Every new experience is built upon the previous one and this village experience was not an exception. There comes a time when a larva emerges out of the cocoon and sees the worldly realities, same happened with me. Brought up in metro and all the education in metro cities I was living in a cocoon of so called development which has happened in India and more specifically in metro cities. Having an urban background, I had a stereotype image of the village



When I heard that my village would be in Kerala I started to build up the image of village of Kerala as portrayed in different documentaries and movies. During my induction program, I faced the reality of rural life for the first time, and during these two months stay understood that reality. During my stay in the village I came to know the places where the actual development is needed. Though Kerala is one of the most prosperous states but still wayanad district has been neglected in the social upliftment. I spent my 52 days in a village called Thrikkaipetta in the northern district of Kerala. My village Thrikkaipetta was set in the beautiful surroundings of Wayanad. The first few days were filled with awe for nature. The initial days were heavenly. A beautiful place with good and comfortable houses, pucca road and other amenities gave an exactly opposite picture of a village which I had in mind before going to Thrikkaipetta. The climate of the village was very pleasant as the village was situated near the forests and this also made my transect walks less tedious.

Village are different from urban centres in a large way. It is as if a very different universe exists about which we are not aware. A universe more pure, serene, spiritual and challenging than ours. The village economy is driven by agriculture alone. The presence of other production systems is negligible. The commercial activity with in the village was heavily influenced by the agrarian scenario in the village. The dependency was so high on the prices that were fetched by pepper and coffee in the market that any disturbance in those prices had extreme effects on the life in villages. It is this dependency on a single activity that was the most noticeable things about the place that came through during our interactions with the people.

They would relate to us stories of people of the village living the life of kings when pepper fetched high prices and stories of these same people struggling to meet their needs when these prices crashed. I was impressed by the risk that a farmer takes when he sows in his field. Farmer treats the field as his mother and expects the motherly attitude from fields and puts all his effort to get a good season of crops. He puts all his yearly income on stake. He faces risk every year, every month and every day. If we lost a pen we become tense, now look at the farmer who losses his crop, his livelihood and still standing, smiling and ready to face the new challenge. This spirit is nothing less than super human, certainly not present in our urban psyche.

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Prashant Bhardwaj, is pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from Institute of Rural Management, Anand (Gujarat).