An India that lives in Villages!

4.15 am: Thursday June 13, 2013: We (I was accompanied by my friend from Hyderabad) alighted at Villupuram in Tamil Nadu (Vizhupuram in Tamil) after a 5 hour journey from Coimbatore. Too early in the day for our proposed meeting with an Agri Professor in a deep interior village, so we decided to stay put in the town for the next six hours.

10.15 am: Boarded a private town bus from Villupuram to Vikravandi, the distance of about 15kms took over half hour, with frequent stoppages for the filled-to-the-brim bus to offload passengers at the villages and take more in.

Vikravandi (Panchayat), I learnt, had a very high literacy rate, the dusty town bus stand led me to the narrow street where I asked the auto guy for directions to Ganapathipattu, a village some 8 – 9 kms from the bus stand. He said it would cost Rs. 150 one way. We had no choice and got into the auto for a long winding ride on some tarred roads, some stoned roads and some no roads leading through some amazing greenery. 

As we reached our destination half hour later, Shiva Kumar, the auto guy introduced himself thus, asked would we take long. I said we would need an hour and half, and he may leave if he wanted to. He said there was no way we would be able to go back to town as there was no other mode of transport. His was the only auto that reached the village edge at that moment. Shiva volunteered to come back if called, but then changed his mind to stay back till we were done with our work.

About an hour and 45 minutes later, having finished our meeting with the highly intellectual humble Agriculturist, we were back in his auto for the return journey. Shiva told us that we would find it difficult to reach our next destination from the Vikravandi bus stop and offered to drop us on the Highway near the toll gate, where we could have our lunch and also board any bus towards Chennai. The idea sounded good for we were very hungry and tired

 

That’s when I got started talking (for my friend knew very little Tamil, he was a silent spectator), enquiring about the way of life, the political scenario, the rains, the real estate boom and its effect on the land prices and then to Shiva and his family. Like most villages abutting the highways in India, the farming was fast disappearing, the agricultural lands were being gobbled up by realtors and sold at exorbitant prices. Politicians had their fingers in every pie and this place was no different. I steered away from the topic and thought it would rather be interesting to know about the young man and why he preferred to drive an auto in the small town.

At 30, Shiva was the youngest amongst 5 siblings. One of his sisters was a teacher in a private school in a nearby town and another was a home maker, his two brothers were well educated, one was a post graduate and the other a doctorate. He too did his intermediate, for he was quite fluent in English, and followed it up with an ITI certification in electrical winding. Jobs for his qualification were hard to come by and the mills in his town hardly paid much. He did find offers from other major cities, Coimbatore and Salem offered lucrative jobs, but he wanted to stay closer to his home town and with his ageing parents. 

Married and blessed with two kids, Shiva for a brief period worked to cultivate his 10 acres of farm, his frail body couldn’t allow him to do much and continue with it, that’s when he sought his brother-in-law’s services to toil in the land. He found the local travel in and around the twenty odd villages of Vikravandi was quite difficult and thus bought an Auto to ferry people. The earnings did make his ends meet and he was happy with what he was doing, despite the strong objection from his brothers and sisters, who wanted him to do something better.

His two children are going to school and he takes much interest in their education. For someone who has not moved out of his district, Shiva dreams of his children to cross the seas.

With pressure mounting from his family, Shiva yearns to earn a little more to have a travel company of his own, a humble fleet of 2-3 cars, himself driving one of them across the State.

Soon, we were on the highway, as we alighted I asked how much? Shiva simply said “ungallukku yenna thonardho kudungo saar” (Give what you think is right Sir). Overwhelmed with the simpleton I bid goodbye to him after paying him aptly.

Post a sumptuous late lunch, we boarded a bus near the Vikravandi Highway Tollgate and soon my friend dozed off, I was not sleepy and preferred to watch the the outside, as looked out of the window at the vast greenery I was lost in thought…

In an era when most youth of his age and education would not think twice to move to greener pastures across the World, here was a villager who earned a decent livelihood, stayed grounded and dreamt of a Worldly living for his children.