Vivek managed to postpone his trip by 2 days in the hope
that we could get someone to atleast milk the cows, as I found this task the
most difficult. Hands used to excessive computer usage (courtesy my programming
days) don’t take easily to ‘high pressure’ jobs like these!
Coming to think about it, you don’t really
need to exert very high pressure between your thumb and fingers when you are
milking. If you do it right, you could be making smooth, fluid movements like a
dancer and still have a steady stream of frothy, creamy milk fast filling into
the milking pail. But alas, I have not yet mastered the technique!
Luckily enough, just the day before Vivek was to leave one
of our acquaintances called up to say
that he could get someone to do the milking for us. ‘Only the milking – he has
no time for any other jobs’ he said. Fine, at least one task would be taken
care of!
So, enter Subraya the milkman. Tall, gangly with a tooth-y
smile, arms flailing about as he walked in and looked around the cow shed. We
had just finished milking the cows when he came in. Only country cows, no
Jersey’s or crossbred? he exclaimed. His
speech was rapid-fire kannada and I could barely follow. He saw the milk pails
and asked ‘finished?’ . I pointed out to Madhubala and said ‘not her, she
kicks’
Aaah he said and started walking towards her with his hand
extended towards her udders. Madhubala rolled her eyes, snorted and started on
what was surely one of her terrible tantrums.
Be careful, she kicks! ...........Do you need a rope? ....... Should I
hold a feed bucket out for her?.....Subraya paid no attention to my questions.
He was walking towards her slowly like a cat towards its prey, making clucking
sounds, soothing sounds, undeterred by her monstrous behaviour. A couple of
thwacks on her bottom when she kicked, his right hand still extended towards
her udder, still making the clucking sounds, and Madhubala started calming down.
He started milking her and yelled out to me ‘Patra kodee’ – hand me the vessel.
I promptly did so and the comforting sound of the jets of milk falling into an
empty vessel soon replaced by the sound of a frothing container were heard! Oh
what a marvellous relief! Madhubala did
continue to snort a bit and moved her legs a bit as if to kick but Subraya was
ready with a deft slap and a louder snort which seemed to tell her ‘Behave Yourself!’ And Madhubala did behave herself!
My admiration for these locals grows in leaps
and bounds!
So Subraya took care of
milking all the milch animals, heralding his arrival twice a day with a
ting-a-ling-ting of his bicycle. He was a quick worker and finished his task in
less than half an hour.
Well, about the other tasks, I managed some, left some
undone, messed up some like the irrigation...... Before he left, Vivek had tried to explain the complex irrigation
system to me and after 20 minutes of his lecture, I realised I had not followed
anything, So out came my note book. He patiently repeated everything and I took
down notes like these:
·
Open the valve near the ‘3 bamboo’ section.
·
If you are watering the nutmeg tree section then
open the valve near the Bridelia tree, else open the one near the Mango trees
section
·
After you close the main hatch, don’t dawdle all
the way to the pump else it will create an air-lock – which means the pump starts
but no water comes out of the sprinkler system!
·
Water this section in the morning that one in
the afternoon, and next day this one.....and so on
·
Put only 12 sprinkler heads in this section,
that section can handle 18...and so on...
 |
| No time to stand and stare -----race to the pump-house |
 |
| The Bridelia tree - A close-up of its thorny-glory! |
I thought I had understood everything. I systematically numbered the sprinkler heads
P1, P2, P3....and so on. But when I started doing it....aaarrgghhhh...Euclid’s theorem
on Prime numbers seemed easier!
 |
| Is this valve open or closed ? How can a simple thing like this confuse me? |
 |
| P1, P2, P3....... |
But pretty soon the week was over and Vivek was back. I had
managed fairly well, no burst pipelines. no ruined pump or anything major like
that.
Shortly after that our farmer friend Sonnu informed us that
his nephew from Hudil was willing to work on our farm. He knows this kind of
work well and he is a willing worker he said. So ‘Yogesh’ joined us. True to Sonnu’s description he is a
good and willing worker.
Now that the tough time has passed, looking back we realise what
a fantastic learning experience it has been for us! We have the confidence that
we can handle almost any task on the farm... well almost any......ahem..almost......except
probably our darling Madhubala’a
milking!
