THE VENGEANCE OF TOMATOES!

       THE VENGEANCE OF TOMATOES!

Long after Onions increased their prices, it was in the news for every reason! Adding to it, a farmer in Bangalore made a one-crore business turnover. Since then, all the vegetables have decided not to discriminate against onions, irrespective of their shape or pungent smell that gives rise to painful tears.

It went on for a while, yet one vegetable that is tasty but treated very common, was Tomato. Due to its lesser shelf life or market dealer's price towards farmer's hard work, it sells at a cheaper rate. This behavior affected the self-esteem of Tomatoes. It was looked down upon for its shape, rotten smell, commonality, and cheaper rates among others. This angered it and started introspecting its worth among family and friends.

It then decided to teach all a lesson and stood at the highest rate of Rs 200 per kg in 2023 leaving Panipuri chat, tomato baths, vegetable curries, and tomato pickles without tomatoes. Small kids started missing Tomato rasam, Idlis without Tomato chutney, and many more. All the households, marriages, and functions were devoid of Tomatoes and people started shedding tears despite it being odorless or as hard as an onion.

News channels in the country made the focus of prime news to be Tomatoes, people started feeling empty without it. Everywhere be it town, city, village, state, or district, Tomato was the talk of the town. Tomato vendors are now the richest among all, making everyone jealous. Their absence from the stall even for a minute drove all crazy to try their hands at getting a few without the vendor's notice. This made Tomato a nationwide demand and farmers urged the government to provide them with TOM PLUS security to save it from threats. Adding to it, a truck carrying tomatoes skidded on a national highway declaring it an emergency and pressuring Police to provide full-arm security.

On the other hand, the bride's parents who offered Tomato curry or pickle in the marriages were treated with utmost respect. Their Son-In-Law was flooded with praises and charmed as lucky to get Tomato-Rich-In-Laws. Neighbors became very possessive about sharing Tomatoes with each other. Kitchen gardens are now provided with security so as to avoid thefts in colonies. Rift began between Mother-in-Laws and Daughter-in-Laws for not using tomatoes in the curries and poor son/husband was sandwiched in their war. 

This shook not only Earth but the entire Solar system. Astronauts and Scientists were disturbed as they found buying its seeds and growing them difficult not only on Earth but also on other planets. Aliens have already started making plans to expand their Tomato business so they can become rich and slowly colonize the Earth by luring humans with Tomatoes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Mann ki Baat program has promised to do something about the increasing prices. The media was buzzing with all sorts of news from Rythu Bazar to supermarkets. Everyone pleaded for Tomato to come down, but undeterred it stood adamant in its choice. Showing attitude to the core, it made one final statement, 'DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A COMMON TOMATO'!

                                                 

                                                                                      By Amoga Laxmi Sukka

 

         Note: This story is only for fun and is not written to hurt other's sentiments. 

A day with Baiga Tribal Women

"We tell our parents when we like a person and they approach groom's side to get their nod", say Basanthi, Manthi and Sehmadhuri, baiga tribal women from Garhi village, Balaghat district, Madhya Pradesh. (Kanha Buffer Zone)

Our parents never force us to marry and leave it to our choice. There is no dowry system in our community and women are never harassed for money or monetary items. Girls are treated the same way as they are used in their native place.

We dance to the tribal tunes and enjoy life. We have our own plantations and are content with what we have. We love our forest and take food that is needed for the day.

We encountered tigers and wild animals in the forest, but they never attack us. "We never do anything that disturbs animal kingdom. They only attack if you irritate them". We are happy in the forest and believe in Sun God and parents.

Story: Amoga

Face to Face with a Tiger in Kanha Forest

Kanha National Park, which is amongst the well known tiger reserves worldwide, is located among the Banjar and Halon valleys of Mandla and Balaghat districts of the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is one of the highly Tiger populated reserves in the country. 

To improve the quality of education among the children living in the buffer zone in Kanha Forest, Aide et Action (NGO) initiated “Schooling and Learning Improvement Programme” in December 2014. Divya Bharathi Banjara (19) is one of the project staff who joined Aide et Action initially as an Education volunteer in Saraitola primary school and later became a library coordinator.

She was involved in providing academic support to the volunteers and visit homes of children regularly to enroll them back to schools. She held community and youth meetings to motivate them to learn the importance of education.  

