My connection with this Earth

When I had graduated from Bangalore University just one thing I was sure of, that there was no career opportunity after B.Sc. Biotechnology. My search had been long since then. Initially I worked as a customer care executive in a multinational company. I was connected to the globe through a computer and a phone within the cubicle of an enclosed A/C room with carpeted floor and flexible chairs.  It was a short lived career, as the shift rotations and the late working hours made me sick. 

Daddy wanted me to study further; otherwise he thought it would be difficult to get a suitable partner for me!! So I decided to study further. I did a P.G. diploma course in 'Clinical Research and Regulatory Affair'. Very soon I realized, I didn’t want to be a part of human slaughtering. Joke it is, as I had spent a good forty grants for this course. Then I decided to do Post-Graduation.

         Hopes were less that I could secure a job after M.Sc. but after all these, hopes were nil. Like a passenger in a sinking boat I wanted to grab anything to breath. I wanted to be alive. After completion of M.Sc. Biotechnology, I went to different institutions and organization begging for an opportunity.

Finally a chance came from Vasantdada Sugar Institute. I got an opportunity to work with the Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering department. I dreamt of a A/C room, sophisticated instruments and costly chemicals; instead I had to go to the field often collecting explants.  There was a lot of tissue culture work, (though I did work with sophisticated instruments and chemicals as well). As I went far from the A/c room I came closer to the Earth. 

To my surprise, I enjoyed. 

To observe the inflorescence on sugarcane, to hear chirping of birds in the silence of afternoon, to see fields as far as my eyes could see, to lose way among the sugarcane bush, to dirty my feet in wet mud was a different experience.  No girl would do this with my upbringing; I was thankful I did.

Earth really loved me, she called me little closer. This time,  I was paid to get the shower of mud dust on me, to be able to remove my shoes and create some abstract figure on the fertile soil with my toe, to able to sit on the brown sand under the shade of grape grove. (I loved the lab work but I enjoyed the grape groove more).

Bought up in a metropolitan city, living in the flat of high buildings, I had seen earth only in enclosed plastic vessels or earthen pots. We had raised only Tulsi and rose plants and occasional indoor leafy creepers. Can you imagine my excitement to be able to touch her (earth) bare foot?

               Sometimes I wonder, does things happen for it had to happen (like destiny) or does it happen for we lead ourselves into it? Yet deep down in my heart I believe, I was supposed to be connected with the earth someday and all the mistakes in my life lead me to it. So I was destined to be connected to her. 
               In the busy buzz of city life I had started to forget that food is the basic necessity of life and to get that food we must connect with the mother Earth. All I cared for was high fashioned job which gets us much closer to the secondary basic necessity ‘Money’. But now I strongly believe fashion and standards can be obtained only when we have enough to eat. And for that Agriculture should be given top priority not only at state level but also at individual level. Farmers should be proud to be farmers just as doctors and engineers are of their professions.