Balabhadrapur: Life in a Village Essay

The name of my village is Balabhadrapur. It is situated on the bank of the Brahmani. My village is separated from other villages by the main river on one side and by its tributary on two other sides. The village is very old and has a number of special features. Although it faces flood every year, the geographical feature of the village has not altered. It is believed that Lord Balabhadra who is the village deity protects this village in all kinds of disaster. Another specialty of this village is that there is no Brahmin family here. All the families bear the surname of Sahu. Although they are weavers by caste, there is no sign of weaving. They are farmers. It is said that in old days the king ordered the people of this village to weave for him a special cloth. As the weavers delayed their work, the king was enraged and punished them. The villagers were united and revolted against the king. They stopped doing their profession. Being deprived of the royal help they solely depended on farming. Since that day they have been doing agriculture only. It is a small village with only thirty families. Its population is about two hundred only. It is sixty kilometers away from the Bay of Bengal. It looks green as there are many green trees in our village. The temple of Lord Balabhadra is situated in the middle of the village. There is also a big pond near the temple. There are champak trees, mango trees, a few oleander trees and a big peepal tree around the pond. This part of our village presents a beautiful: it. The smell of flowers and mango buds combined with how attractive colour arrests everybody’s attention. Our village has a fair weather connection with the main road. As it is a very small village, the government has taken no step to construct a bridge over the river. In spite of it our village is a developed one. There is a school with teaching facility up to the matriculation stage. For the purpose of medicine the villagers depend upon the neighboring village where there is a dispensary, a post office, and a market. The main occupation of our villagers is cultivation. Our village has a good name for vegetable production. The river is very helpful to our villagers. All kinds of seasonal vegetables are available in good quality and cheap price. For this reason, many vegetable merchants come to our village for collecting fresh vegetables in large quantity. However, our villagers are united and therefore they are seldom influenced by the foreign merchants. Our village has been awarded a cash award of ten thousand rupees by the Collector for the cleanliness and purity of atmosphere. The villagers do not differ on any issue. If at all there is a dispute, they sit together and settle it amicably. Ever since I born, I have lived in Delhi. Since I had heard a lot about village, I wanted to visit one. And at last I got an opportunity. One day our teacher decided that he would take us to a village, situated at a distance of 15 kilometers from Delhi. He wanted us to see for ourselves the crops of the season. Sunday was the day fixed for the visit. We started in the morning in a bus. The journey from Delhi to the village was much fun. The moment we were out of Delhi we seemed to have entered a new world. The air tasted sweet. Everything was different from what we had seen in the city. We reached the village in an hour. Our teacher contacted the village headman. The headman was an old man but strong, agile and healthy. He offered to take us round the fields. Walking through the village I had a strange feeling. I felt free the way I had never felt before. There were no city crowds, no maddening din of the work-a-day world. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry. There was no terror of the speeding traffic. It was all in complete contrast to what I had grown accustomed to in the city. I saw people just sitting outside their houses, doing nothing and then I saw others who were moving about to attend to their work. But none, working or idle, seemed to be pressed for time. There was a strange expression of calmness, contentment and courage on every face. When we reached the fields we saw all the beauty of nature, all the wealth that mother earth yields to her beloved children pull grown, bountiful crops were waving in the fields. We stood on the edge of a field and saw the expanse of land before us, land laden with the fruit of human labour. The scenery fascinated us. For a moment we forgot our city life. The experience was like a rebirth. Soon our teacher was telling us about the crops before us. All that we had read in books came alive before our eyes. The headman made everything all the more interesting by adding comments from his own experience. We stayed in the fields for an hour or so. Then our teacher took us to a well. It was surrounded by trees. We sat under those trees and had our lunch which we had carried with us. The headman joined us on our invitation. He liked our lunch very much. In the end our teacher thanked the headman and we started for home. It was indeed a day of joy for all of us, a day on which we really lived.