The Changing Village 2

I couldn’t find a reason for me now to stay there. I started retreating, calculating the money for my return journey. I was not then in a position to bid the desired farewell from him. He requested me to have that day’s lunch with him. I was hungry but it got dumped below my sorrow. I stayed on his request to hear about the present village, this would have given me triple satisfaction and comfort if my brother would have been the narrator. Mrigo da offered our fields rice for lunch. There was nothing showy on the plate, not a single evidence of modern diet, but, the taste of our soil and firewood ash propelled me to bite my own finger. He narrated how the situation of the village has changed drastically. He told about the new trend of competition among families, in terms of showing off their riches have begun. He told that new traditions of nuclear families have started. He especially pointed out how Dhobi da’s source of income died. The new competition brought the need of washing machine for an enhanced social status. How today the idiot box murdered the need to meet and discuss the current affairs in the bench of Munna da. He told how Gully cricket has become a thing of past in our village, as children go for coaching in that time to get some more marks. Not only modernization has affected the lives of the villagers, he said, it even has eroded the unity of the village. A fever of modernity, jealousy, and selfishness had homed the hearts of people.

Collecting all the newness of the village I returned. It was just now a hope for me, to come back again in the remaining days of my life. The unique nectar of the village which was antique to it and which propelled me to come here didn’t exist today. My evaporated memories tended enter presence but couldn’t skip the lock of past. Departing steps of mine once again allowed me to see the irreversible changes that the village has undergone. Before going to the bus stop I patted the banyan tree for his immunity to outside change. He taught me that change is the rule of nature, where some are delectable but some odious and irreversible. I still moved with a light of expectations in my eyes. With a charm of something yet to come, in the midst of an urban street.