While doing a Google search for a location in Porur (Outskirts of Chennai city), I came across a landmark named “paddy fields” near to my destination. This took me by surprise as I asked myself the question – “how could something which is commonly found be considered a landmark”? As I came to my senses, I realized the deteriorating state of farmlands in India, especially in the cities. Since a lot has been written and talked about in the media on farmer suicides, decreasing farm acreage due to real estate boom, fair price for farmers’ produce etc., I felt that I would write something different - my childhood memories working on the paddy fields.
Whenever I tell people that I come from a village, they generally express their liking for the villages owing to its lush green fields amidst coconut and mango trees, water filled lakes, a huge temple on picturesque hill etc., (can’t help, it’s the filmy effect). I tell them that the way the villages are portrayed in films is not 100% real and a lot of credit should go to the filmmakers’ creativity for adding that extra beauty to the villages. Rewind to my childhood, I remember starting early in the morning (4 or 5 o’clock village time, I suppose it’s still bedtime in cities) towards the fields, situated at about 3-4 Kms away from my home. The fellow villagers who had already signed up to work in our fields joined us along the way and in case it’s your lucky day, you could get a ride on a bullock cart passing by to the fields (for free). They usually seemed like a cheerful, enthusiastic, happy and fun-filled group and chit chatted loudly about the day-to-day happenings in the village/ outside world amidst the silent early hours of the morning. This is in stark contrast to the tired and sober faces that I had witnessed on the city roads on Monday mornings.
On reaching the fields and after offering their prayers to god, each one takes a particular patch of field and start with their work (and guess what? nobody tells them what to do). They happily sing songs/ talk and they don’t mind about the hot sun or heavy rains while they go about their work. They make sure that the work that was planned for the day is completed either on the same day or the next day in case there is a stoppage in between due to inclement weather. Surprisingly, I have witnessed neighbours who had quarrelled the previous day in the village, forgetting their differences and working together on the fields to complete the work. Buttermilk is served in between during the break and for breakfast, it is generally Idli-Sambar/ Kambu Koozh (a traditional Tamil drink) followed by the spicy combination of rice/ Karuvattu kuzhambhu (dry fish) for lunch. People, sometimes manage to get mangoes from nearby fields and have it coated with green chilli paste as a side dish for the Kambu Koozh drink. Rat killing was a popular hobby amongst village men during the breaks while women did it in their own style - spending time in gossips or playing Pallanghuzi (a traditional game). Inspite of a hard gruelling day at work, the villagers had the same happy, cheerful faces I saw in the morning and I find it difficult to even fake something like this at the end of my day at office.
Even though, it seems like a heaven working on the fields (as per my description), I always hated going to the fields as it involved working under the hot sun, getting your hands dirty in the mud, carrying heavy loads, no TV/ playing games etc., Farming is definitely not for the weak-hearted and I have always admired the farmers for doing this 24*7*365 without much fuss. There is an age-old adage – “True happiness comes after real pain” and I experienced the same when I got to take a bath in the well after a day’s hard work. Bathing would feel like heaven (just like shown in the modern bath accessories advertisements today), Jumping in different postures into the wells was the best adventure sport you could experience as a child and the water gushing from the pipes offered the best massage for the aching body.
At times, I have felt that I should quit my job and take up farming but the enthusiasm just fades away with the passage of time. This Google map incident has reignited my passion towards farming and has created the urge in me to do something to stop this extinction of farm lands. May be one day I would get back to farming and share my experience in a separate blog post (pray to god this happens).
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