It has been a fairly long time I haven’t updated status of our story of search for a place to live in. Let me begin with the current status and then go into a flashback. We’ve been able to locate a place, which has everything we’d wanted. The land purchase is also done and we are in the process of constructing our house. It has indeed been a huge milestone given the uncertainty we’ve been into for almost a year. Looking back, it has been an exciting and adventurous journey. But while we were in it, there were times we felt frustrated, angry and scared. To those watching us, we would have surely appeared foolish to have got ourselves into such a position, when we were living a convenient and comfortable life in Mumbai. I don’t know what lies ahead, but the conclusion of this search does mark the ‘end’ of a story. Happy ending, it seems like.
I’ll pick the flashback from option # 8, we were exploring – Gudalur. It’s a picture perfect place. Adjoining a huge tiger reserve, close to a beautiful hill station (Ooty), good rainfall, habited by a sizable number of people with background similar to ours (urban, qualified, out of rat race, socially conscious, etc.) There is a school too, which is unlike mainstream schools. Siddharth even attended the school and enjoyed going there. I had an opportunity to apply my professional abilities working on a bank for the tribals. Rekha had enough number of people for company. Gudalur is a semi-urban place and en-route a major tourist destination. It offers all the essential urban conveniences as well. We rented a house and made ourselves independent and convenient. As I said, it is a picture perfect place.
Soon, however, we realized that this perfection in the picture has something amiss. This place doesn’t have sufficient sunlight. During the rainy months, there are days on end, when there is light, but no sun to be seen. The dampness fills everything in the house with fungus and I get severely allergic to this weather. We could never get ourselves to buy land there given the prices. Any land, whether close to the town or away had the risk of elephants barging into the fields or a leopard attacking domestic animals. I did not speak the local language. I could not strike a conversation or understand the locals first hand. While there was urban, educated company, we found that their children were being raised in a protected environment and with almost every city-like convenience. Desi cows are not to be found there. In about a couple of months, we felt fairly sure that we did not want to settle in Gudalur. The only string, which remained was the work I was doing on the bank for the tribals. But that wasn’t too much of an issue. I was sensing a possibility that work on this front may not progress in the envisaged direction and therefore I may not be required. Even if work did commence, my role was consultative, rather than executive. I can always visit there for a few days.
After spending two months in Gudalur, our thoughts began wandering to figure out our next destination. We’d explored varied places. We did not find any meaning in searching for a place through the open market. We wanted to explore places only where we’d buy land from a known source, even if it means a friend of friend. Then there were other factors. After a long time and thought, the only place, which seemed worthwhile was Barkheda. We’d built a house there. We knew the place, the people, the risks and the shortcomings. Electricity hasn’t reached there, road access is very poor, water availability is an issue, but perhaps due to these very reasons, it had the isolation we wanted. Suddenly Barkheda seemed a great option, actually the only real option.
We had a very abrupt exit from Barkheda. There was and still is a very deep sense of injustice. But right now, the need was mine and I had to initiate the talk. I did so. In a thoughtfully drafted mail, cautious not to include any sense of blame or remorse, I asked the owner of the land (the leader of the intended community) if he would consent to sell the piece of land on which we’d built our house. I felt it would be a formality. How could he refuse? We’d spent so much time, effort, money and more in building that house. That piece of land, after all, was just a fraction of his total holding there. He wasn’t even staying there. But after beating around the bush for a month, he refused to sell and offered that we enter into a long lease arrangement. This was a rude shock. Lease arrangement made absolutely no sense to me. He still wanted to retain the option of exercising his ownership. I refused politely and decided to ask other land owners in the group.
One by one, all those people, who’d welcomed us and encouraged us to live in Barkheda showed us their backs. All those I approached refused to sell land because they did not want to antagonize this leader. Paradoxically, all of them had stepped back from the initiative due to his eccentricities. All of them knew that it is unfair upon us. None of them have any plans of living there. But they chose to neither live nor let us live. We’d spent 100 times more money in building the house, but the land owner retains right to the land and they were exercising this right. They were just land-owners above anything else. How much ever I wish to, but I’m not able to forgive these spineless people. I know it doesn’t make any difference to them. I’m the only one impacted, but I still cannot forgive them.
We had no options. I decided to travel to Barkheda and look out for some one who’d be willing to sell a couple of acres of land to us. I was also to visit another friend, who also lives on his farm near Bhopal. We spoke, while I was in the train and he suggested that it will be logistically convenient to visit him first. I agreed and took a detour to visit him first and then go to Barkheda.
Life takes some unexpected but decisive turns. I visited his farm and everything seemed perfectly suited to us. There was a possibility that I could buy land from part of his family holding. I stayed there for a couple of nights. I did not even go to Barkheda. I returned and briefed Rekha about the place. All of us visited there once and everything seemed to have fallen in place. Some minor decision making and a couple of months later, we had finished the registration formalities and are now in the process of building our house.
In the backdrop of the events so far, this is a major milestone. Building a house, beginning farming activities, taking care of children, etc. do not seem to create as much anxiety as this search did. The little over two months spent here have been quite interesting. I’ll try and pen them down in subsequent posts.
The group in Barkheda (Sreejan) took very conscious decisions and all of them turned out to be unfair to us. Most of them (perhaps all) don’t care what happens to us. We’ve always been a spectacle for them. I would not like them to know how and where we are. That was the reason I was not updating the story on this blog. I’m still not sure I’m ok to put this up, but I’m doing it.
