“The Call of the Soil – A Scent of Rice” is a story written by IT engineer Venkat Iyer. The author worked in IT companies for 17 years. After devoting 17 years to the IT industry, Venkat left his job in 2004 and began living on his organic farm.
The Call of Soil By Venkat Iyer Summary
Summary of The Call of Soil Class 11 By Venkat Iyer
Venkat Iyer worked in IT companies for 17 years. After devoting 17 years to the IT industry, Venkat left his job in 2004 to pursue organic farming. He was bored with corporate life and wanted to change his lifestyle. In 2004, Venkat left his job as a project manager at IBM and moved to the village to farm. He liked the peaceful atmosphere of the village and began focusing on organic farming there.
The story begins in 2004. The author is standing in a mung bean field. It’s morning, the sun is about to rise, the ground is wet, and the leaves are shining. I was walking carefully barefoot through the field, surrounded by sapota trees and mung bean leaves on the ground.
This is the best environment, and I don’t need anything else in life. The mung bean plants were no more than 2 feet tall and were bearing pods. I was very happy in this environment. I’m watching the sun rise through the trees behind me, and I can’t believe this is my first crop, and I’m standing right there in the middle of it.
When I paid the advance and bought this land, I thought it would take me a long time to learn farming, but my broker, Moru Dada, had complete confidence that we would be able to grow mung beans on our first try. I wasn’t ready to start farming; I was just reading books about what could be grown on the land and how to cultivate it. The author’s point here is that he knew nothing about farming when he bought the land. Now that the crop has been sown, I can’t believe we sowed this crop and were so successful in our first crop.
Moru Dada told me that it was the perfect season for growing mung beans and that we could get excellent mung beans from Surat, Gujarat. Following Moru Dada’s advice, I immediately went to Surat and purchased 10 kg of mung beans. After this, Moru Dada rented me his tractor for plowing, and we grew mung beans all over our land.
A few days later, when I saw my seeds sprouting, I was overjoyed. I’m grateful I followed Moru Dada’s advice. Moru Dada’s next step was to use pesticides on the young plants. I don’t want to use pesticides because I want to make my farming organic. I don’t want to use any chemicals on my farm.
When I told Moru Dada I didn’t want to use pesticides, he was shocked. Moru Dada believed that farming couldn’t be done without pesticides. Time passed, and my crop grew without any pesticides or chemicals. Now it was time to harvest. We harvested the crop without chemicals and harvested 300 kilograms. My first harvest boosted my confidence even further. I learned one thing: my land is very fertile, and I can cultivate it without any chemicals. I was very happy about this because I would never use any chemicals on my land.
The Second part of story is “A Scent of Rice”.
The author says that it’s time to plant rice, but I’m late. Since I couldn’t plant rice on time, I planted GR4 rice, which takes less time to grow. But next year, I will plant rice on time. I studied traditional rice varieties and learned that growing traditional rice doesn’t require any chemicals.
Rice crops are hardy and pest-resistant. I knew that rice would grow better on my fertile land because I didn’t use any chemicals. Last year’s farming taught me a lesson: we shouldn’t plant low-quality crops on our land.
In April 2005, we started searching for the best rice varieties, and a neighbor suggested we plant local aromatic rice. Farmers around me started growing low-quality rice and thought I was foolish for wanting to grow the best rice varieties on my land. When I decided to grow only good quality traditional rice, everyone thought I was foolish.
I searched for the best variety of rice for a long time, but I couldn’t find it. I tried one last time to find the best variety and talked to Baban’s father and some elders about it. They suggested Kasbai rice, a fragrant traditional rice. When I asked them where I could find Kasbai rice seeds, they said with sad faces that it wasn’t available in the market.
I’d heard a lot about Kasbai rice, so I wanted to grow it. I thought maybe the government would know about it, so I went to the agriculture officer, but he told me he didn’t know anything about Kasbai rice. Later, I went to the Tribal Corporation and asked them about Kasbai rice, and they told me they didn’t know anything about it.
An official from the Tribal Corporation told me that someone had sold them Kasbai rice a few years ago. Next, I went to a place called Dhaniwari, where I met an elderly man, Devu Handa. Devu was the head of his village. I asked him about Kasbai rice. Devu smiled and told me that once upon a time, the entire village cultivated only Kasbai rice.
But today, no one grows Kasbai rice because all the farmers in the village are busy cultivating new varieties of rice. Devu told me that no one grows Kasbai rice because it takes a long time to grow. Everyone grows inferior quality rice because it takes a very short time to grow. I asked Devu, “If you like Kasbai rice, why don’t you cultivate it?” Devu explained that all the villagers here grow inferior quality rice, and their crops are ready in a short time.
After harvesting, they let their cows and buffaloes roam the fields. If my rice doesn’t grow on time with theirs, the cows and buffaloes will destroy my crop. So, I have to live with everyone. When everyone else has harvested their crops, I too will have to harvest mine.
With great sadness, Devu Handa told me that hybrid rice production requires a lot of chemicals and fertilizers. And it also requires a lot of water. On the other hand, Kasbai rice cultivation was excellent because it didn’t require any chemicals or pesticides. But we ruined everything by growing hybrid rice on our land. Afterward, I told him that I had come to him to buy Kasbai rice seeds. He told me that I wouldn’t find Kasbai rice anywhere in the village.
Finally, Devu told me that there was a village called Asarwari where tribal people grew Kasbai rice on the hills. Afterward, I went to Asarwari village to find Kasbai rice. I didn’t know the Asarwari village language, so I enlisted the help of their village head, who sent his assistant, Jeevan, with me to the hills. Jeevan would translate their language for me. It took us 30 minutes to reach the hills.
There were two houses, and an elderly woman was sitting outside her house. I told Jeevan to ask her about Kasbai rice seeds. She told Jeevan that she had Kasbai rice, but she was asking about us and wanted to know why we needed Kasbai rice. We told the elderly woman that we came from Peth village and wanted to cultivate Kasbai rice.
And I asked the elderly woman for 10 kilograms of Kasbai rice. She explained that she didn’t have a weighing machine and could only give seeds in baskets. I asked for a basket of rice, and Jeevan offered me money. I gave the elderly woman 100 rupees, and she was very happy to receive it. Afterward, we returned to our village with a bucket of Kasbai rice.
After meeting the elderly woman, I felt that she was living a true life because she lived in a peaceful environment, away from cities and technology. These are the people who are protecting the environment, but we people do not care about them.