ALTER IDEM

A farmer is someone who 'grows food' - everyone knows that. Food is one of our basic needs- everyone knows that too. Farming is therefore, a profession on which the very survival of human beings depends on. Inspite of that, it isn't the chosen profession for the vast majority of us..... All these thoughts came to me as I was reading http://www.civilsocietyonline.com/jan10/jan101.asp . Adike Patrike ( http://www.adikepatrike.com/ ) is a magazine in Kannada written by & of agriculturists for everyone. As a regular reader, I am often in awe of the agriculturists featured. These men and women defy all the common, negative perceptions of a farmer as illiterate/uneducated/ someone who is forced to take up the profession because he isn't fit for anything else. Thanks to the magazine, I know that a lot of people have come up with their own ideas to face hurdles like water shortage, labour shortage, lack of marketing support from the government, etc. What's more, th...

This morning, I had a surprise phone call- from my dad's sister. Yesterday, while spring-cleaning her attic, she came across a sackful of old letters written by her relatives and friends and like any other normal person, she took a break from cleaning and went through some of the letters. She came across a couple, written by me, dating back to 1976 (I must have been about 5)!! She read out a few lines, and I can tell you, we were in splits :D Before she hung up, she threatened to keep those letters - to be read out and laughed at when there is a family get-together. OK aunty, go ahead, I am sportive! Make sure your brother is around - I must have been guided by him! That talk put me in nostalgic mode and, here, I must confess that I have my share of letters - collected through the ages. Going through them gives me lots of cheer, especially, when I'm feeling low. Curiously, my collection doesn't have a billet-doux. That is, because I haven't received one :( True! Nob...

Barely a week after I wrote the previous post, a touring amusement fair decided to make a brief halt here! However, instead of the shopping types that I was hoping for, this one was of the fun and games types - hoop- la stalls, merry-go-rounds, etc. So, on Sunday evening, we went & found 75% of the town already there!! We are really short on entertainment here! Kids between 2 & 5 made the most of the rubber slides and the merry-go-rounds with seats shaped like cars, boats, planes, etc. The bigger kids went in for the ubiquitous giant wheel and rides with names like 'Titanic' & 'Tora Tora' (For people like me, observing the flirtatious mood among the youth was added amusement!!). There was a freak show- advertised as Naagin- supposedly, a creature with a woman's face and a snake's body (A dwarf forced into a skirt made to look like a snake's body? - Probably). We decided to give it a miss. And then, there was the dog show - managed by 3 dogs ...