Persons like me, who have lived in cities for the whole of their lives, have a very wrong idea about village life. They believe what is shown in Bollywood movies. I was no different. I also thought that in villages, women move around in their designer lehengas. They go to the well for fetching water and move here and there happily. I also believed that in the evening they gather around and danced together on the movie songs like “sun mitwa” or “mere desh ki dharti”.
One fine day I told my dad, “what a nice life these village folks have…”. On this my dad laughed loudly and suggested me to visit our ancestral village which is in Lucknow. Last time when I went to our village, I was 4 years old. I remembered very few details from my last visit or better to say I had no idea what a village looked like.
I took a week’s leave from office and boarded the train with my father. I was really very excited. At the railway station we were greeted by our relative (my cousin brother) who had come to receive us. I asked him, “how we will go home”? On this, he showed his bullock cart. On this my reaction was, “What!”. My dad told me, “son, this is just the beginning”.
On reaching home firstly, I decided to answer my natures call. So, I asked, “where is the toilet”? On this I was took to an open field. I was told that there is no toilet in the village and all the villagers including women have to go in the open field. After that I decided to have a look around. I found broken houses made with mud and bamboo with men and women in old and torn clothes (definitely not designer), working very hard in fields to get their ends meet.
An used plow and a pair of feeble bullock stands in every house as a testimony to the strenuous life of the occupants.  Maximum houses had no electricity connection and even those houses which had electricity connection used oil lamps because electricity was rare. Nobody had a gas connection, so food was cooked on wooden or coal fire which generated smoke and that caused various lung diseases.
I found an old woman coughing. I asked her, “Are you having your medicines”? On this she gave a blank look and said, “Beta, I don’t have money to buy medicines or go to a private hospital.” Other persons told me that the there is no government clinic nearby. On hearing this I really got emotional. The plight of the Indian farmers is unimaginable as they work tirelessly throughout the year in the absence of basic necessities.
I decided to join my cousin brother who was working in the fields. When I reached there, I found him and some other farmers arguing with some men. I was told that they were bank officials and had come to give a formal notice (of non-payment of EMIs) to the farmers. My cousin brother told me that no body in the village was able to pay EMIs this time as they had a bad crop this time.
I ate my food and went to sleep. After some time, I woke up to drink water. I found bantu (my cousin brother’s son) reading in candle light. I asked, “its late, go to sleep”. On this he replied, “Uncle, I have a test tomorrow”. On listening this I felt that everything is not lost and there is still a ray of hope.
Our villages and farmers are not the same as I had thought but I have a strong feeling that one day it will become the village as it is shown in Bollywood movies.