Sugarcane Growers

Sugarcane Growers
The picturesque western ghats protect us all.
Its magnificence laid in green setting.
Its peaks brush the clouds in winter.
The innumerable streams that run there,
gather into a river, running in pure silver, (5)
washing down the soil and muck,
irrigated the fields, mango-groves,
banana plantations, tea estates,
came down as a running blessing.

The ruffian farmers down below looked up (10)
to receive the gifts of nature
looked eager for rainy months,
ploughed and kept the red soil ready,
got loans from money-lenders
repaired their electric motors, (15)
sacrificed goat to local deity,
and looked up at the clouds.

Sugarcane is their only hope.

The ryots sheltered in little houses,
added children and wives (20)
to a previous stock of close kith and kins,
dedicated dearly to progeny,
till the harvest season came in July,

reminding them everything…………
To fetch coolies from Northern districts, (25)
who came as labour battalions,
to toil and moil in the fields
cutting sugarcane, crushing,
boiling in wide cauldron,
rolling them into sweet jaggery balls (30)
only to be packed in palm-leave boxes,
transported to Coastal Kerala,
by a night train that departed at midnight.

While the fields were bare and bald,
the farmer counted on his cultivation accounts, (35)
just to find that loan dues outran the income.


And all that were left include
red soil lands barren,
black wives, a pack of children,
few sickles and ploughshares…………………… (40)





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ghats (Hindi word) - mountain regions

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Copyright reserved © 2007 New Delhi, India

Ramesh Iyengar