14. Govindan's Decision

Of late, Govindan has been looking at the sky quite often.

In fact, it has become a habit for Govindan to keep looking at the sky, the way an anxious mother would be frequently looking at the end of the street hoping for her son to return home from work.

His wife Annam would taunt him occasionally saying, "If you keep looking at the sky like this, your head may become permanently tilted upward!" 

However, she also shared his concern about the elusive rain. After all, she has also been affected by the failure of the monsoon.

"Did they say anything in the TV news about the chances of our region getting any rain?" asked Govindan, knowing well what the answer was going to be.

"Yes. They said that it was raining cats and dogs in Mumbai. And the cyclone that was expected to bring rain to our region seems to have changed its direction and gone northwards!" said Annam, with dismay.

This is the third continuous year of monsoon failure. When the sky fails to deliver, there is no life for people like Govindan who were dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.

Annam asked him to have his lunch, but Govindan had no desire to eat.

All these years, Govindan had been eating the food prepared from the rice cultivated by him in his own land.

Govindan owned lands got by him as his ancestral property. He had been cultivating his lands, growing paddy in them. 

After several months of hard work, from sowing seeds to nurturing the plants by watering them, applying fertilizers, pesticides etc, he would harvest the paddy and store it in huge bins in his house. 

He would mill part of the paddy into rice for consumption and sell part of it and use the sale proceeds for his expenses. There would always remain some quantity of paddy in the bins till the time of next harvest.

But now, he has to buy rice from the shops in the nearby town, bring it home in the bus and use that rice to cook his food. How cruel that a farmer like him has to buy rice for his own consumption!

When he was taking his food mechanically with no interest in relishing the food, Annam told him:

"Why are you so adamant? The real estate people are offering to buy our lands. They are offering a good price too. Why don't you sell our lands to them? You can deposit the sale proceeds in the bank and we can live our life from the interest we will get. Our son has also been sending us some money."

"If the farmer decides to sell his land, deposit the sale proceeds in the bank and live out of the interest income, what will happen to this world?" asked Govindan.

"Are you the only farmer in this world? Even in our village, many farmers have sold their lands, deposited the sale proceeds in the bank and have been living comfortably and happily, using the interest income as the source of their livelihood."

Govindan continued eating, without saying anything. Even gulping down the food was painful to him.

When he was washing his hands after the meal, a thought occurred to him.

'Rather than feeling guilty about buying the rice from the market in spite of owning cultivable lands, if I sell my lands, then buying rice from the shops will become the only option. There will be no need to feel guilty about it!'

When Govindan came back to the living room after washing his hands, he called Annam and told her. "If the real estate people come again, I am going to give my consent for selling our lands."

Annam looked at her husband with a wonderstruck expression, unable to believe her ears.

Thirukkural
Section 1: The Path of Virtue

Chapter 2
The Glory of Rain

Verse 14 (in Tamil)
Erin uzhAr uzhavar puyal ennum
vAri vaLam kudnRikkAl

Meaning
If the rains that enable the farmers to earn their livelihood are not delivered in adequate quantities, the farmers may have to give up farming.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'kadaiyil vAngiya arisi' by the same author)

Verse 15 

Verse 13