in our own ways, some can make it while some don’t. As far as I can remember, it was in January of 2020 that the news of a deadly virus originating from Wuhan in China made headlines. Known as Covid-19, it was soon discovered to be spreading across the globe and took the form of a pandemic. This news of Covid-19 outbreak horrified me severely as the doctors across the leading nations found themselves clueless about its treatment and cure. The fact that the rate of contamination of this disease is very high and is done through human-to-human transmission, left me numb. However, the only solace was the distance between Wuhan and our locality in India. Initially, we didn’t register the news as a threat to us and scrolled through it as any other piece of news in the newspaper. Also, most of the members of our community was not aware that this deadly virus is going to reach us from the faraway Wuhan, except a few members who read newspapers regularly. 
Life was going fine until one morning when we got to know from the newspaper that a person with Covid-19 has returned from abroad to Kerala, and there are some more people who came in close-contact with the infected person. This news terrified the people of the entire nation and the Bodo community was no exception in that regard. Soon, within weeks, this virus broke out in India too, affecting every nook and corner of the country. By then, this disease had already been declared as a pandemic and was being treated as something of global importance. It was hard to tell whether the world has ever witnessed such huge numbers of death and the subsequent grief. In no time, the pandemic reached West Bengal too and all the institutions of public interest were shut down all of a sudden. To avoid rapid spread of the virus, the Central Government imposed a strict lockdown overnight. 
During the initial days of the pandemic, most of us were not well informed about the nature of the pandemic or its dos and don’ts, but we did understand that we need to keep our distance from any individual who is infected. But spotting an infected person was something that we found very difficult. The health department did announce the following guidelines that the citizens were asked to follow diligently:
1. Wearing a  mask is mandatory for every citizen. 
2. One should wash their hands and face frequently using soap, or use sanitizer in regular intervals.
3. Maintaining social distance is mandatory. Every individual should keep a distance of 6 to 7 feet from others.
We have usually seen the doctors, nurses or medical personnel using these kinds of masks, but never imagined that a day will come when we too would be forced to use them. One of my maternal uncles joked, “mansini chinaiti hadi/ moshouni moukhangni mukhari”. By this he wanted to mean that the situation has forced humans to wear mask and this might seem to be funny to the cows and other animals because  they too have to wear a similar mouth-cap.
The next thing that became famous overnight was ‘sanitizer’. People dwelling in remote villages were not acquainted with this term, or its utility. Soap was familiar to us, but sanitizer was an alien. Before the necessity and significance of this product was understood, it vanished from the shelves of the shops and resulted in acute scarcity of the item. 
The third important guideline was to maintain social distancing. I feel, this is the toughest part to follow for humans living in a community. Also, Bodo community has always been a closely-knit group with active social participation. This community, since ancient days, has been living in groups and celebrating togetherness. But we acknowledged that life is more precious in these circumstances and the community follows thereafter. Therefore, the community decided that they wouldn’t allow unfamiliar faces to enter their villages. To ensure that, they closed all the entrances to the villages by using bamboo fences and stationing few of the members on watch.
One night, when I was deep asleep, my phone suddenly rang. It was 3 a.m. in the morning and I was surprised to find one of my brothers calling at this hour. The following conversation ensued:
Brother: Hello Nadu! (Nadu is my nickname) Please get up right now, boil a tumbler of water, add tea leaves to it, boil it again and consume it before the crows croaked in the morning. 
Me: What do you mean?
Brother: Don’t ask me why. People around here are saying, this ritual can prevent you from getting infected with the Corona virus.
I was left speechless for a while. Receiving a call so late at night, and learning this kind of instruction made me perplexed. I was confused whether to consider it a prank or to take it seriously. On the one hand, I was angry on him for disturbing a fine sleep that I was having, on the other, the silliness of the event was amusing. A few more calls followed, carrying the same instruction. My wife, by now, was convinced of the efficacy of the ritual and went off to make tea for us following the procedures. Although I was not too fascinated by the idea, my wife’s insistence forced me to consume it reluctantly. In the next morning we came to know that every household in our community has followed this instruction, including the relatives living in Assam. I was still in a dilemma whether to call this a mere superstition or search logic in its folds. 
In the context of the nation, the number of people getting the virus was increasing in leaps and bounds every day. It would be wrong to say that the Bodo community was absolutely unaffected by this pandemic. In its initial phases, this disease was confined to the cities, towns and their surrounding areas. The Bodo villages were yet to come in contact with any infected person. The majority of the infected members of the Bodo community could be found to be living in towns or suburbs. However, some of these members visited the villages and brought the virus with them, thus infecting some of the members living in Bodo villages. By now, most of them have recovered from this disease by diligently following the Covid-19 guidelines and regulations provided by the government. 
As a result of the rigorous Covid awareness campaign launched by the government, the members of the Bodo community began to acknowledge that the only way to defeat this virus was by wearing mask properly, maintaining social distancing and by washing hands and face frequently. In this context, it is quite necessary to mention that the Bodo community, in the face of this dangerous situation, also resorted to the use of ‘chokhkha muli’. The members of the community consumed this by boiling it in water whenever they were suffering from cough, cold and fever. There is really no way to confirm whether it eradicated Corona virus from the body, but the way it cured the cough, cold and fever and helped in the patient’s recovery was indeed observable. This is primarily an ayurvedic medicine, but has other ingredients too. They include cloves, cardamoms, black pepper, ginger or ‘shoth’, roots of wild beetle leaf, ‘piyali’, wild brinjal, ‘manimuni’ leaf and other roots. These ingredients, along with a few more, are grinded into a powder, which is then boiled in water and consumed. This indigenous medicine, ‘chokhkha muli’ is quite effective in helping patients who have weaknesses and have lost their sense of smell or taste as a result of suffering from fever, cough or cold. 
The student community and the Covid pandemic:
Needless to say, the students are the worst sufferers in this pandemic. They have been suddenly forced into the confinement of four walls for one and a half year, after the schools were abruptly closed due to the pandemic. It will indeed be very difficult for them to recover from the catastrophic loss that they have been experiencing in the realm of mental health and education. The government has taken steps to arrange online classes for the students, true, but affording a smart phone is unimaginably difficult for the poor families who can hardly make both ends meet. Instances can be noted where students are committing suicides because they couldn’t avail online education. News like this is really disconcerting. 
It can also be observed that this sudden closure of physical schooling has given rise to an increase in the number of dropouts. Many of the students are forced to take up odd jobs to support their families financially, thus leading to a steady contribution to the increasing numbers of child labour. 
However, the only relief is the availability of the Covid-19 vaccine. Under massive vaccination drives, citizens across the country are being vaccinated in numbers. This, I believe, will be helpful in restraining the virus to some extent. We all hope that each and every citizen gets vaccinated sooner. We also pray that this virus leaves the earth soon, ensuring a healthy life for people across the globe.