By the lunch-time the sky had already cleared but the fields were still full of muddy water. All the villagers were waiting for the solution from Raju. Many people thought about going to the government official but there was no way for them to get out of the village. The men of the village were sweating since none of them had took a bath, children were peeking from behind their elders with eyes full of curiosity. Soon Raju and Mohan stepped out with two books one was the notepad in which Raju had written down his observations and the other was his textbook. The villagers and Yadav family had assembled in their courtyard. All the villagers were crying for the help from Raju. He cleared his throat and made them calm, he raised his voice, “Listen everyone... we still have time save our crops but not much that we cry upon it. We will need to work together for getting our crops back. We don’t have any guarantee that the officials will come and look after it.” He peeked into the book and said the solution’s, “The water should be drained from the fields immediately and lime need to be squeezed and spread to stop the fungal rot on the wheat.” As soon as he completed his words all started bringing the equipment’s from their home and started working on their fields, Raju instructed the children to fill sacks with gravel and place them along the edges to stop further erosion. Mohan was instructed to handle the lime mixing and to keep watch of the water flow, since it was very important. Mohan’s face lit up-not with pride but with purpose to help his village and his brother.
Around 5 o’clock all the villagers again gathered near their courtyard. They all had came together to find out how much work they had done till now. Till the time everybody were gathering a government jeep came, it couldn’t enter the fields since they all were muddy. One of the officers took a megaphone so that the villagers can hear his voice. The officer in loud and clear voice made an announcement that, “This area has been declared eligible for flood relief. Farmers may apply for emergency aid… only with land registration and identity documents.”. One voice from the villager’s crowd also rose, “But, what if our documents washed away? ”
“No Exception”, the officer said without any emotion.
Few farmers were too poor, too old or too illiterate to have such documents. They sat down defeated and the work for the day stopped
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