Travelling across California by train, i am struck by the similarities...in fact, so may identical facets of life here between the small towns and villages here and our villages in India. The same cracked roads beside the rails, the same type of hedges and chain link fences, the same electrical and telephone poles even!
Its no different from our Mandya, Ramnagara or Channapatna..infact the scenery here is rather drab, with nary a human or a house between miles of land. Of course i am travelling in the winter, but that doesn't mean im traveling in a season devoid of life in the farms. The only difference that i felt which was very noticeable was the size of the farms..even a farmer sitting on the edge of an average type income has acres of land in his domain. But then again, the result of it is very short of grandeur in terms of income. To sustain himself, in this vast country ( so vast that it celebrates new year thrice in a single day!) , he needs to have this amount of land. Farmers in Mandya and Maddur may have less land to till and harvest but that is sufficient to eke out a living there..there is absolutely no difference wrt to their countries, how they stand financially!
That is another myth busted i suppose about most farmers being rich here due to the vast lands possessed here..there are i suppose a similar ratio of rich to poor farmers here. But one thing to introspect..if the small fare have big farms, what are the sizes of the big guns here?
