Patel 1 Kishan Patel Dr. Lynn Raymond (dy g UWRT 1102-B01 16 February 2015 . ‘The Sugarcane Fiasco In the motherly land of the Village Johkha, lie lush farms, prosperous villagers, and the rural sound of village animals, It is a place where villager’s can enjoy both a hardworking lifestyle and a close-knit community. Families are well treated and loyal to each other, which creates a friendly atmosphere that can never be broken. Raju is one of the few village men that live an honest life in Johkha. Like the majority of the families in Johkha, Raju supports his family by working long hours on the forty acres of sugarcane fields. With the help of his brother Ashok, they both help provide for their family of seven. Raju’s parents Manju and Thakor, found a beautiful wife for Raju to marry, who lives in the near by village of Navagam. Raju and the devoted Nikita, both get married on the auspicious day of January 16" in the year 1985. The ‘wedding was extravagant, colorful and traditional; all the villagers of Johkha and Navagam came with their blessings. After two years Nikita bears two delightful kids, a daughter named Ruchi and a troublesome son named Sheev. The Patel family was overloaded with responsibilities, Raju ‘was always busy working on the farm and Nikita took care of both kids. Years had passed by so quickly in the village of Johkha, All the kids grew old enough to take care of their aged parents, including Raju and Nikita, One dismal evening Raju recounts a never-forgotten memory of a terrible time that swept through the village. It took him back twenty years ago, to a day that changed his life as well as the entire village.Patel 2 ‘Twenty years ago Raju and Ashok were at his parohee’s (neighbor in Gujarati) house enjoying an intense card game of kachufool (an Indian card game) with the other village men. Out of nowhere the village messenger runs in to the village claiming the sugarcane fields were on fire, Immediately Raju gets up and ponders for a minute, “could that of been my families plot, because if someone were to burn the fields they would most certainly aim for the plot with the most acreage.” Out all the other men Raju inherited a lot of land from his patrilineal decent. So the village men gather together and decide to visit the sugarcane plots. When they got there they were in shock to see the fact that there was indeed a blazing inferno of heat devouring acres of profitable sugarcane. The unfortunate truth was the wildfire spread over half of Raju and Ashok’s field. ‘The wildfire was devastating event that occurred in the village of Johkha for the first time in decades. Adrenaline rushed in to Raju’s body, his face was full of rage and anger with a hint of despair. All he was thinking of was the backbreaking work his ancestors provided being gone toPatel 3 waste in a split second. While Raju was experiencing his downfall, all the villagers scattered around the fields trying to keep the fire from proliferating. The day ended with much despair in the innocent minds of all the villagers. Families throughout were worrying of the same event happening again. The following morning the village headman Gabbar Patel sent the village men on an inquiry in search of the mindless culprit. Gabbar was elected village headmen a few months earlier; his platform is to provide families with the optimum welfare they deserve. While the inquiry was going on, the village priest Pankaj was busy participating in home puja’s. Puja’s are rituals done to abolish any wrongdoings in a family, Nikita especially believes in the practice of taking part in puja’ sever since she saw what Raju felt the day of the fire she promises to get rid of any bad luck. 3 the inquiry went on for days and still no answer was discovered. Meanwhile uproar existed in Johkha, men were blaming each other for starting the fire; no one was physically involved in searching for the culprit. The text day another fire swept across the villagers sugarcane fields, this time even greater. At this point there was enough tension to create animosity in the village; the friendly atmosphere that existed before was broken into pieces. Even the children suffered because their parents prohibited them from playing with the neighbor's children. Despite what is happening, Raju does not want to envision his fellow villagers eradicate the values and morals of Johkha. Instead he wants to catch the culprit and expel he/she from the village boundaries. He starts to question why Gabbar has not informed the local officials and why the inquiry ended. Raju decides to visit Gabbar in search of some answers, while he is walking to his farm Raju notices a backdoor deal between Gabbar and the village messenger. Instead of approaching Gabbar, Raju agrees to take this piece of news back to the village. At thePatel 4 village, Raju spills every bit of news he observed in front of all the villagers. As a whole they agreed to rally against Gabbar, because he had to have been the culprit afterall. At the rally all the villagers including the women and children gathered outside Gabbar’s house. Gabbar notices the noise level outside his house and comes outside. The villagers are voicing their thoughts as to why Gabbar did what he did in the first place. Their was no way out of this situation, so Gabbar came clean and reasoned that he wanted the entire village to suffer what he had suffered during his childhood. He also wanted to monopolize the profits that associate with agriculture. On the other side the villagers claim he misused his power as a village headman and that he caused an unnecessary amount of vengeance. So the villagers did what was right and expelled Gabbar from Johkha, The villagers appointed Raju as the new village headman. Things were gradually getting back to normal. The villagers learned a lot from all the unnecessary fiasco that went along during time; they came to realize the importance of unity and solidarity within the village. ‘The end of the day was coming; Ruchi was helping her dad by giving the medicine he needed. Sheev came back from a village meeting and sat down with the rest of his family. Diwali was coming up which brought joy into the eyes of Nikita except she was too old to prepare anything. The village headman who was Ashwin decided to do celebrate Diwali together at the village temple. Life continued in the unified village of Johkha; the young generation took over the responsibilities of maintaining welfare. The story of what happened twenty years ago is remembered and passed down to generations as a remembrance of staying loyal to your village.Patel 5 Works Cited Patel, Vijay B. "The Sugarcane Story." Telephone interview. 9 Feb. 2015. Sugarcane. Digital image. Theepochtimes.com. The Epoch Times, 21 June 2009. Web. 10 Feb. 2015,Listen or Look for fanouing of mntersting Fate: TL connerion 99 Counter of origin W znos tates Propect¥ cited a/ renasitrons peween FP Mahe Sut He pues were ae one Snvsreton Tie musr conteia & Cole eucide one marrage Pale Qf oe Sibimg fonowed wo e1vsTo o/ mse abs MUA Format D In-Teat Citaten ness ore BD Srmmmner | 5 eesiNg B/ 9M aS peer pereurer en bactt wee Cio Tag, prscovey Wad dDislosre Dione prece oF Peseaeh oe