INORGANIC

INORGANIC

Vinod felt fresh. It was pretty early in the morning, very unusual wake up time for him.  As he shrugged deeply in to the old rug, the wire cot under him creaked loudly. It dint seem to bother him much though as he continued to stare in to the twilight sky. As random blue streaks started penetrating the darkness from east, few stars still shined bright and carelessly never minding the morning sun who’d soon dominate them.

The cool breeze from North carried sounds of rhythmic temples bells and mystique morning prayers from Shiva temple located in North-East of the village. Suddenly few bells, entirely out of sync with temple bells, came from somewhere much close. The bells got more and more random and curiously louder, and Vinod had to turn around in the creaking old cot. To his amaze there was a little calf jumping around merrily with a little bell tied around his neck.

“Did Sita wake you up?” a mild and warm voice said, “sorry for that, but this girl is very naughty”.  Vinod could see a shadow coming out of darkness holding loose end of rope to which Sita was tied. It was Siddappa.

“Aha, so this young one got a name too” Vinod pulled himself out off blanket and sat on the cot, “and she did not wake me up, I was awake for some time now.”

Siddappa looked at the calf lovingly and started caressing under its neck, “our Shiva temple pandit in his weekly preaching once mentioned that Sita ji was very beautiful and naughty in her childhood, this calf is very active, so Ratnamma named her Sita”

The calf was barely 15 -20 days old, white all over except for a small black patch on its fore head. She started jumping around looking at her mother. Siddappa took Sita to a small shed where its mother was tied and let her lose near her mother. Vinod asked curiously, “Does Sita’s mother also have a name?” and remembering that Sita Ji was born to Mother Earth, he asked laughing as he said it, “Is it Dharati?”

Siddappa laughed out too, “No sir, her name is Ahalya. Now don’t ask me why she was named that. It was random I guess”, after a little pause, he added laughing even louder, “Perhaps Ratnamma might be have an out of world insight on why she named this one Ahalya.” Vinod watched the young calf suckling milk in amazement.

“What was all that giggle about?” Suresh pulled out of his blanket – his voice little irritated. “Oh you are awake? I thought you are in deep ‘pig’ sleep due to tiredness of 400 km drive yesterday” Vinod said, and continued “but glad, it’s a sin to sleep off such a lovely serene morning”.

“Sleep?? I measured every inch the moon travelled across the sky amidst almost 4, 83, 000 stars last night, 3 flights flew in stratosphere 5 degrees north to this village, there was at least one UFO, and there was no pole star !! When all this was happening in outer atmosphere you are lost in stuff happening within this silly little compound” said Suresh in all irritation and paused to take a deep breath.

Siddapa looked at Suresh confused. He could not understand a single word. So could not Sita - even the little calf stopped suckling and looked at Suresh in amazement wondering ‘what kind of an animal might this be’.  Vinod knowing his friend very well, smiled a bit “so, why could you not sleep properly? Last night you said you were too tried from the drive and would sleep like a pig.”

Suresh’s irritation turned in to pity. He looked at Vinod, let out a deep sigh and nodded his head, “What kind of person are you? Anybody on Earth would have sensed the god-forsaken stink and elephant sized mosquitoes flying around!!”

The stench was really bad. Vinod looked around and wondered why he could not smell it till then. The mosquitoes were too many too. He just looked back to Suresh blankly.

Siddappa came around from cattle shed and said, “The stink is from the pit we dug nearby and in this pit we dump all the waste that comes from this compound in to it.”

“You are collecting all the waste of the house instead of throwing it out somewhere else?” Suresh said in disbelief and continued, “Why in the hell would you do that?”

Siddappa said proudly with smile, “I am trying to make organic manure.”

Suresh was suddenly lost for words. He definitely did not expect this kind of technical answer. His disturbed sleep was still irritating him.

Looking at his face, Siddappa mocked him further, “do you know Suresh babu? We even put the urine collected from cattle in this pit” and immediately burst in to laughter.

Suresh’s irritation was tickled and yet from aggravating further, it was slowly turning in to liking for effort by a simple village fellow. He just did not know it yet. He said in mild voice, “Why could you not cover the pit at least? That might reduce mosquitoes making merry in your house”

Vinod agreed to Suresh’s point, “Yes Siddappa, perhaps you can cover it”

Siddapa scratched his head and apologized, “yeah perhaps I can close it, I live here every day in this smell so did not realize it. Sorry if it was uncomfortable to you both”

Both Vinod and Suresh felt guilty for being insensitive. It was an honest effort by a simple village person towards the ecosystem and environment. He may not be able to understand complex language but the intent and effort to preserve nature was apparent in him.

Suresh tried to lighten the mood, “no worries Siddappa, we can get used to it.  I mean, I and Vinod are used to much worser shit in office, this is nothing.”

