How can one ever expect a man chasing greedy goals to understand what it means for a farmer when the rains disappoint him yet again? Or how it shatters a villager to see arable lands without cultivation? How can one expect a man who spends half his life in an AC chamber to understand what if feels like to stand on a parched land feeling the sun’s fury on one’s head and to look into a well that shows no traces of water despite the numerous bores that scar it? How can one ever get a man, skipping a job that pays him in lakhs for another that pays him a few thousands more, to understand how folks in the village work on all the days of the week for much longer hours and do far more strenuous work for an annual income that amounts only to those few thousands?

Cultivation is tough job. Constant and persistent vigilance, sheer hard work, endless perseverance is what it takes to get a good yield. In the end their crop is sold at a mere amount. So, what lies ahead for the farmers there if they don’t move out and the current state of affairs don’t improve? Can we hold them responsible for wanting a better standard of life that their endless efforts in their farms don’t seem to accommodate? What destiny awaits these fertile lands when each farmer decides to move into towns in pursuit of better pay and a better quality of life? How do we propose to feed the huge population if such a thing ever happens?

Folks in the villages seem quite ignorant of how life in the towns is. But their ignorance seems much lesser than the ignorance town folks have about village life. People in the cities have no clue how a village functions and how dramatically their way of life is changing the rural life. Media seems to be barely reaching out to addressing certain issues they must have addressed ages ago. Issues that deserve all the attention they can afford to get; issues that would certainly hold much more relevance to the Indian masses than certain other news pieces that cram our media like which business tycoon is dating which actress.

Misplaced priorities and misplaced focus are commonplace problems. Sometimes they don’t make much difference. At other times, they make all the difference there is to make. Sad...

Labels: contrast, cultivation, farmer, rains, volunteer