How are they now?

 

Ayana Sarkar, who has done Masters in Physics, is currently working for her PhD.

I loved reading this post by her. There’s something special about the empathy in her thoughts and in the simplicity of her style that makes me translate the passage into English. (Ayana , hope you will approve my translation? Maybe, you would have done a better job than me. Trust me, not kidding!)

*

The author is the third from left

Quite some time ago, I got an opportunity to visit a remote Adivasi village off Ghatshila, which is the second major station after Jamshedpur, about 50-60 kilometres away. From the Steel City, it takes 30 to 40 minutes to reach there. A tiny urban settlement in Jharkhand, lots of Bengalis live there.

As I walked out of the rail station with red concrete benches straight out of a storybook, I found a couple of eateries selling kachouris and jelabis, and a few small hotels.

I used to leave my bag in one of those and go out to discover the place. I would get off my auto-rikshaw at places hidden from me till then and have some snacks. Then, after exploring jungles, waterfalls, tracts of plain land, and the Subarnarekha, I would eat country-chicken curry, fried egg, and course rice in eateries wiped with cow dung, on the slope of a hill.

You can say it was my first experience of visiting what Americans call the boondocks. Since my childhood, I have lived in cities. As we don’t have any close relations in the country, I haven’t really visited rural areas. As soon as I came here, I knew this is what 80% of India is. Poor people living on the margins, they don’t get to eat two square meals every day. But even then, when strangers visit them, they would offer whatever food they can. They call you into their homes and love to talk with you. This is the first time I was with a farmer’s family, first time I saw a bullock cart. I watched with fascination people harvesting paddy. I had never seen all this before.

This is my India.

How is she today? Is she seething in anger? Can you do such injustice to the people who put food on your table?

[Postscript: I have read a few articles before and after our government changed the terms of agriculture in India lock-stock-and-barrel. None of those moved me as much as this one has. Thank you Ayana.]

Translated on 23 September 2020