A Peek in to Village Life.......Old is Gold !

ushhhh ushhhh....ah ah !!!!
sigh of relief came as soon as we spotted a small house besides the railway track.
It was raining and we were tired trekking on railway track for last couple hours....We decided to take shelter in that house and refuel ourselves with some food we carried.

It was a small house, smoke curling out from the kitchen window, twinkling lights of kerosene lamps from window, pots kept to harvest rain water was overflowing with water and flowing in to a small farm just next to house. The door was closed and we decided not to disturb the residents, so we rested ourselves under the tarpaulin make shift roof and started having our food.

As we were eating, the residents probably got smell of our food or noise and opened the door, we were not sure how would they react to us initially. It was a lady with a small boy inside. I told her that we are just taking shelter from rain temporarily, she responded back saying 'Its fine' and turned back. She returned back after a min with couple of chairs for us to sit. Few mins later, she brought us hot cups of black tea. We were kind of surprised as we are not used to this kind of hospitality in city life. I was moved by their love and affection. We tried to return the gratitude by offering some fruits to boy in house.

This is one thing I like about life in villages and people there. The memories of my visits to our native village close to Dharwar every year for summer vacation is still afresh. Socializing in a village is a different experience all together. The warmth of love and affection squeezes every possible emotion out of a traveler. The villagers are socially knit together in a co-operating and interdependent life.
They depend on each other for the supply of their daily wants. Share in the joys and sorrow and helping each other in times of need, neighbors often share food etc. The social sense of a village is so strong that the guest of one is considered as the guest of all. Neighbors are not less than family members with each villager familiar with the family history of other villagers. Large assembles in the evening for healthy discussions. Recently we moved out of small town in KGF called BEML nagar…place where I grew up… learnt to read and write, played lagori, chur chand, marbles…tops…tyre race…aeroplane, trump cards,matchbox cover collection, stamps collection, drawing, cricket,football,shuttle, hand tennis, raja rani etc etc. I learnt to speak all laguages tamil, telugu, urdu, hindi apart from kannada. I know every length and breadth of this place, the memories of my childhood, teenage, adolescence are all embedded in that place. I really miss that place.

Now I'm in new house, new place, big city with all new faces around…new lifestyle... everyone is evaluating others, no one comes out of their den, no chit chat, always looks others with suspicion, message is "mind your own business".
I'm just not happy :-(