Aloos and Demonetization !

We are farmers, and belong to one of the dying breed where we actually toil with the vagaries of nature and its fury and the volatile market, and a zillion other reasons, that would not fit here and the ever fickle NRI that wants to earn his money here but will forever abuse India especially Punjab for being the worst, dirty state and so not nice! That is another story for another day. But, a surgical strike hit us by Modi ji whose intentions are honorable but he broke our backbone just when the seed potato season had started. The season just dried up where the farmer couldn’t pick up/ buy our seed and we couldn’t transport it.

How many farmers have credit cards, or have a cashless operation? In a country as vast as ours they don’t even speak the same language; so you can imagine my husband speaking a mix of Hindi- Punjabi trying to explain a farmer who is speaking non stop in Bangla that he should buy the seed and get the truck unloaded! He, a robust Jatt started explaining politely at first and then it just spiraled to a conversation that I swear could be heard from here to Midnapore. Where does Modi ji want us to sell our seed potato? How does he want us to survive? The other alternative is to offer potatoes for landfill!

He in fact, singlehandedly created panic in our labor (Bengali) who belong from an era where they are just concerned with solid work, day to night and our are most efficient team, they don’t loiter or waste time, like the Punjabis. They were scared, shattered as they don’t trust their contractor, nor did they understand RTGS. Sir, what do we do? Our electrician from Patti has to marry his sister, and the boy’s wala want a motorcycle as dowry. How should he tell them that Modi ji just changed all plans and he cannot withdraw his own money and they were facing a problem? Weddings and rishtas don’t wait, Mr. Prime Minister.

He told us something, which had me laughing; an old man whose daughter was getting married in a few days, just lay on the middle of the favor and decided to stay there till he didn’t get the money!

Sir, all you do is for us, but have you thought what the common man goes through?  Mothers get medical prescriptions but chemists do not give medicines on saved old notes, civil hospital ran dry in the first few day.

Then you gave us a break through that farmers could buy seeds with old notes, but where are we supposed to use them? The lines are longer than the basilisk of Jk Rowling’s memory; even the famous snake of the Vedas has been crossed. This Horcrux of black money will not be so easy to kill or eradicate .

I, in the mean while have been reduced to not getting new clothes this winter and have become fashionable by resurrecting an old demonetization look by wearing all black and adorning a shawl! Whatever hair I had left have  become whiter than white and did I mention as we cant afford junk food anymore , we are all living the life of a Patanjali saint .

Do you  see the larger sattvic picture ? Maybe this is a conspiracy that would make all of us healthier nation and who needs cash , we can all live on fresh air and love!

My Vagabond Hen

Life on the farm is always interesting, and I so need to tell you about this hen we have (one of many) .She is small, petite and is a mix of silver, brown feathers and the caretakers call her Chinese murgi. She just has a mind of her own, is a vagabond and refuses to toe the line. She caused uproar last week by not coming to roost in her coop. In the twilight zone, she just managed to escape her warden and spent a night out! The entire farm was looking for her; you see we have brought up her to be a free- range, organic type of chick.

She roams around all day long, pecking, and having a great time, stress-free and voila her eggs are stress free!

So, it was a cause of great concern when she went missing and after a while when we had looked at all her roosting places, she was found busy eating her insects under the fruit tree.

She just wants to be free and not be tied up to anything,

I guess it’s the flavor of the season. The change that we seek in our lives is so apparent in even the birds that live around us. Maybe she just doesn’t want to lay eggs, which knows what’s cooking in her mind.

Do we ever let go of the control that rules every moment of our lives and just keeps us guarded and under scrutiny? There are certain rules and regulations that control and dictate our every move we make. Sometimes, I feel we are under pressure to perform and to be in a certain manner to make not oneself happy but the world.
There are unwritten dictates that govern how we dress, talk, speak and project one. It’s all an image projection to make and fit in this world. So many times, we do things just because we worry what people will say. In fact, the social and mental conditioning is so ingrained in us that we in turn do this to our children and so forth. It starts at an early age, where one is fed images of being this good child, be thin, fair, have a good figure (yes, it starts very young now). Children are subconsciously given an image which they want to measure up to, be fair, be smart, trendy wear all the right designer clothes and not speak one’s mother tongue (that is so desi, verni). Only English and Hindi , mind you , and it’s important for the boys and girls to blend in , no one should have the Sikh joora or long pigtails! Imagine, the bullying a young child goes through over his religious identity. Children can be cruel and they can reduce another to tears and also cause lack of confidence. It changes drastically as one grows older and worsens and spirals to other problems, like depression and stress.

