I haven’t seen a tribal community so linguistically plural, so trend-influenced and so nomadic. A friend told me about Akki Pikkis with a special reference of them being always on move and speaking eight languages. I was told that they name their kids on anything that catches their fancy; including words like ‘Policeman’ and the names of places they travel to. All these years I planned to visit one of their colonies but could do so only recently when I travelled to Kortagere in Karnataka.
It was one of those hot summer days. We travelled through muddy, bumpy roads and reached this Akki Pikki colony deep inside the countryside. Many inquisitive eyes peeped through the windows and an old man approached us and led us into the village.
While talking in Hindi with me and in Kannada with my friends, he told us that Akki Pikkis were originally a hunting tribe that centuries ago migrated from drought-hit areas of Gujarat.
Going around the place I came to know that Akki Pikkis have still preserved their centuries-old techniques of laying baits for catching birds. In fact they derived their name Akki Pikki from it; Akki in Kannada means bird and Pikki is just a tongue-twist.
The baits are laid inside a specially crafted trap made out of reed and knitted with rope. After hunting was banned Akki Pikkis used these skills in making brooms and similar objects and earned their living by selling them.
From brooms they graduated to assembling artificial flowers. The families buy raw material from the wholesale markets. The flowers and bouquets are assembled in the colony and then the family sets off to far off places to sell.
Our guide led us to a hut and pointed at a 13-year-old boy saying, “Just yesterday he returned from Jalandhar.” My heart jumped at hearing the name of the Punjabi town. I asked him what he liked about the place and the teen replied, “I liked the way people dress up there. They are very stylish.”
I was told that Akki Pikkis take only 10 days to pick up the basics of a spoken language and beside their mothertongue, they speak Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and Lambadi (the language of the tribes settled in the adjacent village).
We came across a group playing cricket and speaking in Tamil. They followed us everywhere flicking their hair and making odd dance moves.
We were not surprised when inside every home we sighted big TVs with DVD players. A girl showed me her collection of DVDs and asked me to sit along with her and watch DDLJ.
I came to know that marriage and divorce are very easy among Akki Pikkis. The couples have recently started registering marriage at the taluk office, otherwise it was all done within the tribe and the children were brought up by the community. Many of the children are first generation school goers and study in a residential school near-by, set up especially for them by the government. However the dropout rate is high as they are nomads.
Knowledge of hunting is the only thing Akki Pikkis have retained from their extinct identity. What they have lost has never been their concern; these avid travellers by means of their extensive contact with the outside world have discovered the modern sought-after mantras of life — money, movies, clothes and gadgets.