Nowadays due to urbanization and globalization the site of a lush green village is becoming extinct. Villages are an ode to the simple ways of living. Sometimes we fall into the hoax of thinking that villages aren’t important in a country, rather modern cities and modern development is what is needed to sustain ourselves.
But if we look closely we will find that villages supply us the basic needs of our life like, food, clothing from textiles, different items of daily use from different cottage industries, cattle and manual labour. Hence village form an important sector of a country’s development sphere.
My village is the village of Dumka located in Jharkhand. Although in recent times it is rapidly developing into a modern city. But from my very childhood I grew up in this village. My heart and all my memories are tightly woven all around this village. We can reach it through bus or train or car in just one day.
The people over there have very simple ways of living. Maximum people have their individual lands where they cultivate themselves some crops of daily need like potatoes and papayas. My grandparents lived there, even they earned a small bungalow with a small garden in which they had a collection of fruit trees like mango, guava and lichi and some crops and a lawn for sitting and having morning tea.
The environment of the area is quite serene, no loud horns, no mic blarings, and no people talking. The only sounds that come to the ears are the sound of bird chirping, woodpeckers pecking and the sound of some cattle grazing in a distant field.
You don’t need a television or a smart phone if you find yourself in such an atmosphere. The place is also sparsely populated. The nearest house from my grandfather’s house was the house of an army colonel some 0.5 kilometers away.
The night time atmosphere in the village was more blissful than in the day. Night falls quiet early in villages than in the cities. In the cities the people go to bed usually at midnight that is at 12 A.M but in villages the people go to bed quiet early almost at 8 or 9 pm, but on the other side, they get up quiet early and set to work.
Not much places are well lighted with street lights hence when the sun goes down the usual life comes to a sudden halt and the existence of the nighttime creatures comes to life. It was not unusual to hear the sound of jackals roaming the house. Jackals and foxes stealing hens and ducks from their pens was a common problem.
Once you lie down quietly in bed you can hear the murmur of wind past your ears, the sound of grass blades brushing against each other, the sweet song of cricket going on uninterruptedly, a distant sound of a dog howling and suddenly a sweet and deep drowsiness will overcome you and eventually to fall to sleep listening to the sounds of nature.
Such is the connection of the place with the natural environment. It is right in the lap of nature. There is nothing much to do in that village. Mobile signal accessibility is a matter of luck, electricity availability is quite disrupted, and hence there is no way of watching television. Well to do families only could afford themselves an inverter and a television set.
Coming to the celebration of festivals, festivals in villages are quite different. It is not filled with loudspeakers and aren’t as crowded as the pujas and festivals in cities. Instead the people celebrate it quite peacefully and while seeking the blessings of god.
Some festivals bring in the country fair with them. Country fairs are extraordinary things to watch. Country fair is filled with people of all categories trying to sell knick-knacks, toys, food, most of them are made by they themselves. Cottage industries contributing to the same.
In the toy store you won’t get a recent edition of Barbie or any action figure, rather you’ll get earthen toys painted bright in traditional colours. Who’s the maker? The seller himself! He might be the potter who has come to the fair to sell off his works of art. In some fairs also called ‘melas’ you can also shoe puppet shows with puppets looking very traditional, all decked up in bright Indian clothes and colours.
In this village there is the postman called ‘Ramubabu’. He is your delivery guy, your speed post guy, your parcel guy etc. this means that there is no formal delivery services available in this village. People use only to post offices to receive items as well as deliver them.
Not feeling like to cook? Want to order pizza? Want it to be delivered right at your doorstep within 30 minutes? Well, all this are dreams in this village. First of all there is no pizza shops located here and there. The only pizza shop present is there near the main bazaar (a comparatively developed place with a few departmental stores, garment shops and other permanent shops) some 2 kilometers away.
If you want to eat pizza you probably have to go there and eat. Means of transport? A hand pulled rickshaw or an auto. There is no question of delivery guys, since not much people know about pizza there.
The main commodities of travel are rickshaws, vans, autos and buses. Another drawback of this village is that they lack public toilets. Some individual pucca and kaccha homes also lack in adequate sanitary facilities. Hence people goes to open fields early in the morning with buckets and jars to get their daily needs done is a common sight.
The people of these villages deserve a better life. They have right to adequate civic amenities like the municipal water, electricity and better transportation and connectivity. The condition of farmers in today’s world is pitiable. They should be uplifted from their social status since they are the pillars on which our economy stands.
With development the raw feel of a village would vanish but there are ways to upgrade such a place while still holding on the aura and raw feel of a typical Indian village. True its place to visit and experience.
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