City slick to Kovanandi
Yes putting everything to rest and also to a STOP, let's confess city men strutting in comfy/bermuda pants and easy drives have very little in common with a hard toiling farmer.
Indian farmer how much ever looks spik and span on Tollywood screen is down clean when he soils his loins and gets his ankles hard dried with clayey sand.
I had a most humbling of experiences in last 2 days 14th and 15th December 2013.
How can a foolhardy cautious city bred westernized modern thinking bookworm be put into a situation totally out of place sort of for this haughty City farmer....................when he himself gets down to work in his mental frame of mind and get snubbed to core; been cut to pieces by a simple farmers reproach...................................I, in my gum boots got royally stuck into a 2 feet deep clayey water logged field which was being prepared for next land seedling sowing...............I prepared my dress code for the day- gum boots & cap; weather hardened old jeans...........Once stuck its a no way a man can wriggle out of the spot due to sucking clayey soil.............the simple farmer standing next to me was bare minimal with a Trouser and a plain old shirt and head gear (simple Thundu tucked around the head)...........a towel wrapped around the forehead........................i was trying to free myself; fell on my back, splash into slushy pool of mud................without batting an eyelid simple farmer remarked, 'when did farmers begin to wear boots to field?' YES i admit i was embarrassed but at same time was quick to acknowledge my stupidity and immediately chucked away my boots and began to give a earful to simple farmer on farming practices........................unmindful of the hard cake formation behind my back over the pants.............this was my moment of reckoning when i had openly accepted my fault in my approach and simple farmer's wisdom.
Continuing into second day i was quick to pluck the seedlings with ease and by guidance of simple farmer..................followed it up with transplanting the small 4-5 inches seedlings into main water logged fields..............
Continuing on the simple farmer gave a wonderful lesson No. 2 think and observe. This i am seriously short off. If i had observed from a nearby field how to make Pathis for water to flow into the groundnut field, i would have saved a LOT of time and also badly sprained right hand bone.
This happens to be 26th December when i was visiting the field with my highly accommodating Nana. My Nana is a erudite man with few words, he knows my temperament hence waits for my false move to rescue me from potential embarrassment.
Today was a different story altogether, i was taken aback when the simple farmer began to narrate his cribs about he being not in scheme of things in my farm development. He began on a rustic tone which caught me off guard and also throwing my delicate farm mood to toss. I had to reprimand him for his out of turn TALK (i call this excess unwarranted talk) and asked him to stay out of the matter. All this transpired as i was preparing Pathis for my groundnut field. As i completed my activity; with smugness i advertised my work to simple farmer. He at once gave a AYOOOO sound and screamed demanding what on earth have you made of this earth. This gave goosebumps, what sane man would question my work of art. Actually the idea was to let water flow into the field of groundnut plants, i had made a gully which would run through and then branch out at the end like a rectangular moat. this seemed most INappropriate for the day. The simple farmer just pounced on my mistake and there he went about bewailing my GREAT mistake.
True i just did not apply my mind, rather used my strength to show that i can survive in a hard day's toil. But toil without proper planning is as good as a wasted milk. YES i admit my city credentials is making me look SILLY and STUPID.
But yes i made up for the fault by correcting the remaining bit of the land.
This little sharing of my experience is no way glorifying my acts but telling all those interested in getting down to TASK of FARMING...................be ready to CHEW in the reality..................DIGEST the obvious........................and GETOUT the results..........................
Happy organic Farming...........................Organic farming has everything stubborn/rigid/ craziness written all over...............one would forsake easily available glittering coloured salts for smelly cow dung and cow urine......................what in this madness which makes me stayed rooted for it.................i Don't know??????????????? Nammalvar Ayaa? or the desire to get sucked into the earth...........................
Happy is Organic Farming when one gets to visit the farm once in 4 days- with a sense of yearning and smells of my Selvi and Thangam lingering in my palms for days making my breath feel heavy........................confessing to my Nana, separating them from their mothers and putting them through dangerous Foot and Mouth Disease recuperation period is all the more crazy....................
Today 21st February 2014- nearly 85 days since the Seerga Samba seedlings shot out of their safe seed pods unto the open environs.................today they stand tall at nearly 3 feet with white seeds taking shape...........................I had harvested the Seeraga Samba just before start of Kathiri Veyil or Agni Natchatram season...............................had taken the harvested grains to my Guide, Senthil Kumar. to my shock he had said its Kitchili Samba which i had harvested, so my calculations of selling this rice at a premium price took a small beating and then began to rework the cost and also when to get it de-husked....................as per some advise this has to be kept in gunney sacks for next 75 days for it to begun seasoned or in our local terms Palaya Arisi..................if sold as a raw rice or Pachchai Arisi....................
