Machal Lalung plays with his great-granddaughter Kaberi at Silsang. Picture by S.H. Patgiri

Silchang (Nellie), March 24: The mellifluous strains of the koel?s song wafting down from the treetop and blood-red modars in full bloom have awakened this sleepy hamlet in Assam?s Morigaon district to the advent of spring and Rongali Bihu.

The residents are also sensitive to the approaching elections. Political parties of different hues have put up posters and banners all over the hamlet, urging the residents to vote for them.

One man is really looking forward to Rongali Bihu ? Assam?s biggest and most colourful festival. This will be septuagenarian Machal Lalung?s ?first? Bihu after 54 years of incarceration. ?I am an old man now...but Bihu is still Bihu,? he said at his residence, grinning from ear to ear like a child.

Lalung was dumped in an asylum and forgotten by the world for 54 years before the National Commission of Human Rights took up his case.

Booked under Section 326 of the Indian Penal Code, he was referred to the LGB Regional Institute of Mental Health in Tezpur on April 14, 1951, for treatment of schizophrenia. Though he was declared fit in 1967, he languished there till his nephew?s family brought him home in July last year.

The state later paid a compensation of Rs 3 lakh for his upkeep and Sulabh International has constructed a pucca toilet for him.

Lalung?s 30-year-old grandson, Sombar Pator, who was instrumental in bringing him back from the asylum, said Lalung was now ?enjoying life to the full?.

Happy and relaxed, Lalung is quite content to spend his days collecting firewood from the woods adjoining his home and playing with his great-granddaughter.

His serene face brightens up at the very mention of Rongali Bihu. Besides the usual Bihu, which starts on April 14, the Lalung tribe celebrates its own spring festival a few days later.

The significance of the festival for the community was summed up by Makon Bora, principal of Silchang Government Junior Basic School. ?I have been teaching here since the Eighties and I have seen the entire village getting involved. The celebration goes on and on till they are too tired to sing and dance. The school almost gets closed indefinitely and I have to force the students to return.?

While the very mention of the festival puts a smile on Lalung?s lips and a spring in his step, he is not as enthusiastic about the polls. ?What elections?? he counters.

In any case, Lalung will not be able to vote. A lifetime of incarceration has resulted in his name being knocked out of the list. Even though he reached home well before the summary revision of electoral rolls, his name does not figure among the 3,000-odd voters who will cast their vote at the Silchang school under Jagiroad constituency on April 3.

?So busy were we with his rehabilitation and official work that we simply forgot to get his name entered in the list,? Pator admitted. However, all other members of his family will cast their votes, including two of his younger brothers who will be make their debut as electorates.