She lives in Saraitola village and takes care of volunteer responsibility of 12-13 villages, out of which, three villages are adjacent to core area of forest where wild life animals roam freely in buffer zone which is the project area. Wolves and foxes are commonly seen in this area. Though the moment of Tigers is not cited regularly, but they do visit once in a while. 

One fine day, Divya was going for a field visit in her village to capacitate volunteers and as well children club meeting and finally ended up having face-to-face with Tiger. “I was returning from Primary School Arandi on a bicycle on that day around 1 pm. It was mid-afternoon during summer without any movement of people and came across a Tiger which was 25 meters away”, she says.  

Trembling with fear and with no time for shouting or asking for help, she started paddling cycle very fast to save herself and was perspiring badly. “It was a narrow escape and felt that it was the last day of my life. There was a thin line between my life and death”, she says.

She narrated the uneventful experience to her parents. “They were very initially scared but my father counseled on dealing with Tigers and advised to choose the longer road”. He motivated me to overcome the fear and encouraged to continue my job as usual.

Though she feels unsafe carrying out activities by visiting schools in the remotest areas close to the core area, she is determined to move ahead. Her parents insist her to continue education at least up to graduation level to compete the fast pacing era. She wants to help her parents economically and educate younger brothers.

Divya was interested in becoming a MBBS doctor, but her economical circumstances did not allow pursuing her goal. She ended up pursuing Bachelor of Sciences in Biology in distance mode. “I have chosen science because it interests me a lot and want to learn about new inventions and discoveries”, she says.

Talking about her stint as a library coordinator with the project, she says, “The deplorable educational condition of the students in this region motivates me to work with the organization as Library coordinator. I feel delighted working with the children. I have not got many degrees and certificates but whatever I have done in my education should be utilized through my work”.

“I dream about heading a good project on a responsible designation after five years of my journey and envision seeing my project area school children doing better in each walks of life and get sustainable education”, ends Divya with a gleam of confidence in her eyes.

Educating youth of Red light area, New Delhi

GB road is one of the largest red light areas in the country famous for sex trade and trafficking. It has a large and strong nexus of pimps and traffickers, forcing innocent and vulnerable girls and women for sex trade. While the women in sex work are into the business, it is their children and growing teens vulnerable for trafficking. 

To stop and prevent the second generation teens from entering sex trade and offer livelihood opportunities to the youth living within and nearby area, Aide et Action, an International NGO with the support of Microsoft initiated iLEAD Youthspark centre that provides livelihood training to the dropout youth in GB Road. The coordinator for the centre is Mrs Neelam Singh, a post graduate in Social Work playing a very key role in motivating youth to enroll in iLEAD. 

 The place where the centre is being operated is unsafe and uncertain for women, as there is risk for uneventful situations, says Neelam. The road from where I enter the lane is usually jam-packed with traffic. Women living nearby the area travel outside only after covering their body with Burqa (clothing that cover the human body except eyes).

 “At the age of 40 plus years, I felt uncomfortable with the looks of men, as they misinterpreted for a sex worker due to the environment in GB Road. This made me wonder how girl students will feel to come to the centre”, she says. 

 Whenever, there was community mobilization drive, parents were interested to enroll their wards in the course, but would taken aback after knowing the name of the location and cancel the admissions. They used to narrate stories of GB Road and the kind of impact it can have on their children, she says.

“Initially I was bold and firm about my decision to work in GB Road, but after facing few experiences, I was unsure if my decision was right”, says Neelam. I spoke to my husband, family who encouraged and supported me to stop worrying about the stigma and work for the betterment of the society, she adds.

“It was around that time, I made a bold decision to keep things aside and seriously work for the society and bring a change in the community”, says Mrs Neelam. I heard many stories where people work in the remotest areas of the country, and kept moving. 

“I visit homes of the youth nearby GB Road, interact with parents and motivate them to send their children to institute. After seeing the confidence and understanding the advantages of the iLEAD centre, parents started sending students to us”, a change that overcomes stigma, she says. 

The real challenge comes in convincing the parents who are into sex trade as they don’t want their children to be identified as children of sex workers. “A lot of counseling was done to parents and children after which they finally realized the advantage of joining in the centre”, she says. This stops the youth from entering second generation sex work and choose a livelihood option that provides them a dignified life, says Neelam with a gleam in her eyes. 

