Farms will be a thing of past….. Soon

Widespread urbanisation in Punjab has forced many people to think that the agricultural land will be a thing of past if land acquirement by private developers and the government would continue like this.

Imagine that Sangrur district has registered a highest reduction in agriculture land by 125 thousand hectares in a span of past just five years. Amritsar follows the league with 68 thousand hectare of reduced land, Patiala at 26 thousand hectare, Hoshiarpur 18 thousand hectares and Mansa 10 thousand hectares.

Interestingly, the only districts of Faridkot and Muktsar have registered an appreciable increase in the net area under agriculture. While Faridkot has 25 thousand hectare more land under farming in last five years, Muktsar pegs this figure at 5 thousand hectare.

Farmer unions foresee the decline in agriculture land as an impending agriculture crisis. The holdings of only small farmers are being acquired under the urbanization spree. No one dares to touch the big farmers having in hundreds of acres.


The government keeps on acquiring fertile land for various projects. Take case of any district and one will find fertile lands being replaced with cement structures. Take the case of Mohali international airport, scores of malls and shopping complexes along Ludhiana - Jalandhar road, housing townships in different cities or thermal power plants at Rajpura and Gidderbaha. All reflect government's indifferent attitude towards agriculture," he said. In Rajpura, the government has recently acquired 300 acres of fertile for the construction of a thermal plant, which many remain in pipeline for the coming years.

There will be no land for agriculture purpose in the next 50 years or so, the government must use the barren land instead of the fertile for any of the purpose of setting up thermal plants and industrial units. Otherwise the next generation will not be able to see greenery but cement structures and smoke emitting units.

Clouds (Badals) are unfortunate for my crop

A farmer speakth

Punjab was swept with hailstorms and rains in many parts of state that damaged wheat crop.

As soon as I heard the first thunder, I ran towards my field and pleaded helplessly to the Almighty. To spare us. But it rained and rained. Till morning, my entire field was flooded. Wheat stacks were drenched with water.

Even before I could think of loading them and taking to mandi, sarpanch said I would first need to dry. And wait another couple of days for sky to clear and sun to shine.

It happens after every five years. Call this the curse of Badals (clouds) or the God being angry on them. Some people are born with astrological compositions that are deterrent for others. And this perhaps stands true for the Badal, whose rein has witnessed losses for farmers of Majha, Malwa and Doaba.

Call it a periodic cycle or nature’s way of working overtime against the present rule in state. My Malwa brethren lose their cotton, Majha their potatoes and vegetables and Doaba lose their modern variety of crops.

The recent damage of wheat crop at large extent has once again proved that the Badal’s are really unfortunate for the farmers. We are always afraid of our crops when Badal’s rule Punjab, especially during the kharif season.

The farming community comes to receiving end and economic growth takes a plunge. The entire system of sale and purchase of crops is affected.

They (clouds) always fool us; they pour showers immediately after sowing of cotton crop and stop when we need water most - during paddy season. Similar damage is said to last reported in 1999, around ten years ago, and it was Akalis who were in power.

As my bebe (grandma) had said, “Badal taan kadma e.” (Badal is unfortunate).
Let all of us stand united against these clouds and pray that they should never enter in Punjab’s territory to once again, damage our crops and wealth.

Who named Lord Rama Maryada Purush?

I don’t know whether he was boasting or not but his question seemed to carry some weight.

“Do you know who gave the upadhi (honour) of ‘Maryada Purush’ to Lord Rama and when?” I nodded my head left and right, twice in slow motion, trying to think about the answer.

“I know”, he said claiming that even an ardent follower is not aware of this. “Ask anyone and you wont get the right answer. There would be multiple answers to this question,” he said.

I persuaded him to at least part with a hint. I even had to part with my secret – that I have always been weak with dates, historic characters and facts related to them.

“But how did you conclude that very few know answer to this question.”

My friend had been running a cable channel network, which remained an unsuccessful venture since its inception. To rouse the interest of viewers and increase TRPs of his channel, he decided to run an array of question related to Hindu mythology.

“The channel had just started and making it hit amongst masses was a gargantuan task. With every festival on anvil we started asking such questions. It was during Rama Navmi that we asked this question and the answers were surprising, and at times hilarious,” he said.

Out of 330 of answers received just two were correct. Many viewers said it was Laxman, some said it was Sita and others said it was Hanuman.

I interrupted him. His story was going beyond my endurance and I could hardly wait for an answer. Testing my patience, he gave me another ten minutes to at least make a guess. I gave up. But he extracted a promise from me. Not to pass this answer.

“It was Kaikai, stepmother of Lord Rama who gave him upadhi of Maryada Purush. When Lord Rama’s father, Dashrath asked Ramji to leave for vanvas (exile in jungle) for 14 years, he did not questioned his father even once and took his permission to leave. His immediately obeying his father’s orders moved otherwise shrewd Kakaiye, who declared him maryada purush”.

Interestingly, when I put up same question to a section of my Hindu scholar friends, they too had different answer each. Some said it was sage Vasisht others said it was Samudra (ocean) that refused to give way to Lord Rama for going to Ravan’s palace (now Sri Lanka).

If anyone of you has an answer, please oblige.