[Samurai]

I have always heard that India is an agricultural country and 70% live in villages. But that demography gets completely flipped when comes to Internet where almost all Indian net-surfers live in towns, cities or abroad.

Since I am one of the rare village dweller with Airtel broadband, I thought I'll show a rare glimpse of life of local villages to you mostly city folks.

The monsoon is in full bloom here and it has been raining for weeks, practically non-stop, it rains night, morning, afternoon and evening. That's brings forth an annual event in our area, the Nutty event. The process of planting rice seedlings is known as Nutty in my native language Tulu.

The rice is not grown by merely sowing the seeds. Let me explain the process. Once the monsoon rains start in late May or early June, the rice seeds are sprinkled in a small portion of the total farming area. Over the next one month, the seeds give away to seedlings or young rice plants. But these plants are way to close to each other and won't have enough space to grow. Now it is time for Nutty.

#1 Sowing or Nutty (June)

#2 Mid-growth (September)

#3 Near harvest time (October)

#4 Harvesting (October)

[Samurai]

First the tiller tills the remaining paddy fields.





Then the seedlings are uprooted and made into small bunches.



These seedling bunches are then distributed over the freshly tilled field for easy access during planting.



Then the farm hands fan across the field and start planting the seedlings.





Finally, the fully planted field looks like this.

[Haque]

Wow, you have a wonderfull flair for writing. As always ur pictures are vivid and enchanting!
A lesson in Agri-culture for the auto-enthusiast. We are done with the 'nutty' part now, ( i guess its the same term used throughout the malnad ). Waiting for the story to continue. Though it will be sometime b4 the seedlings grow up and are ready to be reaped.. yet would like to see it through ur photos ...

-Haque

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Haque

Wow, you have a wonderfull flair for writing. As always ur pictures are vivid and enchanting!

Thanks, but I am nowhere close to the photo gurus in our forum.

Originally Posted by Haque

Waiting for the story to continue. Though it will be sometime b4 the seedlings grow up and are ready to be reaped.. yet would like to see it through ur photos ...
-Haque

Heh heh. Now that's a good idea. Wait for a update after a month or so.

Actually this idea of shooting Nutty was my wife's. Yesterday I heard that Nutty has started in her grandmother's paddy fields. So I swung by the fields [with my dSLR] before going to work. It is only 3Kms from my office.

[khaadu75]

Samurai, nicely put !! I too am in a village but with no broadband though I cant wait for the day when ot does reach my place .... cud put up loads of info on life in rural India for all the city guys ....

Ive been asked the stupidest questions about rural life by a lot of educated people .. lol !!!

Cheers

[DaPilot]

Samurai... awesome work! Great stuff and really very interesting...


This really highlights the time, effort, and patience that goes into things that many of us just don’t think about and take for granted.

I’ll definitely read part 2 of your story

[jkdas]

Nice one. The pix are even better

[islero]

Samurai, superb pics, and excellent writeup. Waiting for the continuation.


Oh , no, I am not going to bore you again with my stupid know-nothing questions about how you took the pictures, what settings etc. lol

[major]

Thanks for the pics , it reminds me of my village in Kerala(fond memories), made my day, Thanks once again.

Keep it comming.

[Rtech]

Great pictorial Samurai San!

Since I am one of the rare village dweller with Airtel broadband,

That cracked me up!!

[Samurai]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Originally Posted by islero

Oh , no, I am not going to bore you again with my stupid know-nothing questions about how you took the pictures, what settings etc. lol

Good, you remember what I said last time. If I just give you the exif data, you can't repeat the shot, the lighting situation will be different from shot to shot. You need to understand the basics of exposure, metering, composition, lenses and practice a lot. Only then exif data will be of any use.

In this situation All were handheld shots since I dared not to plant my manfrotto into that foot deep muck. There was no guarantee that the tripod wouldn't tip over since any of the narrow legs could sink suddenly. Therefore the tripod remained firmly on my back.

As I started clicking away, the working women were amused. One woman told me they all would have come primped up if they had advance warning of a photo shoot. She didn't know me, but she spoke in Tulu language. I replied I like it this way since it looks all natural, don't think they got my meaning. In a jeans/T-shirt combo I looked totally out of place. Then another woman asked the first one as to how she assumed this yuppy could speak their tongue. The first woman said "That's easy, I only know one language". And she felt vindicated because I could speak the same tongue.

Again they were all apologetic that there were no young females among them, they were all between 40-65. They felt my camera and I deserved better spectacle. They couldn't believe I was happy snapping away old dames and mucky fields.

Surprisingly, it was rain free throughout the photo session and remained so until I got back to the car. I was really lucky because I had ventured into the fields without an umbrella. Had it rained, I would have been caught in the middle along with the camera.

Unlike me these ladies were fully prepared. Their rain protection equipment was close at hand. This is the traditional hands free rain-gear which allows them to work unhindered in rain.

[airfoil]

Nice writeup. A little unusual though, to see buffaloes being put to work instead of bullocks. Is this commonplace in those areas?

[sanket12]

great write up..remindes me of my native place ... udupi. and the fun i used to have as a kid during this season :-)

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by sanket12

great write up..remindes me of my native place ... udupi. and the fun i used to have as a kid during this season :-)

This location is within 8 Kms of Udupi town. Nice to know you are from the neighbourhood.

Originally Posted by airfoil

Nice writeup. A little unusual though, to see buffaloes being put to work instead of bullocks. Is this commonplace in those areas?

Yes, in this area everybody uses only baffaloes for tilling purposes.

[Rudra Sen]

Fantastic Samurai. You need to record this step by step. As you rightly said your next trip should be next month..

I've edited those shots in terms of colour. Green, especially in monsoon is at it's best. Next time you're here, I'll give you some tricks to improve colours...

I've not taken your permission before editing these images. Sorry, it was too tempting... please don't get angry