Farm village of India: the struggle with tradition.

[Music] n [Music] my name is Lakshmi at least that's what I was called until my son was born then I became known as mother of ram this is how I will be known for the rest of my life I was proud to have a son I will live out my whole life here on the Ganges plane in North India most of my life will be spent in and around this house here in my husband's Village once in a while I will return to my parents' Village for a visit but I'm satisfied here I have a good husband his name is gopal he is a hard worker we share a little land with my husband's brother gopal and I have enough for ourselves and our three children Ram is our eldest child he is in third grade in School the Baba thinks his hair is a bit unruly so do I he studies hard in school I hope he will go far in life Shanti is the middle child she's old enough for first grade but she doesn't go to school someone has to take care of the baby and besides there isn't much reason for a girl to learn how to read she will be married someday the baby is just over a year old we haven't named him yet he won't get a name for another year or so so many of our babies die so young I have already lost two babies one Di di when he was born the other died when he was two Shanti and the baby keep each other company most of the day they play at home and they wander about the village observing the daily activities many things happen at the pond the washermen stand in the water and swing the wet clothes up over their heads and bang them down on the rocks on the other side of the pond the villagers wash their water buffalos sometimes a water buffalo gets loose in the pond then someone has to get him out this takes a lot of time the washerman chant as they work so the washing area is often a noisy place the Potter seems to be able to produce an endless array of Cups dishes and whatnot from the lump of Clay on his Butter's wheel he will make this clay into one of the large pots I use for carrying water on my [Music] head the Potter lives near us and sometimes he gives Shanti a bit of his clay so that she can make toys she likes to pretend she has a stove just like mother like most Indian women I use cow dong in my stove it's a smoky stove but the smoke keeps away the mosquitoes at night and over the years it helps to discourage termites from eating away the rafters in our roofs cooking is a long process even though our meals are simple I have to grind grain for our Indian bread mix the flour and I cook the vegetables when we have them I wash the rice before I put it on the fire to boil all this takes a lot of time we usually raise enough to eat but we have little left over to sell while I'm preparing supper Shanti watches the baby RAM does his school work he's a good student my husband gopal often takes a bath while I'm working on his supper he takes at least one bath every day even in the chilly air of winter I feed gopal and RAM before I feed Shanti and myself [Music] after Shanti and I eat and while I'm cleaning up the dishes gopal amuses the baby [Music] Ram likes to play teacher with Shanti his teacher says he would make a good teacher someday if we can afford to send him on to Junior High School I want him to have a good education then he will have a better life one night after supper I decided to ask gopal about [Music] this I told gopal I'm concerned about the future of ram I want him to get a good education gopal said we are sending him to the primary school he's getting a good education there he will learn how to read but I argued that I wanted dram to go to Junior High School where he can learn more gopal said said that Junior High School is very expensive he didn't see how we could afford it in Junior High School the students have to buy expensive books and the tution no he said we could never afford it only wealthy people like the big landholders can afford junior high school for their sons I pleaded with him couldn't we get more money somehow that made him angry mother of ram he said already I'm working as hard as I can I till the fields with my brother and when there is no farm work to do I join the men who make cigarettes he was very Stern with me he said you know that if I work hard all day long making cigarettes I can earn enough money to buy clothes spices and the tution for sending Ram to primary school but Junior High School I'm afraid is simply out of the question well I was persistent I told him I had heard that there are ways to grow more food on the land that we already have I reminded him that the price of wheat is high so is the price of rice if we could only raise enough to sell some in addition to what we eat gopal remembered a meeting he had been to and said perhaps we could at the meeting he had heard the government Farm advisor talking about growing more food the farm advisor had said that you need to use commercial fertilizer and new seed but there were so many things gopal didn't understand about the new way of farming making a switch like this would mean departing from the ways that have served our ancestors so well for so many generations there are so many things to do in our traditional way of living I have to gather up the cow dang and make it into patties for cooking I have to melt the cow help with the Harvest and it seems like I'm always getting water from the pond or the [Music] well as I go about my daily chores now I often think about that evening after supper when my husband decided to look into the idea of the new seed and the commercial fertilizer he talked to his brother that very night his brother said it would be all right provided