Vinod continued to what Suresh said, “Yeah and at least this shit has a point.” Suresh and Vinod laughed it out. Siddappa could not understand the context and yet he joined them for courtesy.

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The village was very small with not more than 200 houses, most of them made of mud bricks. The houses lined against each other haphazardly and most houses had compound made of short shrubs decorated with random colored flowers. Occasional house had a mud compound and rarely was a concrete seen. The roads were muddy and extremely uneven due to every day trampling by herds of buffaloes, cows, and goats. There was dung everywhere. Vinod and Suresh were hopping more than walking. Siddappa was talking and walking unmindful of what’s on the road and where he is stepping. Vinod skid over a piece of mud and barely managed to control himself from falling. After few steps, he asked “Siddappa what is the deal with pit. How long have you been doing it?” Siddappa turned back. He looked happy about the question.

“Well, not for very long I must say, it’s just been 3-4 cycles” Siddappa continued, “and before that we had been buying chemical fertilizers”

“So you stopped buying chemical fertilizers all together now” Suresh asked.

“No, not all of it, but definitely reduced buying; my son, says that if we continue to do it and increase production perhaps in 2 years we can reduce at least 50% usage of chemical fertilizers”

“Your son?” Suresh asked again.

“Oh yes. I forgot to mention him. All this is his idea. He somehow managed to convince everyone in this village to make a pit” told Siddappa, with little pride in his voice, and showing his hand toward the pit in nearby compound.

“Interesting” Vinod said aloud. He was impressed with what he is seeing. He noticed that every house they crossed had a pit. ‘In a village primarily dependent up on farming and cattle, so much organic waste comes out and this is not a bad idea at all’ he thought.

Suresh came in again, “I know its little too early, but what about the people who are selling chemical fertilizers in this area. What do they have to say? Surely they are looking at loss of sales in near future”

Siddappa let out a big grunt and said, “yeah, in fact the son-in-law of our village sarpanch owns the distribution shop supplying to entire region of around 30 nearby villages. He is upset with my son and in turn me”

“And?” Suresh pushed the topic further.

“And? Nothing. Villagers are happy not to buy chemicals, they get good output from their waste, low cost. Let’s see what happens” Siddappa concluded.

“Actually, there might not be any immediate trouble. The pits seem small and the fields are very vast around the village – the amount of manure generated might not cover even 10% of fields. And compared to the profit margins in this business – money loss might be very small to your sarpanch” Vinod opined.

“Actually no. Initially even he thought this might end as a small house hold project. But it spread like wild fire. But they my son was able to convince people so well that everyone now is doing it. Actually my pit is a smaller one. There are many in this village who have pits up to 10 to 20 times larger than mine. From this year, we are actually over producing. Now we cannot replace chemicals entirely at this stage, but surely we can reduce its consumption by 40%. People in other villages are also picking this up – imagine the loss that sarpanch is looking at in upcoming 1-2 years” Siddappa concluded.

Vinod and Suresh contemplated on the situation for a moment in their own pace, and finally Suresh said “Well all the organs of sarpanch are going to become inorganic soon”. All three of them laughed and kept walking along the muddy path.

A buffalo herd walked past behind them trampling human foot prints in the mud.

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The village center had a big neem tree around which a solid platform was built with a capacity seat almost 20 people on it. Behind neem tree was the village center a small yellow coloured single storey building with various posters of polio program,  health check ups, animal vaccination, child education, save the girl child etc., stuck all over its walls and doors. Immediately next to it on the right hand side was the primary health care center, locked, as the young government doctor posted here went on leave, indefinitely. Some say he has his own practice in the district town and comes here only when there are official inspections.  Towards the left of the village center was a library. Few young boys were sitting at the entrance of it reading stuff from yesterday’s news papers. Satellite TVs reached village faster than new papers.

As the Vinod reached closer to village center he noticed a seemingly aged buffalo chewing hay leisurely right next to the platform. It looked as though this animal had been chewing in the same place from a very long time, and the saliva dripping from the mouth wet a decent amount of ground near him. Vinod felt a bit surprised that it is unattended and its presence there rather odd, give the place and time.

On the platform were few local villagers talking various topics. As soon as Vinod and company came near the platform the villagers, except the one middle, all welcomed them with a warm smile. “Hello Siddappa, what brings you here?” said an elderly man in a friendly way. Siddapa smiled back at him, known him from past 50 years, “These lads” gesturing at Vinod and Suresh, “wanted to see our village. Am giving them a tour”

As mutual greetings were taking place, the person in the middle of the platform was watching Vinod and Suresh closely. Vinod too make a note of this rather cold person in a warm group of people. This was person occupied place of almost two people on platform, not that he was heavy, but the way he arranged himself ensured him double space. His eyes were sharp and head bald. He was chewing pan carelessly and his jaw moments were very rhythmic and involuntary having gained experience over past couple of decades. The corners of the mouth dripped with overfill of the pan but this person made no effort to clean it having got used to that as well.

