Things Change...
Yes, they change...
And they are good too.
I was pondering on these words while reminiscing about my recent visit to India. No surprise that Hyderabad went through a metamorphosis in the last decade or so, but my native village and its people have changed in their living style and in their culture to some extent.
My Grand Parents used to have the cattle of about 70. There used to be at least 3 persons dedicated to take care of it. Today we have One Bull, One Cow and One Calf. Most of the families in villages are just getting rid of their cattle since it is difficult to manage. Farmers are shifting or rather shifted their crop from Agriculture to Horticulture. Where there used to acres of Green Paddy, now it just turned to be acres of Mango trees.
Human Resources are the major reason for this transformation. It is difficult to find a helping hand to take care of cattle or to manage various stages of Paddy. I think the very starting of this scarcity of human resources was when Money is replaced for Barter transactions. My grand mother used to give paddy in exchange for the services of those helping hands. Now all the transactions are in Rupees. The second would be the abuse of minimum wage policy without work policy by politicians.
My grand father never let the cattle to be sold to the butcher. Every cattle was take care even when it was not in a position to walk or sick. There was a helping hand just to take care of weak cattle - to make it stand for a while in day, so that it won’t be infected. The time has changed. Farmers are adopting commercial dairy. That humanity is lost. Cattle are no longer perceived from its divine nature.
Villages are adopting Plastic and other bio hazardous material without proper recycling system. When west is moving towards Organic, we are moving towards synthetic hormones. There is “Organic” buzz in metros but it certainly not travelled into the villages.
We have come to US in search of change, for a good change. We wanted a better life style. It might not be fair for me to expect the system and environment in my native village to stay still like it was when I was growing up. There is no harm in getting satellite dish, cell phones or adopting salwar instead of sarees and lehengas in villages , but my heart feels sorry when serenity and purity of once village environment is lost.
The change that we need to adopt should be like the cell phone revolution, where we have taken advantage of the research and technology of west and put it good use. India needs to be part re-cycling and organic revolution now rather than undoing these at later day. We should take advantage of cattle but there is a need to perceive it as divine – that would be a Good Change.
P.S. – Things Change is the song from one of the Sesame Street episodes.
Yes, they change...
And they are good too.
I was pondering on these words while reminiscing about my recent visit to India. No surprise that Hyderabad went through a metamorphosis in the last decade or so, but my native village and its people have changed in their living style and in their culture to some extent.
My Grand Parents used to have the cattle of about 70. There used to be at least 3 persons dedicated to take care of it. Today we have One Bull, One Cow and One Calf. Most of the families in villages are just getting rid of their cattle since it is difficult to manage. Farmers are shifting or rather shifted their crop from Agriculture to Horticulture. Where there used to acres of Green Paddy, now it just turned to be acres of Mango trees.
Human Resources are the major reason for this transformation. It is difficult to find a helping hand to take care of cattle or to manage various stages of Paddy. I think the very starting of this scarcity of human resources was when Money is replaced for Barter transactions. My grand mother used to give paddy in exchange for the services of those helping hands. Now all the transactions are in Rupees. The second would be the abuse of minimum wage policy without work policy by politicians.
My grand father never let the cattle to be sold to the butcher. Every cattle was take care even when it was not in a position to walk or sick. There was a helping hand just to take care of weak cattle - to make it stand for a while in day, so that it won’t be infected. The time has changed. Farmers are adopting commercial dairy. That humanity is lost. Cattle are no longer perceived from its divine nature.
Villages are adopting Plastic and other bio hazardous material without proper recycling system. When west is moving towards Organic, we are moving towards synthetic hormones. There is “Organic” buzz in metros but it certainly not travelled into the villages.
We have come to US in search of change, for a good change. We wanted a better life style. It might not be fair for me to expect the system and environment in my native village to stay still like it was when I was growing up. There is no harm in getting satellite dish, cell phones or adopting salwar instead of sarees and lehengas in villages , but my heart feels sorry when serenity and purity of once village environment is lost.
The change that we need to adopt should be like the cell phone revolution, where we have taken advantage of the research and technology of west and put it good use. India needs to be part re-cycling and organic revolution now rather than undoing these at later day. We should take advantage of cattle but there is a need to perceive it as divine – that would be a Good Change.
P.S. – Things Change is the song from one of the Sesame Street episodes.
