Hael (હેલ)

 "Hael le kinaar re, hael ne kinaar chhe" this is a Shram Geet, one that is sung while doing a strenuous task. While I try to unravel many of the colloquial words here, I am reminded of the word  "Hael" (હેલ) from  another Garbo, it was a Garbo sung by Shyamaben Thakore, in Baroda. The song went, "he vahlida, hankdi heri re, mune hael liye java de" (Oh dear one, the lane is narrow, (please make way) let me pass with the hael)  I had honestly not paid attention to the lyrics of these songs till I made the film Ramji Thakkar Bhimji Thakkar.   I researched the words, I figured that the word hael means a load, and it is most often used when one carries more than two pots on their head. One word to define so much. A language comes from the soil and so do folk songs. Gujarat has seen water scarcity for centuries and a lot of its culture is defined by it. Women would have to travel for kms to get water and they would carry that water on their head in clay pots or brass pots. Sometimes carrying upto 7 pots, one above the other. They would do this everyday. This was their life, which they accepted graciously and made songs around it. Lets try doing that the next time we are doing some back breaking work!! Lets also understand what water scarcity really looks like. We will come back to the first song later,  however the word hael over there also stands for carrying or moving huge loads