my husband FID for the fertilizer and the new seed my husband then talked to so many people he talked to the shepherd next door he consulted the oldest member of our cast in the village and they talk together for [Music] hours he talked to the carpenter the carpenter doesn't even have any land but my husband wanted to find out everything anyone thought about the new seed and fertilizer finally he went to see the president of the village the president has lots of land and uses fertilizer and new seed the president said the fertilizer and new seed would cost a lot of money more than we had but the president president said gopal would be able to get a government loan first he would have to get a certificate from the land clerk showing that he owned [Music] land gopal rode his bicycle to the land Clerk's house 7 m [Music] away he asked the land clerk about getting a land certificate the land clerk said gopal would have to come back tomorrow today the clerk couldn't work on the certificate because he was going to the district office goal was disappointed gopal tried three different days to get the clerk to make out the land certificate the clerk was always too [Music] busy then a friend told him how to get the [Music] certificate the next time he he went to the land Clerk's house he gave the clerk some [Music] money the clerk filled out the land certificate at once at last we were getting [Music] somewhere the next day my husband went straight to the farm advisor's house in a nearby Village to see what to do next the farm advisor filled out a loan application the application showed the amount of seed and fertilizer gopal was entitled to purchase on loan the farm adviser told gopal he would have to find two co-signers for his loan application gopal's brother and a neighbor agreed to coign the next week they went to the development office 5 mil [Music] away [Music] the assistant development officer accepted gopal's loan application and showed gopal how to sign the papers even though gopal didn't know how to [Music] [Music] write after they had signed the loan application the assistant development officer told gopal to come back in a couple of weeks to see if it had been approved the application was approved and the assistant development officer told him that the next step was to go to the seed store to pick up his seed and fertilizer he told gopal what day he should go to the seed [Music] store gopal's day for getting the seed and fertilizer was about 2 weeks before planting [Music] time he went to the seed store on the proper day but it wasn't [Music] open he waited several hours as more and more disappointed Farmers wondered what had happened in the afternoon the seed store official showed up and explained that the store was out of both seed and fertilizer they should come back again in 2 [Music] [Music] weeks during the next 2 weeks gopal prepared his land for [Music] [Music] planting then he returned to the seed store to pick up the seed and fertilizer for this was the time to put it on his Fields but the official said there were still no [Music] supplies he told gopal try again in a couple of weeks now gopal had to make a decision plant now with the old seed and no fertilizer or wait for the new seed and fertilizer he decided to wait for 2 weeks he rolled cigarettes but when he stopped by the seed store again there was still no seed or fertilizer there so gopal decided to plant he could delay no longer he used the same seed we have used for Generations it is reliable and will produce a crop if the weather is favorable 3 months after the wheat was planted gopal got word that a seed and fertilizer had arrived by this time the crop was practically full grown now fertilizer would do no good the crop was too mature he had to decide should he go to the seed store and pick up the seed and fertilizer and have it on hand for the next season if he did that next season's crop would be better perhaps but unfortunately he would have to pay off his government loan on the materials at the end of this harvest [Music] season Harvest wasn't far off we could pay off the loan by selling some of this Season's Harvest but then we would be short of food before next Harvest [Music] G gopal had worked so hard on the loan application that he lost many days wages which he would have had if he had been making cigarettes therefore we had less cash in hand than usual at this time of the year if gopal were to pay for next year's fertilizer and seed with part of this year's Harvest he would have to go to the Village money lender before the next harvest season to get money to buy food gopal has never had to go to the Village money lender before the money lender's interest rate is very [Music] high he thought that perhaps he should refuse the seed and fertilizer he had worked so hard to get then there would be no loan to pay [Music] off gopal decided to get the seed and fertilizer we harvested the grain it was a good crop perhaps it would have been much more if gopal had been able to use a new seed and fertilizer as I was winnowing the green getting it ready to take to Market I wondered if I had been wrong in pushing gopal to try to grow more food I don't want gopal to be in debt to the money lender once he counts out the money to you you may be under his thumb for a long [Music] time [Music] but maybe we will be successful maybe next year's crop will be very good maybe we can use a new seed and fertilizer every year in the future if we can only get started maybe we will be able to send Ram to Junior High School I would be so happy perhaps then there will be a better future for for [Music] all [Music]