Moong over Microchips

Microchips are a must. Moong also a must. IBMer Venkat Iyer, House Number 752, Peth Village, Dahanu taluk, Palghar district, Maharashtra, tills farms organically, grows moong, sells moong, quits comupter keys. After 14 years with the Earth he writes: ' For us, it is different. The open sky, the beautiful scenery, our pets, the crisp vegetables, the fresh fruits and eating what we grow gives us happiness. The joy of seeing the seed you planted push out of soil and in a few weeks turn into a huge plant is something that can never be experienced in a city mall. No Nat Geo Specials you saw would come even remotely close to seeing a buff striped keelback catch a toad and eat it in front of you, a hissing cobra just a couple of feet away or the swaying mating dance of two rate snakes or the Russell's vipers.' Venkat Iyer and Meena (Meena Menon, journalist, who worked with The Hindu?)  make a firm case for moong. 'We have lost out on love and sensitivity,' Venkat Iyer writes. Agreed. Early on, they decide against bribes. Bribes or prasads to the rural bureaucracy are a must in India Interior, no farmer, none can escape it. A must like dance numbers in Indian films. It keeps the rural bureaucracy dancing. Venkat Iyer and Meena break it. But farmers are unsure as protests will ruin them. Who will listen to them? Who will back them? Yet Iyer and Meena plod. To get farmers off chemicals is hard. For governments and the rural bureaucracy, there is money in pushing chemicals, ruining farms over the long term. Farmers are squeezed of cash and when weather and marketing fails, they had it. Every government scheme, reaches a farmer, shrunk; rural officials ram into them, loot. Marketing is impossible and today no farmer can get a price plus profit to keep farming. Venkat Iyer admits to not reaching the city kids. Young in rural areas are quitting farming leaving their olds in farms. The book is the best reason for farm protests across Mahararashtra and India. Time to gherao cities. Lock the rural bureaucracy. The book is better than the many, many prosaic rural inquiry reports by experts. The book lives, hurts. Me friends, Madhavi and Ajit,  confirm there is no money in farming. They live in slums. Madhavi is a house maid, Ajit sells vegetables. Both have land in villages. Venkat Iyer keeps down the disappointments; he hints and moves on. But it is there for the reader: Farming is not worth it in India. He writes: 'I cannot bring myself to think of what will happen to the agricultural land that the next generation will own. Most of the young generation are working in companies or studying in schools and have no intention of farming at all. They are already migrating to the city to find a job and settle there. They will be part of the GenNext of the country. ......Is this where we are headed? A scary thought.' Venkat Iyer will not leave. It could be argued his arm chair has a strong back. Farmers do not have it. Yet, can India do without moong? For Venkat Iyer and Meena it is Moong over Microchips. Thanks be.