The Land Grower

Grimy sweat glistens down brown leathery backs, hardened by the loud equatorial Sun as we stab the earth to plant more crops, our heels caked with flooded black mud that is so sticky, it has gripped our souls birth after birth, since before these lands were colonized, by men from faraway creeds, who left here after ejaculating all over, told us these lands were liberated, and that we, the children of these fields, were it’s new owners...

~

Nothing grows here no more, no rice, no wheat. In fact last winter Ramnathji on the field beside ours tried his luck with sugarcanes. He boasted a big contract from this high-class company "AgroFuture'' that sent serious men in long-sleeved shirts from Delhi who surveyed the land and gave Ramnathji ‘special’ seed canes to plant. Everyone in the village was surprised by how fast the sugarcanes grew, in fact one whole month before the harvest festival, but for some reason they didn’t taste as sweet...

~

Baba and Ramnathji had been buddies since their school days. They were both groomed to be farmers but unlike Baba, Ramnathji preferred minding his village shop to farming the field which his younger brothers took care of instead. Still, Ramnathji would visit his brothers regularly and would occasionally stop by our land to greet his childhood buddy...

~

Baba says Ramnathji is a smart and a lucrative businessman and that I should try to be more like him. Baba says he possesses the ability to sweet talk and can convince an Arab to buy sand. It is a shame that he has five children but no sons. The youngest one, Payal, is also almost twenty-two so her marriage is on the village's mind...

~

Payal has smooth brown skin and inquisitive moon-white eyes. She wears washed down faded kurtis, bright red skirts and braids her coal-black hair sprucely into two pig tails. She graduated from high school only last year and was the only one to finish ahead of her class, having skipped a grade. She now gives Science tuitions to younger girls in the same school...

(Now that I think about it, girls in our village are typically enrolled into the village school a few years later than us boys such that they also finish schooling a little later than their male counterparts. So in a way I guess she did graduate on time?)

~

Every evening as the orange sky turns purple, we farmers begin to walk back home. I try to delay my remaining chores around this time because the ladies also return home from school, cycling in flocks down the same road. Payal is usually in one of these groups, also going home after her tuition classes. Most of the times we catch each other as she turns to look back at me with a twinkle in her eyes, as if she were smiling with a straight face...

~

This started out as an innocent glance several months ago, when Payal had accompanied her father Ramnathji to our field one day. When I looked up from cutting the earth, I might have fixated on her for a little while longer than ideal. As I was eyeing her, she suddenly looked directly at me. I immediately looked down. It is curious how if you stare at someone for too long, they inevitably will look towards you.

After several excruciating minutes, I looked up only to find her still looking at me, this time smiling. I looked down again...

~

Since then, our relationship has progressed at a steady pace to where we are now, routinely exchanging glances at dusk. I could see a happy future with Payal: me working the fields, her taking care of the house and bringing me lunch on her bicycle. Perhaps we can even sit down and share a meal together before I have to go back to work and she returns home to tend to our parents. We could support each other through these hard times.

~

I am only twenty-six and so still have a few more years before Ma pushes me towards marriage but I have decided already I want to marry Payal. And only today I voiced this wish to Baba who threw his hands up in jubilant fashion,

“What great news Gita!”, he cried out to my mother, “Can you believe Ramnathji’s son-in-law will be none other than our son?”

Ma was also very happy and immediately ordered us to get dressed and head out to Ramnathji’s house with this proposal,

“And don't forget to pick up some sweet marigolds by the field on your way!", she reminded us out the door.

Our village uses marigold flowers as offerings on auspicious days and is a tradition in place from before the design of manufactured sweets. These orange flowers are to be eaten as petals, raw and fresh with the white heels removed to avoid any bitter aftertaste...

~

At first I was nervous to approach Ramnathji about his daughter’s hand but Baba eased my tension along the way by explaining how it was in Ramnathji’s best interest to get Payal married off, given her growing age...

“And when he hears it is my very own son who is asking for her daughter’s hand”, Baba cheered, “you just see how fast he says yes!”

~

Indeed at his door, Ramnathji said YES with an ecstatic voice when Baba revealed my intention. Payal was still giving tuition at the village school but nevertheless her mother ushered us in and served a round of piping hot chai with fragrant bay leaves. Sipping the chai slowly, I was imagining Payal’s delight at hearing this good news when Ramnathji interjected,

“You know the working visa I was talking about for Payal?” he asked Baba who nodded his head in remembrance.

Here we go again, I said to myself, Ramnathji with his latest new business scheme, something about leaving for a new country, Kanada. He said he had heard from his brother’s daughter’s husband who is there, that this was a land of plenty, where the soil was rich, the air was clean, the weather was cool and there were lots of opportunities. He had said that this was the future but it was happening now...

“It came through for Payal!”, Ramnathji let out, “she will be on a teaching internship for a year in a place called Vancouver and after that she can apply to stay in Kanada permanently. When she becomes a Permanent Resident, we can all apply for a family visa to go to the new land!”

As I digested this news alongside Baba, Ramnathji looked at me with compelling eyes,

“Beta you already know a little English so we can start working on your visa right away so you can leave with her in September", he sighed a breath of relief, "and here I was worried about her undertaking this journey all by herself!”

“But what about the harvest?” I looked towards Baba, “the summer might not be enough.”

“Oof, you enjoy this summer and forget all this trying to grow rice that never grows”, Ramnathji replied on Baba's behalf, “there you will have plenty to cook.”

~

I half-smiled, looking down at the curated box of marigold flowers on my lap, their white heels yet to be plucked.

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Welcome to Canada English Center for IELTS and TOEFL

Candidate: 50271

Writing Section 2: Essay.

For this task, you will be asked a question on a personal topic or an issue. Depending on what the question is, you will either have to share a personal experience or give your opinion on the topic. In case it’s an issue-based topic, you will also have to give reasons and examples that support your opinion.

Prompt: Write about a time you faced an obstacle which made you leave your 'Comfort Zone'.

8th August, 2021...