I understand we don't have the time. Me and my wife hardly get time to even talk properly. Leave alone talk, we some times don't even meet. By the time the wife comes back from her night duty, I'm off to work, and by the time I come back, she is off to work. Life in the fast lane is cruel. Absolutely cruel!
And when the umpteenth farmer committed suicide yesterday, and when the politicians and the shameless media were politicizing the entire issue, for me it was news flipped through. For my wife, well, the last she ever had heard that word 'farmer' was in class 6. And then we motored on, on the very same life we had taken upon ourselves.
Not that we don't think of food! We eat out often enough. And the ever gracious MIL, makes us think of all the variety of food there is. And our reaction to the beef ban in Maharashtra was eating beef biriyani.
Just that we don't think of the people who make it possible for me to have my food. We have not been taught to think of them. I mean, nobody ever taught me to be think about the man who breaks his backs to give me food. In fact, the society which taught me to remember god before eating, did not even try to teach me how the food reached my table.
The society taught me it is better to be an engineer than a farmer! In fact, the vocation of 'farming' is looked down upon. It is so very skewed that the man who gives me food does not even get 1/10th of the income I do. And most of us just don't care. At least we pretend to. Or just that we don't have the time.
Okay; Let this not be just another emotional rant. I promised myself that every time I think of my food, I will also think of the farmer. I will teach my children that farming is as good a profession as mine is; Next time I buy vegetables, I will buy from the farmers mandi, at the price he says, without bargaining.
And that I won't waste food, the food which involves the hard labour of men, who are committing suicides because they could not afford food on their table.
It is time we think of the farmers also!
And when the umpteenth farmer committed suicide yesterday, and when the politicians and the shameless media were politicizing the entire issue, for me it was news flipped through. For my wife, well, the last she ever had heard that word 'farmer' was in class 6. And then we motored on, on the very same life we had taken upon ourselves.
Not that we don't think of food! We eat out often enough. And the ever gracious MIL, makes us think of all the variety of food there is. And our reaction to the beef ban in Maharashtra was eating beef biriyani.
Just that we don't think of the people who make it possible for me to have my food. We have not been taught to think of them. I mean, nobody ever taught me to be think about the man who breaks his backs to give me food. In fact, the society which taught me to remember god before eating, did not even try to teach me how the food reached my table.
The society taught me it is better to be an engineer than a farmer! In fact, the vocation of 'farming' is looked down upon. It is so very skewed that the man who gives me food does not even get 1/10th of the income I do. And most of us just don't care. At least we pretend to. Or just that we don't have the time.
Okay; Let this not be just another emotional rant. I promised myself that every time I think of my food, I will also think of the farmer. I will teach my children that farming is as good a profession as mine is; Next time I buy vegetables, I will buy from the farmers mandi, at the price he says, without bargaining.
And that I won't waste food, the food which involves the hard labour of men, who are committing suicides because they could not afford food on their table.
It is time we think of the farmers also!
