Courage

The man looked at his watch , it was 6 PM. Dusk was setting in  and surroundings grew darker , the gusty hot winds gave way to cooler breeze that brought some relief . He had been waiting outside the landlord's mansion amongst the crowds , hoping to acquire some credit . So that he could buy seeds for his next produce. But to his despair , even after waiting for six hours  the landlord didn't arrive to listen to the needs of the helpless farmers . After a while he saw the futility of his actions and thought about going back to his house , which was 2.5 kilometres away on the outskirts of the village. These 2.5 kilometres were going to be a really long journey back home . A walk in which he only had questions , questions with no answers.  Some days ago his closest friend Jeevan Singh had committed suicide , after he was unable to repay the money he took from big landlords of the village. He still remembered Jeevan as a man with smiling face who left behind a family of three at the mercy of an inhuman society. He remembered meeting Jeevan one day before that unfateful incident , he was sitting in his small farm in complete misery . He shouted “ I have nowhere to go , I have failed nature , I have failed my crops . I have failed my family ”.  

He kept on walking , trying not to recall such painful memories which were akin to his present situation.  “No one ever listens to the ordeals of a poor , we are left at the mercy of time which itself is not sympathetic to us ” he thought . His million questions were still unanswered .“ Is it really a crime to be a farmer in this country ”. He had gathered courage all this time against insurmountable odds , and he would continue to do so as long as he could breathe . He saw  helpless farmers running around in a state of distress , but he thought ” As long as I have the strength to plough my fields with my bare hands. I shall not give up.”

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