Lushy green fields, sugarcane, paddy, groundnuts was all that I could see. The first sight of this place left me awestruck, 84kms from Chennai, is this land of serenity and bliss 'Balakrishnapuram'.
Walking through the fields, one could experience the smell of burnt
sugarcane,wet soil and a weird fragrance, all of which smelled fresh and
pleasing. One feels like Humpty-Dumpty , by the time he/she reaches
Balakrishnapuram on a rickety bus to Tirutani to R.K.Pet after which you
have undergo the most adventurous Share auto ride. Unlike Chennai, the
Share autos are smaller in size yet try to fit in more number of people.
The village
lies on the Andhra-Tamilnadu border and the people are in a confused
state when it comes to speaking Tamil or Telugu, both the language
sounded the same when they talk. In a land of Fake smiles and sarcastic
looks, I found real happiness and love in their eyes, they welcome any
stranger into their village with due respect and make them feel really
comfortable, " 'Athithi devo bhava', we strongly believe in this phrase,
and treat all the people equally without any discrimination, says
Sunitha Sekar the village heads wife.
"Farming is our profession and we are ardent farmers by birth, Any child
who is born here is very attached to this soil, wherever they go,
however successful they get, this soil brings them back here", Raghava
Raju.
Every story about a farming village usually turns out to be
tragic, but B.K.Puram is different, the people make the village look
really positive as they try to overcome all the hurdles all by
themselves without expecting much some leader to come and reform the
place. The Villagers make your eyes Pop-Out not just with their unity
and prosperity but also with the luxurious cars that they own, it is a
land of BMW's, Audi's and SUV's.Farming at its peak, even after domestic
use and freebies , they are still left with surplus to trade and make abundant profits. The families here are simple and down-to-earth but
are all billionaires. Earlier generation of Farmers, play with the soil
and yield the benefit, whereas the current generation is at a much
faster pace, they trade these excess produce to other states and make
huge profits. Most of these people are settled in Bangalore as it helps
them carrying out the business at a large scale, but they all make it a
point to come back to their village with their extended family for every
Sankranthi, when they have joyous celebration of the Harvest.
B.K.Puram also has significant roads. The village roads are
concrete and was laid by the villagers themselves. Transportation is
made easy as they have good roads i;e less damaged ones, connecting
neighbouring villages and towns.
After all the positives aspects of B.K.Puram, here
are a few things which tries hard to pull down its serenity. These
people have to undergo a great deal of pressure in protecting their
lands and their produce from natural disasters as well as man-made. The
village is surrounded by small hills which have rich habitation of wild
boars, goose, rabbits, foxes etc; these animals tend to come into the
farming lands and eat up the crops, similarly people from the
neighbouring villages also turn out to be a wild in their behaviour,
these people burn up the farms at B.K.Puram, once they find that they
are making a good margin.
When this is the state for crops, the condition of the lands there
seem to be worse. Have you ever wondered why Indian cinemas always have a
villain in it, no matter however positive the story-line is. This
village to has one such person, 'The Tahsildhar', who occupies
everybody's land and claims it to be his, making fake documents and
agreements. He has tormented the villagers for several years taking away
their properties, but off-recent his activities have subsided as the
village head Mr.G.R.Sekar is back from Chennai. Sekar Raju's Father had
owned almost 3/4th of the village, he was a generous man and did not
believe in the Zameendari system of Land lordship and therefore donated
pieces of lands to the villagers. He was their Hero and now Sekar Raju
has taken up his dad's position, says the villagers unanimously.
the womenfolk of the village also have a remarkable complaint to
put forth. These villagers are misguided and are made to waste their
money and spoil their health by getting into Alcoholism. Almost 80% of
the men drink and are now suffering from chronic liver diseases such as
Jaundice and so on. The village not only has two outlets of Tasmac, but
they also get supply of Arrack from villages nearby. "Alcoholism has
destroyed so many families and I Am trying to bring back all the lost
Gandhian values once again to the village", says Sekar Raju.
Keeping all these issues aside, the village seems to be happy , just that the villagers have to take a step forward to make it a much
more better place, which sets an example for all the other villages
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