A visit to a Village

A visit to a Village…

Anil had a dream.

A dream to visit a village and stand near a pump set with gushing water into green fields.

His dream came true when Arun, his friend, asked him to visit his small native village to attend “Sri Rama Navami celebrations” (Lord Rama’s Birthday celebrations).

Arun was born in this non-descript small village, had education at the village Panchayat School, college at the town and then made it big professionally by becoming a successful lawyer. A typical story of village kid making it big in the city, achieved professional success, yet maintaining strong links with the native village.

Anil and Arun drove down from Hyderabad, a metro city, reached Vijayawada in the afternoon, a small but growing city and reached the village by evening. A journey which took them from a huge bustling metro to a small, congested and growing city and finally reached the small, dusty, sleepy village. Roads started off wide and ended up with muddy bumpy narrow roads. A real panoramic view of India!! Anil looked around the village and saw people, almost everyone, talking with a mobile in hand. Almost all the houses, whether a thatched roof, a tile roof or a concrete one had a TV dish protruding on each terrace..

Night dinner was a very simple and filling one at Arun’s house. All sat on the floor, with banana leaves well laid out and served with hot food. Anil was odd man out, sitting on a chair with the plate on the table, as he had forgotten the art of sitting cross-legged on the floor. Anil wondered, ‘no stale pizza or no food taken directly from the refrigerator for dinner, as it usually happens in the city, after a tiring day at office, in most homes’.

Next day morning, he saw the majesty of his friend’s ancestral house. A green front-court, appeared beautiful with jasmine, roses and other flowers grown on an arch which covered the pathway to the huge gate. The house front had a large sit out, done with red-oxide flooring with two swinging cane chairs laid out on one side. In the centre of the sit-out was the pathway going inside the house. The other side of the sit-out had a swing with a large wooden plank hanging from steel ropes on either side.

After breakfast, Arun took Anil to see the farms which grew different crops – paddy, banana, coconut, palm oil. Labourers were cleaning the farms, setting up the water pumps and the water sprinklers.

Anil’s dream was coming true. Arun knew about his friend’s dream. He took Anil to a large well, with an attached pump set.

Once it was switched on, wow and yo… – Anil saw the water gushing out of the pipe with real force and flowing into the canals to all the trees in the green fields. The water which gushed out the large pipe, was white in colour and provided an amazing contrast to the green fields in the back-drop.

Arun gave instructions to the farm workers to get them tender coconut water and bring it home.

Both got into the car and traversed the narrow roads, just enough for one car to go through. The bumpy roads had dust generated from the car wheels which created a cloud of dust. It looked as if a ‘dust bomb’ had just exploded!!

They reached home and were resting on the sit-out just gazing at the trees and the people around. Anil thought for a moment, can he have the luxury of gazing for some time in his daily city life. He felt that time moves slowly in a village. Even though, it looked to be an illusion, Anil was able to feel the slowness of life in a village.

It was evident that people did their regular activities and work without time pressure. 

Anil thought “it is we ourselves who create the pressure and get into stress for not completing it. In the first place, why do we create pressure? Maybe it is the environment or people around you”.

He continued his comparison, ‘In a village, people do their work at their pace and also do it on time. Maybe the key lies in their outlook on time – do work which is practical and possible in a certain time period, do it well and at a pace which does not create pressure.

Anil recollected the incident when his friend ordered the workers for the tender coconuts. Arun had said to them, “get four tender coconuts cut and bring them home fast” The workers listened to the command, but went about their work at their own pace, completed their work well. No words like ‘fast’ ‘immediately’ ‘to be done now’ work in a village.

Anil felt, maybe there is something to learn from villagers on their outlook on time to reduce stress in the city life.

The Lord Rama temple celebrations were done at a small road side temple, which was more than 100 years old. Arun’s family organised these celebrations and had been performing the Pooja for over three generations. The entire village had assembled on the road outside the temple to participate in the Pooja celebrations. Loud music with devotional songs blared out of the four speakers tied to the electricity poles around the temple. Anil watched this unique village celebration. He thought about the participation without any inhibition of the entire village population – elders to youth to small kids, unlike what happens in the city, where people tend to keep to themselves and try to avoid such social gathering. After the Pooja, the road side was converted into a dining area, with tables and chairs, quickly laid out and every adult turning to be a volunteer in serving the dishes.

Anil enquired, “Arun, who has prepared these dishes for the lunch?” “It is done by almost every home, who can afford it. They all bring their dishes and the organisers set up the lunch with the dishes”. Community living is best seen in villages in India and form the back-bone of strong bonding amongst people in villages even today.

They left for Hyderabad the next day and back to their daily grind. Anil experienced the bumpy roads again and wondered why nobody cared about it.

“Why these roads which lead to the village are bumpy and full of pot holes? You say that your family is respected and the Panchayat members meet and discuss various local issues with your father. Then, Why these roads are so bad and nothing is done about it?”, Anil remarked to Arun.

“The problem is within us, Anil. The Government had awarded the road contract to a very ‘clean’ contractor, who will do a very good job, but will not pay any bribe to anybody. But the local counsellor wants his ‘cut’ before even the work has commenced. Hence this stalemate”

Couple of months later Arun had gone to his village and on return, called Anil to explain how the development of the road was completed in just one month.

“My father explained the position to the MLA, who was furious about the counsellor not letting the work happen. He immediately called the district collector and directed him to speak to the counsellor to just keep away from this matter so that the road work can be completed. And then it really happened in quick time. The contractor completed his work in a month” Arun explained.

“In India, if there is political will, anything can be achieved, both the good and the bad can happen. Here the MLA had the political will to get things done and he had his way” Anil explained his theory, on present day India. So true…

-       Venkatesh