{"id":2307,"date":"2020-09-04T16:05:34","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T16:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/?p=2307"},"modified":"2020-09-04T16:17:46","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T16:17:46","slug":"dreaming-of-a-utopian-village-life-read-this-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shivamsingh.in\/index.php\/2020\/09\/04\/dreaming-of-a-utopian-village-life-read-this-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Dreaming of a utopian village life? Read this first!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\t\t\t

This pandemic a surprising number of young people have expressed the desire to move from cities to rural areas and live a simple farming life. While I totally understand the appeal, here\u2019s some warning from a city person who\u2019s lived in villages a bit…<\/p>\n

I doubt anyone of you is actually going to do it, but you should still know this – running off to a village might not be the escape from the rat race you\u2019re looking for. Before we dive in to the slightly dream shattering reality, here\u2019s a picture during the Punjab elections when we took a break and showered in a random farmer\u2019s tube well. We did this a lot, and I highly recommend it!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"\"<\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\t\t\t

 <\/p>\n

The Reality: <\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It\u2019s only fun when you don\u2019t depend on it for your income. Farming is really HARD. Our farmers are super hard working and barely scrape by. It\u2019s very unlikely your fancy college degreed self will do any better.<\/li>\n
  2. Making money in villages is way harder than you can imagine and that\u2019s why so many people migrate to cities. If you can work remotely for a company, it can potentially work, but then you might not be escaping the rat race.<\/li>\n
  3. Rural electricity grids still suck. The power situation is MUCH better than a few years ago, which means you\u2019ll get electricity more hours (16-24 depending on area), but that doesn\u2019t mean you can run air conditioning. The voltage is a disaster and the compressor will never switch on in a lot of villages.<\/li>\n
  4. Broadband internet is non existent, and mobile data or BSNL WiMax shall not get you netflix! [That\u2019s why I\u2019ve always rooted for the National Fibre Optic Network to get built, and that\u2019s currently in progress.]<\/li>\n
  5. You\u2019ll likely be extremely bored. There\u2019s no office to go to, no real source of entertainment and not many potential friends (village diversity in people is limited, you\u2019re unlikely to find people interested in the same things you\u2019re interested in and don\u2019t expect them to be as exposed to different thought as your city friends – most haven\u2019t had the same opportunity yet).<\/li>\n
  6. Related to above: most villages will suck all inspiration out of you. Most of the enterprising people have migrated to cities. The young people to educational institutions and the middle aged in search of work. There are exceptions, but not too many and not even in every village.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Our fields in my native village:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

    \t\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
    \t\t\t

     <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Caste and privilege is real. You\u2019ll know pretty fast where you fit in the hierarchy, and being at the top might not be great either, even though it is obviously and definitely better.<\/li>\n
    2. Life will be SLOWWW. Crops and animals both take months to grow. There is no real way to speed it up. Most days you\u2019ll be walking around doing nothing. The manual labour will be done by someone else, because it\u2019s cheap and because you\u2019re terrible at it. So you really don\u2019t have much in terms of work.<\/li>\n
    3. Village politics is scary as hell. And there\u2019s a lot of it. Small slights can turn huge and in major parts of India people hate seeing their neighbors succeed. This is very evident in Indian villages – to the extent of criminal sabotage.<\/li>\n
    4. Some parts like Punjab have a major drug issue, others have a major Alcoholism issue. I believe it stems from the fact that there really isn\u2019t much else to do, but you\u2019ll see some sad stuff because of this.<\/li>\n
    5. You won\u2019t be able to buy a lot of things. Although stuff like Maggi is now ubiquitous, you\u2019ll have to travel to the nearest city for most of the other stuff.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      There\u2019s a lot more I could write, but I think you get the idea\u2026 There are major advantages, like you\u2019ll have super low expenses and a moderately comfortable life without pollution or city noise. It still isn\u2019t the utopia a lot of people are imagining though, and village life will likely feel MUCH harder than your urban lifestyle with a corporate job.<\/p>\n

      PS: Thanks for reading till the end. Your opinions, experiences and comments are always appreciated, so comment below.<\/p>\n

      Bonus clip: Here\u2019s a video from my family\u2019s pond in our village. We recently (2 years ago) started a small experiment with fishery there! That\u2019s a topic for another post though\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

      <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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