Reclaiming of Lands

Reclaiming of Maru Land- Part II

Continued from: Reclaiming of Land-part I...

Harvinder With Jania and Preet Mohan Singh on Maru Land as developed today

Harvinder and Jania enjoyng the hard bed

I shall pick up the bi-cycle and immediately ride it to Nehri land and make round of my fields and on the way talk to the neighbors and our cultivators and get all information. Poor people will give me very honestly all the details and their advice which cost me no penny. They will meet me with folded hands. And when an old man also bowed to me with respect, I felt embarrassed and awkward. Some times I shall have a cup of tea or a rural food with them. Believe me that the food was really tasty.

After a flash visit in the Nehri land, I shall pick up my bi-cycle and ride it further one &1/2 a mile on the road and before reaching Hari Garh Canal, I shall make a right turn along a culvert which was formed on the rain-drain. I shall go for another 3/4 th of a mile and reach 'Maru land' all along the side of the drain. While doing so , I shall pass my uncle's land which was now converted to a awfully green patch. I would make a wish here, If I could also develop my piece of land on same or even lesser level.

So, Charanjit Singh was my Chief of operations. He advised me to start grading the land at the top- most point near a grown up tree on the top of hill which I had named it as 'Mount Everest'. When I reached at the site it looked as if Charanjit had done nothing during the past week. I just gave him some encouraging words as a matter of routine and felt he had a whole awesome work to do in leveling the the big hilltop. After discussing a few things for a while, I came back the Badbar bus stand.

I had to take stock of the development work with my other cultivator and spent about one hour with him and promised to come again after a week. I shall take a Haryana Roadways Bus which will go back via Patran, Nirvana, Jind, Rohtak and reach Delhi Inter State Bus Terminus at around 9.00 pm. My help would load some bags of grocery etc at Badbar, and now on return I shall take Auto Rikshaw and pay about Rs 17/- and reach Jangpura Extension home where Our servant Kamal Bahadur 'Kancha' will take care of the same and store it where ever Harvinder would desire. I would also invariably share that grocery with my sisters.

The trip to Badbar was very quick, effective and very successful. Next day I shall take rest or attend some social gathering and was fresh to attend office in time on Monday. So it was a ritual every week for about months.

Quickest Trip.

One day the trip was really short and quick. As usual I left the home with fresh & cold mangoes and food and reached the Delhi Railway Station on time. Jummu Tavi train was parked on the allotted Platform. I just checked it with the ticket collector after saying hello to him and did not need to check the departure time as it always started late. He welcomed me and told me to occupy the sleeper comfortable. As I laid down on the upper deck of the bunk, I went to sleep pretty quickly. I slept really deep. In mean time the train were still shunting and consolidating the buggies. At one stage, as the engine came with a push to connect itself with the rest of the buggies, it made a lot of hard jerk and loud thud. This made me to get out of my slumber. I had presumed the train was running and was almost near to Sangrur as I had slept for over two hours by now. But when I checked from my co-travellers who were resting on the lower berths, they started laughing. They spoke out sarcastically that the train was still at Delhi and had not even steamed off. I checked up my watch and noticed that it was around 5.00 AM.

With new schedule I had no chance of returning the same day, while I had to attend some thing urgent on Sunday in Delhi. I decided to abandon the trip and return. I returned the ticket and took the bus back to Home. As I knocked the door bell, inquest enquires came from inside, as who the hell it could be so early in the morning.

Harvinder was excited to see me back and asked me how come that I was back so early. I told her that earlier I was making quick back and forth trips and today it was the quickest of them all. I narrated the whole story to Dad and to my sisters and everybody had a hearty laugh of this so called quick trip to Badbar and back, as I might have had a chartered plan to undertake this.

Coming back to my development of land project. Next Saturday, When I reached Badbar bus Stand at around 7.30 AM. To my pleasant surprise, Charanjit Singh was there to receive me with our tractor at the Bus Stand Badbar. That was nice. I felt flattered. I took a comfortable seat near Charanjit, and we started going to the fields on the same tractor. What a Treat. I felt as if I was not sitting on the tractor but on the top of the word. Many known fellow villagers would wish Charanjit Singh and would also turn towards me to offer their wishes. I was a new kid on the block.

Charanjit Singh, on the way, would narrate me report of happenings during the past one week. He told me this time that although he worked very hard, but the progress was very meager. His neighbor had remarked that with such work load, Charanjit was asking early departure to Almighty. with the deployment of one tractor, there was hardly any progress and it will take many many months of exclusive and dedicated use of one tractor.

I asked a solution. To which he said that we will have to deploy 10 tractors all at once for consecutive 30 days to make a little dent on the progress. He had already talked to some owners of the tractors and wanted me to talk to the Sarpanch for helping the project. The Sarpanch will easily manage the arrangements of tractors and Diesel, labor and spare parts. While I was the one to make available the finances. The persons on Job will have to be provided with food and drinks which will be arranged by Charanjit while I shall again fund the expenses. My Dad had already cautioned against provision of manual help for this, as we and our woman folk can not do and manage such huge village cooking. The village woman folk are very capable and do such assistance admirably.

So on our return from the fields, we had decided to see Sarpanch, whom we met at the Bus stand Badbar. He greeted me with a big and tight hug and offered me some cold drink, which was smartly arranged by Charanjit by ordering to the near-by shop. In came the cold drinks, while we talked. The Sarpnach was more than happy to provide his help and services. He would be glad to voluntarily lend his own tractor on exchange basis and our tractor will go for the same period of time for doing Job for the Sarpanch on exchange basis. That was fair and fast. he even postponed his own work for a few days and promised to send the tractor next day in the morning.

Charanjit Singh with the help of Sarpanch arranged ten tractors in all and deployed them from Monday to push up the work. Charanjit Singh's wife along with other woman folks got busy to cook food at the site. The little kids will doing so many chores. In turn, I promised that I shall materially and financially support when his daughters get married. Which I did when his first daughter got married.

When I came back from Badbar that week, my Dad and Harvinder had a lot of questions. Dad would come to my bed room and sit there to ask the progress. He was also very happy to learn that such a large scale development was being undertaken during his life time. It was he who encouraged me to take this bold step. None of my cousins, although who had been solely doing the farming work, would dare to undertake such a huge development work at this level.

My cousins later approved of my action and praised my dad for encouraging me. Dad was a visionary and was passing on the baton. This was risky but I was as usual in my positive state of mind and was pushing ahead with unprecedented thrust shown by my Dad. This is often done by the farming community and not by a landlord.

Charanjit had taken a promise from me that after the development of the land, he will be exclusive contractor for that part for a minimum period of three years. I had also agreed keeping in mind that he deserved even more. As he intended to earn from the wheat crop next year, The present year paddy crop will be hardly produce any thing worth since it being the first ever crop from a new land.

So, we prepared ourselves and laid down lots of gypsum and graded the land, made aqua routes for irrigation of the crops for Paddy. The water from the new well was gushing out and it was thrilling to see Charanjit very happy while showing me the preparations for "paneeree" a process when seeds are sown in a small portion of land. As the seedlings were growing up by 3-4 inches, the spot was visible from a distance as green, lush and vegetating. A special treatment of fertilizer and care made this happen. As the rains start and water is clogged in each Acre, the transplanting of the seedlings are done by expert labor usually from Bihar. It is a treat to see this being done.

To be continued and edited...

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