Once, I heard of a mast in a village ten miles away. I asked the mandali to procure a bullock cart. They met a drunkard, who, in his tipsy state, said that he would bring his bullock cart if they paid him a certain fee, and also agreed to give him a tip. The deal was settled. He demanded his tip first, which was given. He at once raced off, not to get the bullock cart, but to the nearest pub and had his fill! He then set out asking friends for a cart, because he had none of his own. After much waiting, he did bring a cart, but his eyes were red and rolling.
I and the mandali climbed into the cart and the drunken driver whipped the bullocks. We bumped along a stony tract. On the way, we came to a hill. The drunkard whipped the bullocks and they climbed the hill at good speed. On the descent, he left the reins and the bullocks had freedom to run at breakneck speed. The cart rattled down the hill with all of us. None thought he would return alive, or at least whole. The driver seemed delighted with the speed with which the cart was rolling and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. The cart did arrive at the foot of the hill, but the bones of everyone's body were rattled to the extent that they felt that they would fall apart at all the joints! Poor old Gustadji suffered the most from this joyride.
When I was on mast tours, I had no compassion for the mandali or for anyone involved in our transport. My sole idea was to get to the mast with the quickest speed. Sometimes, we would walk for miles, and by the end of the day, our groins would be sore. A village remedy is to apply moistened gram flour to the sore parts. Once the mandali applied it to me, and since we were all tired, we went to sleep without washing it away. The next morning the mandali had a hellish time trying to remove the sticky stuff that had dried stiff on me overnight.
Kaka and Baidul were the chief mast hunters. Not always did they bring masts. At times, they would bring madmen.
Baba jokingly remarked:
Kaka and Baidul would always disagree regarding whether the man was a mast or a madman! When Kaka would bring a man whom he thought was a mast, Baidul would fiercely disagree by saying that he was merely a madman!