Indian farmer how much ever looks spik and span on Tollywood screen is down clean when he soils his loins and gets his ankles hard dried with clayey sand.
I had a most humbling of experiences in last 2 days 14th and 15th December 2013.
How can a foolhardy cautious city bred westernized modern thinking bookworm be put into a situation totally out of place sort of for this haughty City farmer....................when he himself gets down to work in his mental frame of mind and get snubbed to core; been cut to pieces by a simple farmers reproach...................................I, in my gum boots got royally stuck into a 2 feet deep clayey water logged field which was being prepared for next land seedling sowing...............I prepared my dress code for the day- gum boots & cap; weather hardened old jeans...........Once stuck its a no way a man can wriggle out of the spot due to sucking clayey soil.............the simple farmer standing next to me was bare minimal with a Trouser and a plain old shirt and head gear (simple Thundu tucked around the head)...........a towel wrapped around the forehead........................i was trying to free myself; fell on my back, splash into slushy pool of mud................without batting an eyelid simple farmer remarked, 'when did farmers begin to wear boots to field?' YES i admit i was embarrassed but at same time was quick to acknowledge my stupidity and immediately chucked away my boots and began to give a earful to simple farmer on farming practices........................unmindful of the hard cake formation behind my back over the pants.............this was my moment of reckoning when i had openly accepted my fault in my approach and simple farmer's wisdom.
Continuing into second day i was quick to pluck the seedlings with ease and by guidance of simple farmer..................followed it up with transplanting the small 4-5 inches seedlings into main water logged fields..............
Continuing on the simple farmer gave a wonderful lesson No. 2 think and observe. This i am seriously short off. If i had observed from a nearby field how to make Pathis for water to flow into the groundnut field, i would have saved a LOT of time and also badly sprained right hand bone.
This happens to be 26th December when i was visiting the field with my highly accommodating Nana. My Nana is a erudite man with few words, he knows my temperament hence waits for my false move to rescue me from potential embarrassment.
Today was a different story altogether, i was taken aback when the simple farmer began to narrate his cribs about he being not in scheme of things in my farm development. He began on a rustic tone which caught me off guard and also throwing my delicate farm mood to toss. I had to reprimand him for his out of turn TALK (i call this excess unwarranted talk) and asked him to stay out of the matter. All this transpired as i was preparing Pathis for my groundnut field. As i completed my activity; with smugness i advertised my work to simple farmer. He at once gave a AYOOOO sound and screamed demanding what on earth have you made of this earth. This gave goosebumps, what sane man would question my work of art. Actually the idea was to let water flow into the field of groundnut plants, i had made a gully which would run through and then branch out at the end like a rectangular moat. this seemed most INappropriate for the day. The simple farmer just pounced on my mistake and there he went about bewailing my GREAT mistake.
True i just did not apply my mind, rather used my strength to show that i can survive in a hard day's toil. But toil without proper planning is as good as a wasted milk. YES i admit my city credentials is making me look SILLY and STUPID.
But yes i made up for the fault by correcting the remaining bit of the land.
This little sharing of my experience is no way glorifying my acts but telling all those interested in getting down to TASK of FARMING...................be ready to CHEW in the reality..................DIGEST the obvious........................and GETOUT the results..........................
Happy organic Farming...........................Organic farming has everything stubborn/rigid/ craziness written all over...............one would forsake easily available glittering coloured salts for smelly cow dung and cow urine......................what in this madness which makes me stayed rooted for it.................i Don't know??????????????? Nammalvar Ayaa? or the desire to get sucked into the earth...........................
Happy is Organic Farming when one gets to visit the farm once in 4 days- with a sense of yearning and smells of my Selvi and Thangam lingering in my palms for days making my breath feel heavy........................confessing to my Nana, separating them from their mothers and putting them through dangerous Foot and Mouth Disease recuperation period is all the more crazy....................
Today 21st February 2014- nearly 85 days since the Seerga Samba seedlings shot out of their safe seed pods unto the open environs.................today they stand tall at nearly 3 feet with white seeds taking shape...........................I had harvested the Seeraga Samba just before start of Kathiri Veyil or Agni Natchatram season...............................had taken the harvested grains to my Guide, Senthil Kumar. to my shock he had said its Kitchili Samba which i had harvested, so my calculations of selling this rice at a premium price took a small beating and then began to rework the cost and also when to get it de-husked....................as per some advise this has to be kept in gunney sacks for next 75 days for it to begun seasoned or in our local terms Palaya Arisi..................if sold as a raw rice or Pachchai Arisi....................
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