Wednesday 23 April 2014

Big houses or small houses ...

In the village some live in thatched huts with one tiny room. Some actually have nice cement houses, and also some land. But they are completely equal socially.

This is the hallmark of a civilized society.

Chinapaapakka has a cement house, Sarojamma has a cement house and also some land, Eashwaramma has a tumbledown hut (and a tiny 10' by 10' incomplete cement room with ), two dependent tumbledown grandchildren and a tumbledown cow. They are equals.


Vishnu lives in a pucca house with three small rooms, a hall, a kitchen and a bedroom. Nadia lives in a tiny one roomed hut next door, with her parents and younger sister. They are close friends and equals.

The urban Indian needs to go to the rural Indian in humility to learn what truly being civilized means. In a city, ten year olds compare notes on possessions, vehicles and ACs. They judge one other based on marks and on possessions.

The village community is civilized. India, living mostly in her villages, is a civilized country still.

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