Spent last ten days in my village farm and in my home town separated by 50 kilometers. It was a very different new year for a city boy. After a long time, there were no parties to welcome new year. It was a quiet night spent in quilts sleeping. I realized only in the morning that dawn of new decade is upon me.
Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed a life away from hustle and bustle. Apart from exploring various aspects of village life, I did what I am good at - looking for running tracks and exploring standard of customer service.
There are few things which left me in awe most of the time while staying with my extended family in village.
Relationship building - People working in farms do not know me but they were always ready to help me with anything. Ready to give things smilingly. Ready to go to any lengths to make me feel at home. I was demanding at times but nothing was big enough to make them frown. Everyone knew everyone. Everyone knew my grandfather and people preferred to address me as his grandson and not by my name. I think all MBA students should spend one semester in village so that they can learn some basics in relationship building which holds a prominent place in any business.
Resilience - Apart from doing physical hard-work, they are extremely resilient. Once my professor told me that an Indian farmer is probably the biggest risk taker in the world. He invests everything he has in his farming when he knows that the end result depends on a lot of other factors like monsoon, some crop disease etc which are beyond his control. But his spirits are never down. He is resilient enough to rise above all obstacles and still able to keep a smiling face.
Simplicity - Everything they use, everything they do, every transaction they make has only one thing common - simplicity. If it is simple to use and fits into their need, it will be adopted without any effort. From ploughing fields to kitchen, from kids to oldies, simplicity is one common thread which binds them.
These points I just thought of and this is definitely not the comprehensive list. I am glad that I
started my decade in this kind of ecosystem. As this new decade has come, I hope to inculcate few things in my life style as well.
BTW I did not miss any new year booze parties at all. Happy New Decade.
PS - Above picture has a banyana tree under which my Grandmother and father played when they were kids.
by Ramesh , on January 6, 2010 4:16 AM
Nice post Adesh and Happy new decade to you too.
The famer in Punjab represents the best face of India. For all the qualities you have described, and more. Its not so everywhere in the country, the Punjab is truly a special special place and its farmer, truly an outstanding person.