Earth File

Circa 1980s:

It was a perfect sunny day in the summers of late eighties.I was helping my dad in his farm as I always did during my summer vacations. I was bit over dressed for the job I was doing, wearing branded denims and T-shirt which made me look like an alien to our farm labours. My uncles in the neighboring plantations started calling me as a 'Modern farmer'.

Radio was the only gadget used in the farms in and around our village.Workers enjoyed listening to 'aakashvani' while working..(Hey, its not MNCs who introduced radios at work place..thanks to those visionary farmers who introduced them in the farms & plantations of southern Karnataka)

The only TV set in the village attracted a minimum of 200 people to watch 'Ramayana' on Sunday mornings.Yes, TV was one of the most luxurious product those days.A car parked in the entrance of the village would attract a minimum of 50 people (majority of them being kids). Few telephones in the village used to handle incoming calls for almost an entire village.

What a change...denims have become a dress code, people talk about Levis,Pepe,Killer..shades and caps are additions. Though iPods are visible here and there, radio still rocks in the fields and plantations.Cars can no more attract people unless a Ferrari or a Lamborghini is parked.Few people do possess plasma sets, large screen TV sets are quite common. Forget about landlines, every household has at least one cell phone and it has become a craze among youths in the village.My dad don't have to come home to inform my mother about no. of workers present in the filed, she is just a dial away for him..thanks to BSNL & Airtel. Rigtones are challenging the vocal abilities of the migrated birds in our plantations.

One good thing about this sea change is, I am no more an alien or a modern farmer as most of the people dress better than me in the village!