Ebb and Flow

The place where we had the picnic earlier last week is now under water. There is no land visible, only water. Along with the ploughed furrows. Now rippling waters. What value is the 3 laks per acre land when it is underwater. Land has value only so long it it visible. Such is the nautre of the ebb and flow. Transience. "Its a gamble" says Pratap, who owns this fleeting land, with a smile. he has seen this too long and too often. Maybe that is why there is the basic life he leads along with his family in Jagatpur. Buffoloes for milk, land for fodder, and his own field's grain for food. Complete and independant, almost. Some would say nostalgic and anti-technology. However, this is where the debate starts. What is needed for human life, what we desire and finally what we live off. And then there is that strange phenomenon called 'death!' The beginning of all mystery, of religion, of the search for the elixir of life. Man, nature, live, death, the presence and absence of expereince.

Ofcourse it gets complicated. There should be no doubt. Jagatpur itself is divided into communities of Muslims, Valmiks, Gujjars, all even in this small space have neatly divided boundaries, probably with differing land holdings and number of buffaloes they own. The local economy is propably deeply divided along community lines and power structures. Any afternoon the women can be seen fetching and cutting fodder, cooking, transporting grain on their heads, while men play cards. They have already had a long day in the fields they would argue. Difficult to say wherein lies the truth. How does one then value the Rs 3 lakhs per acre value for land?

Look at the labour in the flower instead. Maybe see their sustainablity of the economy of flowers at 10 rupees a kilo. Scale seems to change many things.