Village Life

Today we continued our village experiences with a visit to Eshwari's house for lunch. Our regular taxi driver Maya turns out to be a friend of hers (small world!) and we snap pictures of the area outside Pondicherry as we drive to her village.


Eshwari commutes almost an hour each day by bus to and from her village. Lori remembers it from her last trip, and Eshwari's cooking is just as good as ever! After lunch, we hang out with her, her son, daughter-in-law and some friends. We chat and wait for the daily scheduled power outage to end (12 to 3pm) so the ceiling fan can start spinning. It's absolutely sweltering! We all cheer as it kicks on, right on schedule. But soon it's time to brave the heat and go visit Eshwari's family land. Down the road a bit we meet her mother and father at their tiny farmhouse; dad cuts open some home-grown coconuts for a quick drink.
 
Then we set out across the brilliant green rice fields, stepping carefully on the narrow raised path between the paddies. Peanuts are growing here too. Have you ever had a raw peanut straight out of the ground? Bet you can't eat just one!
 
A group of men nearby are cutting sugar cane; Eshwaris' dad offers to have them cut some cane for a sweet afternoon snack! So we hang out under the coconut trees, gnaw on raw cane and peanuts, and enjoy the breeze and scenery.

Lori starts a discussion about farming. Turns out the rice paddy next to us can be harvested in about an hour by machine instead of a few days by hand. And it can be re-planted three times a year. But who will keep the centuries-old family farm running in the future? Eshwari's brothers won't. Her son drives a bus and is not interested. But she's determined that they won't sell it off; she knows once you sell your land, you'll never get it back. We appreciate the scenic vistas that result from endless hard work, but all across India families are facing the same questions as more and more farmers' kids seek careers, urban lives, and something other than village life.