A Visit to a Red Light Area in GB Road, New Delhi

After taking a metro from AIIMS, I landed at New Delhi station and walked out only to notice a congested Delhi. The roads filled with rickshaw pullers and humongous traffic, without street lights at the junction, was a complete contrast to the area, where I lived in Delhi.

I was waiting for my office personnel, to accompany me to the project area in GB road. Meanwhile, I observed few men staring and passing some lewd comments. Though initially panicked, I gave a facial expression showing ignorance. After ten minutes, the project person, Aravind arrived and we moved to a small hotel to have breakfast. Aravind is a spoken English trainer in one of our projects in New Delhi.  

We had discussion about the project and the aspects to cover during my visit. He revealed that GB Road is a place where thousands of sex workers live and it is particularly not safe for men to walk in that lane during morning hours. When I asked why it is not safe, he answers, “They come directly to men and ask "Aayega kya?" and make fun by passing comments on us”, says Aravind.

He explained me clearly, that very rarely women not of this locality are found in this road, apart from sex workers. If a person like me goes there, people assume that am also one among them. This actually gave me goose bumps, if I had to visit or not, but the Regional Manager in Delhi was a woman and asked me to be bold. She was a passed out from JNU and alone goes to the project but never faced any problems.

 Remembering those words, I gathered courage and started walking towards the project. Aravind said that he doesnt want to lift his head, as the women from windows can pass any comment that could be awkward. I kept walking, and was unable to find any girl on the road except myself. I was feeling scared and started doubting if am doing right job or not.

There were all sorts of men ogling and staring differently. I ensured that I was covered with Shawl completely. For at least half a kilometer, there were no traces of even a single woman. All I could see is myself and people gazing from top to bottom.

And then I looked up and found a woman in pink saree with puffy eyes looking very dull. Somehow, I was trying to understand her, she looked at me continuously for 10 seconds and changes direction. That is when Aravind informs, that she is a sex worker.

We pass by and find a road filled with big cars ( clients cars). The architecture of the buildings in that area belong to Mughal era and are very old. The ground floor comprise of shops (various business), first, second and third floor is where women reside. It was 9:30 am and slowly women were coming out of their rooms and standing near windows.

Few of them were brushing and others teasing men with all sorts of comments. They were few women who were on the ground floor and having interactions among each other. I found few men along with them, whom i suppose to be the Pimp- the manger of brothels. The women were dressed in skirts, jeans, chudidhar, night pants and moving here and there.

I was surprised to see a very young girl (some where around 20 years), she was very beautiful with pretty long black hair. She was fair and had good physique. They were women gazing at me, initially i was scared to look into their eyes, but i somehow responded back. They were seeing me with suspicion and have conversation among them. Then all of a sudden, one of the women passes a flying kiss to Aravind and asks "Ayega Kya..?", That is when i was unable to control my laugh and giggled.

And then it was more half a kilometer to reach the project area. Suddenly a woman with bob hair cut in pink saree arrives with two other young girls and takes them into the building. The middle men interacts with her and takes them in to rooms. I saw few women with small children and also old women in late 45's having conversation.

Aravind asks me to look at the walls where something was written in Hindi. It was written "Condom pehno, Suraksha Karo". He informs that government does all this activity to educate women. When asked if officials dont take any action on these homes, he informs that sex is legal over here and most of these homes have license to carry out with activity. If there is any problem, the pimps pay money to the police and get away with it. He informs that this is not something new and existed since Mughals rule but not in such range.

We take a turn to the other side and i was able to view the houses more clearly. I was about to take a snap and Aravind warns me to put the camera inside as middle men can attack me at any moment. I was walking and was able to observe few women very closely. They are tension free people and dont give a damn about what others care. They sit on the steps and stare at people. They have very beautiful hair cuts and i was trying to talk to them but Aravind warns me not to disturb them.

Cave like structure

Rooms locked to stop communication with outsiders

I just kept walking and at one building i stopped. They were nearly 30 steps at a stretch and some how it appears that you are entering a cave. It is as such, that clients or men stand at the last step and women sit at every fifth step - 5, 10, 15, 20.... and call men. This was something i observed while I was returning to guest house. There were five women dressed beautifully and was asking a 60 year old man to come up. They were making different signs with hands and this fellow was enjoying as if he was 16. I stared at them for 10 seconds and made a move.

  By  Amoga Laxmi S