29/06/2025
Asar 15: A day when we celebrate mud, monsoon, and paddy cultivation.
When I was young and we used to do paddy cultivation, I remember how, early in the morning on “dhan ropai day” or “paddy cultivation day” Mumma would wake up before everyone else. She would cover the utensils with ashes and mud, light a fire, and prepare “chole and chawal” or call it “chickpeas and rice” for the people invited from around the village to help with the cultivation.
They were paid for their work, but we children would just tag along with our elders to the fields.
Those were the days when, while handing over saplings in the fields, we would also play in the mud, all the while learning how to plant those tiny green saplings. It was difficult for us to plant them straight. We didn’t know the right distance between each plant, so we were always asked to plant them on the sides where the edges of the field gave some support.
By mid-day, tired and drenched, our clothes clinging to us and our bodies caked in mud, no one cared about hygiene. And strangely enough, we never fell sick. We would eat right there in the fields. Maybe it was the monsoon breeze, maybe the muddy joy or maybe we were tasting our own hard work but that food always tasted better than anything else.
Today, it’s Asar 15 again. It’s still raining. Mom made chickpeas, just like she used to but somehow, it doesn’t taste the same anymore.
Maybe it’s because we’re no longer connected to the soil…
Maybe because we’ve stopped growing things with our own hands.
Or maybe it’s just easier now to walk into a store than to walk into a field.
