Two men are engaged in a gentle, but intense conversation over a pair of calves. One quotes Rs 4,500 for the two ; the other wags his head in refusal.
The first man, evidently the buyer, caresses the hazel hide of one of the calves which is tethered to the other with a nylon rope.
His eyes gleam, but his budget wouldn’t allow. The seller is unmoved, sticking to Rs 5,000 for the pair. He knows there will be other buyers.
All across this huge open space, the size of two football fields, hundreds of men have gathered at a marketplace where many more hundreds of cattle and other livestock – cows, bulls, buffaloes and goats – are up for grabs. Pay in cash, collect your receipt and begone.
Welcome to Mallickpur Haat under Balarampur constituency in Katihar district, the biggest cattle mart this side of the country where men and women of all communities – mostly Muslims and Yadavs – speak a patois of Hindi and Bengali.
But over the collective human buzz of bargaining and bovine mooing and snorting, the dung and urine of the assembled cattle, their polished hides gleaming in the afternoon sun, loudspeakers mounted on Boleros, Scorpios, Jeeps and even ramshackle tempos throw up plumes of dust, blaring the vote-seekers’ message.
One enterprising vote catcher has even thrown in some lilting Mohammad Rafi numbers.
It is election time in Katihar and what better place than the weekly haat to draw the attention of a large collective of potential voters cutting their own deals on cattle some of which are then sold to the neighbourhood smuggler who ensures the animals go across the nearby international border into Bangladesh unmolested.
Mallickpur Haat is a fascinating place. Not just cattle, every item of daily human use is sold here.
Even something as strange as Balwan Tonic, which does two things to men: it spikes their potency in bed and makes bowel movements smooth.
It is the local bottled Viagra and Isabgul rolled into one concoction which you and I will think a zillion times before taking even a sip.
“Issey mard kamjor nahin hota (with this, manhood isn’t weakened),” promises Hakim Mohammad Alauddin as he laughs aloud at my suggestion on the potential effect on men.
But how will the Muslims of this region vote, I throw a direct question at the hakim. The hakim saheb, who has travelled from adjoining Kishanganj to sell his magic potion, is as direct:
Qwaisi ho ekko bhot naahin milna [Qwaisi (Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party) will not get a single vote].
Abdul Raqeeb, Hakim Mohammad Alauddin’s Customer
His customer, 53-year-old Abdul Raqeeb, who has by this time discretely tucked into his lungi one of the hakim’s bottled sunshine, is more generous in his explanation, however.
Unsey humari koi aapsi dushmani to hai nahin. Yahan ek ghar mein teen-teen faqir pahunch chuka hai. Owaisi saheb ko ik-du hajar vote milega (There is no personal enmity between us and Owaisi. There are three Muslim candidates vying for one seat. Owaisi will get a couple of thousand votes).
Abdul Raqeeb, Hakim Mohammad Alauddin’s Customer
Raqeeb, who has trudged a good 30 km from Baisi in Purnea to the haat, offers a more rational explanation why Owaisi, who was at Mallickpur Haat in the morning, will not make even a dent.
“Unka kundidate zameeni nahin hai. Woh Patna ke hain (Owaisi’s candidate is not from these parts; he lives in Patna),” Raqeeb said
Next to the hakim’s stall, “dentist” Mohammad Hasan Ali, who has travelled all the way from Malda in West Bengal to be at the haat, has just yanked out a troubling tooth of a head-scarfed woman who is in obvious pain, her cheeks swollen as her mouth oozes a gooey fluid as a relative thrusts a bottle of water into her mouth to ease her agony.
“Aamaar roogi,” Hasan Ali said proudly in Bengali, referring to the woman as “his patient.”
Meanwhile, hakim saheb’s political thoughts pour out with gusto.
Yeh log beef, beef chilla rahein hain. Lekin humne akhbaar mein padha hai gosht ka export karne waalon mein Hindu hi zyada hain (They are screaming beef, beef, but I have read in newspapers that most of the exporters are Hindus).
Hakim Mohammad Alauddin of the Mallickpur Haat
He then mixed a few suspicious-looking powders before stuffing them into a bottle of liquid of indeterminate colour.
Another bottle of Balwan Tonic is nearly done. The next step is to put a cap on the bottle and seal it.
Speaking of sealing, it appears that come November 5 when Seemanchal goes to the hustings, this Muslim-majority region has long decided who the winner will be and whose fate will be sealed across the 24 assembly seats in the districts of Araria, Purnea, Kishanganj and Katihar.
For full coverage of Bihar Polls 2015, click here.
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