Paper short abstract:

When rain causes landslides around the Indian village of Gau, the movement of men for waged work and mainly women for fodder is halted. The heavy rain of mid-June 2013 forms part of the weather to which people in Gau ‘adjust.’ They live with the opportunities for movement permitted by the rain.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is about the movement of rain, rock and people. Weather is defined by its movement, as well as characterising place. So when weather changes, the ground beneath is changed. Human and animal life then becomes subject to new ecological conditions. In the village of Gau in the Indian Himalayas, many men work elsewhere, in factories or as drivers. But when the winter rain or the monsoon arrives, the mountainside slips and new roads are rendered impassable. The rain puts a halt to labour migration and affinal visits alike. Meanwhile, in the village, women and men going out to the steep mountainsides to cut grass and leafy branches for the dairy buffalo. They carry this fodder along the narrow paths, moving for the animals. When it rains, however, the people of Gau stay at home, as Lalita did when her husband could not return to work for three days in June 2013 because of the extremely heavy rain. The people of Gau and surrounding villages are subject to the landslides and the rain, and their cash migration and bovine care becomes compromised, they must 'adjust' (English term used). They live with the staccato opportunities for movement permitted by the rain.