When Ordinary Became Rare

 Today I'm going to write about something I observed and realised when I went to my hometown, which is in Tuticorin. This time we got to go to two to three villages where we had a family function.

I kept documenting the place, and suddenly I saw a few windmills. I thought to capture that as well. Those windmills were standing in between and at the end of the agricultural fields. So automatically the fields too came into the frame. While recording it, my mother said,

 "Ellam kanji poi iruku, ethum green ah ila video la." 

(Everything looks dried up… there’s nothing green in the video).

 At that moment I was hit by the reality. Though I could glorify village life in a 1-minute video, at the end this is the reality. It is no longer the greenery-filled vision we often see in films. We come to villages with certain expectations, to take pictures, and post them on social media. But the reality in most places looks very different. Maybe with AI one could add greenery to the background 🥲, but in reality things are not the same.This is what agriculture has been pushed into — a very dull and harsh reality.

Those fields are no more green, 

lacking freshness and life.

Farmers no longer have money to invest.

No more have hope in the climate.

No more have the energy.

But still, they cultivate.

Because they can't let go of it.

Because they love it.

Because that's the only occupation they know.

Because they need to survive.

In one place, I saw a field with beautiful, fresh sunflowers. That was very pleasing to my eyes. With all the dryness being the majority, this vision provided warmth and hope. I expected to witness the same vision more often, though I realised it is rare now — something which was once ordinary. 🥺

When I went to my father's village, the place where once I had gone to the fields, picked ladies’ finger, corn, and tomatoes and eaten them there. It's all filled with dry sand and thorns, with no more life in it.

I wish that soon the village and the lives of farmers will be cherished again and blessed by nature.

Let us be kind to nature, the world itself.

Let us be mindful whenever we eat or drink. Just remember how much hard work and pain that food comes with, and the process behind it.

Though it might sound like some social science lesson, I think this spoon-feeding is important for us which I realised it after witnessing this painful sight.