Rain Rain Come Again!

It didn't rain much in the last year and a half. Farming is hit hard in many parts of India. Wherever water was still available, people decided to sow cash crops based on their past performance...they planted only those crops that fetched a tidy profit the year before.

Tomatoes, Chillies, Onions, Grapes...

Since lot more farmers followed this principle, harvest of these crops were bountiful.

Prices crashed.

Angry protests followed in different markets in India. 

Farmers dumped their produce on roadside, left them unharvested in their farms etc...as cost of harvesting / hauling them to market was not cost positive for them.

(This could happen in a good year too. In 2015 November, Banana growers in Tamilnadu had to dump their entire harvest due to the deluge that hit their biggest market, Chennai. I have seen farmers selling them for five bucks for a dozen and in some cases given away their produce free at the farm gate as the retail collection wouldn't justify the cost of the tractor trip to market!)

So what if suddenly there is a 'Tulip Mania' like craze in the market for ash? 

'Great Opportunity', we say and burn down everything in sight!?

This cycle seems to go on and on. People just don't realize that Agri is a Culture and NOT a Business. Only excess production was brought to market as recently as 1980s...then we took the road less travelled (road to only profit) and sadly that seems to have made all the difference... 

The kind of risks they take in this journey is mind numbing; a poor farmer drills NINE Bore wells in a 4 Acre plot looking for water to save his crops...each bore well costs at least 100,000 bucks to become operational...

Now, time for a story!

The head priest of a parched village arranges for a prayer session to beg Gods to give them rains. He tells the villagers that if all of them pray sincerely it shall rain.

THE day comes and villagers gather together at the place of worship, one of them a little boy who carries an umbrella with him.

Dark clouds gather soon and it starts pouring down the moment the prayer concludes!

We cut back to heavens; we overhear a conversation between The Rain God and a divine musician.

DM: Lord, while many many prayers for rains happened today, what is so special about this prayer? Why did you send rains only to this little village and nowhere else?

RG: Had you watched closely, you would have noticed the reason...Of all the places people offered prayers today, only this little boy in this village carried an umbrella. I just wanted to honour his stupendous faith!

So goes the story.

Just think about it. Gods always listen to kids because they are untempered by the world, because their wishes are ALWAYS simple!

Our kids have been happily singing this rhyme for the past very many years:

"

Rain, rain, go away.

Come again another day.

Little Johny wants to play / Mummy is washing clothes/ and so on.

"

It is high time we rewrite it:

"

Rain, rain, come again.

Plants around die for you.

Rain, rain, come again.

Little girl wants to play with you!

"

Just imagine what would happen if the millions of happy children across our great country chant this everyday as part of their learning process! Gods would then have a million reasons to send rains daily!!!

When they (Gods) do, don't hold the hands of your kids tight; let them go. Allow them to get drenched, to receive the heavenly blessing. They deserve every drop of it!

What about the grown ups? 

We too can sing this song in the rain daily but more important, we must rethink what we do in the name of profit and switch back to agri 'Culture' - our true culture; for, this is the singular thread that cuts through ALL man made divisions of our society and binds the great land mass called India from time immemorial.

Shall we?