Imagine if my hen was controlled and had to lay eggs like clockwork, all she asks for is freedom to scratch the mud and eat her insects! And, a night out some times, not asking much, just letting her is as Mother Nature intended. Some times, all it takes us to do is take a chill pill, go back to our roots and do some wandering …

I thought I’d never say this but I actually sympathize with Kejriwal ji for the first time. You see, I am currently battling the mother of all colds and this mysterious cough that according to the Doctors is a mysterious viral that has everyone under its spell. For once both the Punjab’s are in solidarity and there is absolute unity over the smog that is causing this rattling cough. I started with a normal cough thanks to my habit of eating pickle and anything tangy and mistaking that one is supposed to eat achar and hence complete one’s quota of green vegetables…

I took this edict a tad bit too serious and went overboard on the green chilies and then it all started. I have become one of those old hags who one used to read a pictured thanks to an over active imagination stemming from an overdose of fairy tales. Remember, the witch in Hansel and Gretel, that’s how I am these days with the crackly cough and chuckle! You know Kejriwal is known for his muffler, I am known for my favorite yellow Sualin bottle that I swear by. It’s the only thing in the world that gives temporary relief before I get wracked by a coughing fit.

Every known combination of antibiotics, anti-allergic, cough syrup, I have and currently have a sock to rival any self respecting chemist shop. All sorts of lozenges anything that anyone has said, from the honey based to the tulsi, to the mulethti to the English sounding licorice to the Swiss herbs one, I tried everything.

In the meanwhile, my voice changed just like the fair-weather status of politics like the politicians who are trying to angle into AAP or Congress from the melodious to the husky to the foghorn. Just like how the guy holding the loudspeaker shouts going about in the streets, vote for congress, and vote for akali-bjp combine! With agricultural prices taking a nose –dive it seems to be a good alternative career.

The best advice is the one, which one gets from village folks, I was told to eat 3 jalebis soaked in hot milk and nothing more after that and sleep. One even asked me to eat a dry coconut slightly roasted on a cowdung!  I’ve abstained form rice 9m y favorite) to eating copious amounts of dry ginger made in a curry that I resemble a dragon with all the fire power.

Maybe they do this to smoke the cough and phlegm out of the system and cure the body. Or, maybe I had been possessed by the demon of cold and cough!

I don’t know. I just know I resemble the red nosed Rudolph the reindeer clad with Kejriwal muffler sounding like the politician who so promises utopia but crumbles as soon as elections finish.

My dreams are to breathe normally through an open passage way.minus the yuckyfeeling and not cough the night away. Some accuse me of not taking any medicine or not following it; you’ve got to be kidding! You should see how regimental I am this time; I would put the Germans to shame with my timing and clockwork medication.

My only plea is for Swami Ramdev to find some Patanjali cure, the jal neti made me nauseous and I think the water went into some other opening and just never came out. You know that rolling eyes emoticon was just made for me, however last week as I was just hoarding Sualin by the boxes, I instructed my broker to buy shares in the company that is the only thing that works along with hot water with a tad bit of honey and a twist of lime (a poor rendition of being English) but all I can find is humor now.

And, my friend from Lahore posted an Ayurveda cure, a mix of honey, banana and water that sadly looked so repulsive that I decided to brave the cough.

People who drink the brandy and hot water toddy, that just is a temporary relief and not an excuse to start taking the spirits . I hope none of you suffer , and till then the latest for me today is mint tea and caramelizing sugar , and my tip of the year is buy shares in the Hamdard company and strike it rich !And, I perfected my costume for Halloween by doing a Kejru !