Life in an Indian Village
Villages all over India are the same. They are full of grey mud built houses. There are fine buildings in some villages. But there is no attempt at drainage. The village pond is a busy place, where children swim. There are one or two shops where the shopkeeper sits and sells different things.
People live a simple and hard life. The villagers wear thick and strong clothes, and the women too wear cheap clothes. The villager works hard from morning till night. After his early morning breakfast, he goes to the fields with his bullocks. The women of the house do the cooking and then join their men in their work.
The Villager is always with his ‘hukka’. It is seldom out of his hand. In the cool hours of the evening people assemble at the ‘chopal’. Here they talk about money-lender, a petty village scandle of exchange ideas about the market conditions. But people take much interest when they talk of marriage function or a quarrel among villagers.
A marriage is a solemn and very costly affair. The parties do not mind spending lavishly over it. The ‘Sahukar’ likes the marriage, as it leads to an increase of his customers. A village quarrel is a very strange affair. People like to fight and there is no deal the of people who make people fight. People quarrel over their lands, At times there is a murder. This leads to litigation. Some of the villagers are not really very peaceful. There are robberies attended with violence. But the children have an interesting time. They are always care free. And there is always plenty of dust and plenty of time. They can lie in the mud or tramp about on the fields. Some of them, however attend the village school. The school-master imparts all the learning that he has. He is respected by the villagers.
Life in villages is not very fine. People lead a simple life because they are poor. They are superstitious and ignorant. Thus, there is much room for improvements. It is pleasing to note that the village Panchayats the Co-operative Banks, the Post Office and the school are now doing a good service in the villages. The Blocks have brought a new thinking to the conservative farmers. They have taken to the Green Revolution and producing a lot and so taking to better things in life. It is hoped that the conditions of our villages will improve soon.
