Dotted with green trees, the grid-shaped, sienna-toned paddy fields of Parengtar — a quaint hamlet on the India-Bhutan border in West Bengal’s Kalimpong district — overlook the blue-grey mountains. The nip in the air and a sudden burst of activity augurs the advent of the harvest season. Villagers, mostly comprising the Rai people, are making cloth banners, poplin-roof shacks, traditional food and stacking up the harvest for the grain to be sifted from the chaff. The preparations for the third edition of the community-driven, zero-waste Kholey Dai Harvest and Music Festival are in full swing.
