Life's very hard here

We city dwellers have a romantic view of a villager’s life: greenery all around, no pollution, no traffic, no Tv etc. Chon is around 70 kms from Thane. In fact, Badlapur, the nearest railway station is just 10kms from the village but the life comes to a standstill once the sun goes down. There is greenery around, hardly any pollution but life is very hard. Baku, my caretaker, who lives on my plot, told me that his wife has not keeping well. Gita had temperature in the night but Baku could not take her to the doctor because the last bus leaves Chon at 5pm only to resume the next service at 9am.
“Auto rickshaw bhi nahi hai,” he said.
Thankfully I had tablets of Crocin with me which I handed to him.
I got the taste of village life when I left my farm one Sunday hoping I will get the 5pm bus. Having waited for over 40 minutes I started walking. Five kms. later I was lucky to get a ride in someone’ s bike. Next Sunday the bus driver told me that the bus was cancelled because there were not enough passengers. In fact, lot my villagers from Chon and Rhatoli have taken up residence in Badlapur and Ambarnath as the ST bus service is very erratic.

Chon, the village

Chon! I never knew that one day I would talk about this village, 10 kms from Badlapur railway station, to friends and those willing to listen to me that this where my farm is! Reaching Chon is not difficult if you follow the road leading to Barvi dam, a tourist spot during the monsoon months. While you proceed and drive 5 kms or so you come across Rhatoli village. Enter Rhatoli and you’re on your way to Chon leaving the cluster of squat houses with tiled roof behind. Chon village which has developed on both sides of a narrow road doesn’t make much of an impression. But you do come across mobikes or a tractor parked outside the house, an always closed Primary Health Centre, the recently build panchayat office with its TV antenna standing on a squarish pylon. Chon receives a ST bus only thrice a day, beginning its journey from Badlapur. The last bus leaves at 5pm. But then the villagers have learnt to live with the uncertainty of the bus services, thanks to the eight-seater rickshaws which leave Badlapur only after it has a load of 10 passengers. The fare is Rs 10.