When
I left Delhi for my village in Kerala three years ago, a friend remarked that I
would not last more than a year in the village.
I quipped, “You’ve given me a whole year! I’ve given myself only 6 months.”
I
never thought I would fit in my village.
The fact is I haven’t – not in the usual sense. I live as solitary a life as possible in the
village and the people are apparently happy to leave me alone. My fear was precisely how much solitude would
be granted me. As I’m completing three
years of my existence in this village, I’m more than pleased with the
whole-hearted cooperation of people in leaving me to myself.
The
plain truth is that there are no villages in Kerala. Villages have undergone much change with most
people living alone in their big houses, some of which look palatial,
travelling by their own private vehicles, and mostly avoiding meddling with
other people’s affairs. In addition to
all that is the fairly large migrant population in the villages. There are people from Bengal (both West
Bengal and Bangladesh) as well as a few other North Indian states even in my
small village. There are hundreds of
them in the place where I go to work everyday which is also a village though it
looks like a small town with its infrastructural developments.
One
of the things that I would have loved in the village is a more peaceful
atmosphere, a slower existence than what I’m actually getting. Everyone seems to be in a hurry like in
cities. Everyone rushes at the topmost
speed possible on these narrow roads.
Some of the narrow roads are being widened into state highways. The rate at which development is rushing into
my village alarms me. Where do I go
now?
Occasionally
I go for a ride on certain interior roads which have almost no traffic. I love the languid vacantness on those
country roads through villages which are apparently more remote than mine, much
more pristine at least. I find myself
humming with John Denver, “Country roads, take me home / To the place I belong.”
You are lucky Sir. Though I also come from a small town in Rajasthan and have seen and experienced village life from pretty close, I am not that lucky like you. I long for living a peaceful, calm and contented life in some village but can't. May my fate favour me some day for that. Amen !
ReplyDeleteIndeed in many ways I'm lucky. But I think villages will soon vanish from Kerala. Development is quite a demon.
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