On Sunday cloudy morning, I started at around 7:45 am. I headed towards
Keshavnagar via Mundhva Rd. After passing by Keshavnagar, we can enjoy the
farms on both the sides of road.
Many farms had the crop of wheat. I saw one fruit vendor kaka aged around 60
who was heading towards Manjari from Kesavnagar. He stopped his ‘four wheeler’
(Rekdi) and started drinking water from farm:
A thought came to my mind:
a comparison between my way to office and Kaka’s daily route to “earn money”. How
much more comforts we are having without any realisation!
I went ahead. One can see
“Sugar Institute” on left side.
After crossing Manjari village, we arrive at the
bridge of Mula-mutha river.
We can feel the beauty of
the reflection.
Suddenly, Van full of chickens
stopped and the driver threw 6 to 7 dead chickens into the Mula-Mutha.
I rushed to see dead
bodies and captured this dreadful scene:
I turned back to Manjari village from the bridge. One can
see “Amar dham” on the way and village girls washing clothes on the river bank
of Mula-mutha.
Then, I had my breakfast: tea and Mixed
Bhajjis at Manjari Chowk.
Cost:
-
Tea 5 Rs.
-
Bhajji plate 10 Rs.
I could not eat spicy bhajjis.
(“Marchana Bhajiya”)
Then I took a walk to
village school ground and ultimately went to school toilet (make water only..).
Dusty village boys were playing around. (Very moment I decided to have my dream
home in such village.)
After helping my stomach,
I headed to Bhapkar mala village.
With wheat and sugarcane
fields on the both sides and single lane (or Half lane!), Manjari village road
was the most enjoyable stretch of my solo road trip.
I stopped at one farm and saw 3
pairs of bullocks working hard. But, suddenly one bullock fell down and could
not get up. I went nearby and asked farmers about this:
He told that bullock was feverish
though they can not let it rest due to money loss. It was very painful to see that
two farmers were hitting hard with cord to pull the feverish bullock for work but
it was denying. (One of them also bit bullock’s tail with teeth to make it feel
pain and stand up). Finally, bullock won and they stopped hitting.
My mind had thoughts of
realization that bullocks and farmers are struggling with pain to get the food
for us.
·
Do we realise the pains of bullock-farmer inside
our food?
·
Should we waste a single bite of food that has
come to our dish with great struggles?
·
Why we give so much importance to taste rather?
Then I went to riverbank
of Mula-mutha:
After crossing the
bhapkar mala village, one can see the railway track along side the cart road.
Like a child, I tried
that coin game with goods train to make the coin long.
I decided to return back
as it was 12:45 pm. I relished road side “Nira” (palm tree juice) on my way
back to home.
WRITTEN BY:
Ravi Samani.