Suddenly, breaking the greetings, the person in middle said in loud voice, “You are bringing in too many young people in to our village Siddappa, are these your son’s friends?”

Vinod and Suresh in no time could guess that he the sarpanch and wished him. Siddappa replied calmly, “They are not. But I want them to be friends with my son for sure”

Siddappa’s calmness irritated the sarpanch. He moved uneasily in his place and said in one long breath, “These city people are critical. They think they know the World and consider us villagers as useless people. They think what we do or been doing since very long is all useless just because they read something in some book. They lack experience and also the insight that comes from it. Hope these two are not lecturing anyone here about the ‘change’ that the village needs to get.” Sarpanch took a deep breath, little satisfied with self, having laid out all his cards properly. ‘Even if Siddapa’s young friends propose something he can deny that out-rightly on one point that they lack the insight coming of years of experience’ he thought and smiled within himself.

The buffalo chewing its hay leisurely, from the corner of the eye saw the flies accumulating in its territory, lashed its tail across once to shoo away all them. Seeing the flies flee he happily shifted his position and went back to chewing with his eyes half closed.

Siddappa laughed at Sarpanch’s hurry, “Actually this time am giving ‘change’ to these city folks. Am hosting them for a weekend as they desperately needed a break from their routine”

The friendly elder asked curiously, “What? Cities have all the entertainment, what is that they could not find there that they came to this remote village to find?”

Suresh pitched in with ease, “Peace Anna!! Peace” He put his hand around Anna’s shoulders and said laughing out loud, “But we got much more that what we bargained for. This effort your village it putting up for organic manure, it really refreshing. Right Vinod?”

Vinod got hint of Suresh’s intention, he joined his friend’s laughter, “Yeah. There is a lot we city dwellers need to learn from these villages. We run after money, here you don’t. At least not majority of you”

Buffalo stopped chewing the hay, apparently unhappy with the disturbance the humans near the platform are causing. ‘Why don’t they speak all this nonsense in their homes?’ he thought and closed his eyes tried hard to get his focus back on the chewing.

Before Suresh can add on to the discussion, Siddapa crisply came in and changed the topic, “Anna, remember the last time I went to city to meet my son and got lost and robbed? These two gentlemen helped me. They took me to their house, helped an aged man like me take rest, and finally helped me find him. I don’t see any difference in them and my son anymore.”

“Ah”, the elder eyes lit with happiness, “you mentioned. These are those good people.” He turned towards Vinod and Suresh and sounded pleading, “you both must come to my house for lunch now. After all you have helped the person who had been my best friend for over 50 years now. Please don’t say no”

Vinod and Suresh looked at each other for a moment and said yes immediately. The elder man happily said, “Am rushing home to get the arrangements done. See you both in an hour” and left.

“Well, let’s start moving. Now that Anna set us a timeline we should be finish temple visit and go to his house in an hour” said Siddapa and then turning towards the sarpanch said again, “am glad these kids met you too Gangappa, see you later.”

Gangappa did not expect this type of twist in conversation, though all what he said a moment ago in deep breath did not hold relevant anymore, he was rather happy that he let it out at least. “Yeah, am glad too and thanks for helping my friend” Gangappa said not seeing them in the eye and continued, “Even I need to go” and just started walking in other direction.

Suresh and Vinod followed Siddappa and just as they were about to cross the village center, Vinod looked back at the buffalo. Its owner came out of nowhere and hit it hard with a stick shouting ‘here you are you lazy fellow, I’ve been searching the entire village.” The buffalo got up in jerk, not minding the hit as it hardly mattered due to the thick skin and started running in the way the Sarpanch left.

 ‘How many hits like this would actually make a buffalo realize’ Vinod smiled at his own thought.

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As the sun was hitting horizon, a white car came out of the muddy road and took right on to the national highway.

 “In all the wonderful two days at Siddapa’s place, Vinod, I forgot to ask him what his son studied? I liked the sincerity with which this remote village is making its effort to get more and more organic. Siddappa’s son must be really knowledgeable in this organic farming or else how can he motivate so many people who have years and years of experience.”

Vinod looked at Suresh mockingly and said, “I asked Siddappa and you’d be surprised at his son’s education. His son spent most of his childhood in this village and is very motivated to do something back to it. It’s got nothing to do his education, except a strong motivation to do something right.”

Suresh did not understand, “what you mean just motivation?”

As car started to cruise on the highway, the Vinod took a deep pause said, “Siddappa’s son is post graduate in mathematics from IIT”

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