“I belong to the Gangireddu community, that visits homes during festivals with a festooned bull, while playing the trumpet. It’ll be no surprise that these days, nobody cares about us or our tradition. We’ve been struggling to feed our families. We never force people to give us money – that’s our first principle. But two years ago, we were arrested because we didn’t stop practising this tradition. The problem is that we don’t own any lands. We only know this practice and we’ve been doing just this for many years. It’s an ancestral profession. If we are suddenly stripped away from this, we’ll have nothing! We were promised three acres of land with a borewell. This is the second term of the current government but we’ve not been given anything. We still wake up everyday and hope to make enough money to have two square meals. It’s not just about the survival of this culture but also the survival of those who are struggling to keep it alive. This is our sad state today. Nevertheless, we still go around during festivals – especially Sankranti and Dussehra – hoping people respect and treat us with some food or money.”

#HAPPYDUSSEHRA #TRADITION #CULTURE #HOPE #LIFE #SUPPORT #GANGIREDDU #COMMUNITY #SURVIVAL #FESTIVE #DUSSEHRA2019 #FOOD #MONEY #FAMILY #INDIANCULTURE #SANKRANTI #STRUGGLE #PROFESSION #PEOPLE #HYDERABAD #HUMANSOFHYDERABAD