OPEN SEASON
BY VIKAS THAKUR
‘Hamare season chala hua hai na. Mai ussme busy ho gay
thhi’ the lady opposite me was telling someone over phone. I was outside
Trishul Bakers next to the Gaeity Theatre, enjoying my ‘Spoony’ their trademark
specialty. The woman in her salwar kameez and sadri with the dhathoo (head scarf) was typical upper Shimla type.
Fair, not very tall, with good features. A huge gold mangalsutra was dangling
like pendulum of a grandfather clock on her chest.
‘Season’ or more precisely ‘Apple Season’ is the most important of all here in the hills. It starts with ‘The snow is delayed – Its so scanty this year’ and progresses to stages of –‘ How’s the flowering’…….’When is it going to rain’…….’How is the setting’…….’Oh God! Why did you punish us with hail’……’Theres this attack of mite – fungus-beetle’…..’Will it ever stop raining? Can we see some sun’…..’The market’s booming’…..’The market has bust’…….’Market has recovered’ and finishes with new cars landing in the villages. ' Apke iss baar seb kaise hue' is the most common phrase thrown around which you can't escape. First it was all the maize and wheat fields and later even the paddy 'kyars' were converted to apple orchards following Mr Stokes four apple saplings that came from USA to Kotgarh. Now the once self reliant hill people carry atta, rice and vegetables from market to home, bought with apple money. The other day I was surprised to find a pick up doing the rounds in my ancestral village selling potatoes - announcing from a megaphone!
Being an ‘Orchardist’ is a matter of pride in the
hills. Its worn as a ‘Badge of Honour’ as it is associated with general
prosperity. I remember seeing an olive green Gypsy in school time Kullu which
had ‘Proud To Be An Orchardist’ written in bold letters on the spare tyre
rexine cover on the back.
‘So how was the season’ I asked the Colonel who had a small 5 bigha apple orchard near my place. ‘Oh, it was ok. We had great setting this year but then it began raining early in May and didn’t stop for four months. No sun meant no size and poor color with rusting towards the end. Then dropping started and I had to harvest the fruit in fallen market. Since then, the Kashmir roadblock happened, and the market has recovered but my season was already over’ disclosed the veteran.
‘My total production was around 200 boxes which I sold
for 2 lakh Rupees. I think it’s not bad. You see, I am here not to make money.
Army pays me enough pension. I like to be in nature. And I like being an apple
grower. It’s all the better as long as I am not into losses.’ The colonel made
a bungalow in the orchard and stays there alone most of the time. His children
are working in Gurgaon and Pune, and wife keeps shuttling between the kids.
‘How’s Ramu’? I had inquired about his Gurkha. Shimla
apple industry is dependent on Gurkha labour totally.
‘Oh he’s fine. He’s recovered fully from the attack of
that Nepali demon’.
I had heard that Ramu was troubled a ghost who had
travelled all the way from his village in Nepal and turned him into a crazy guy one night shouting and banging his head. Only a Nepali tantrik in the market of Theog had
finally rid him of the spirit by slaughtering a rooster and performing some voodoo
ceremony. Colonel had paid the tantrik 2000 Rs and also hired a trax to ferry Ramu to Theog at midnight.
‘But you pay Ramu 2 lakh per year to work in the orchard!’
I had told the colonel.
The Colonel had frowned, “You are right that way. In fact,
sometimes I wonder if Ramu is working for me or if it’s vice versa. The guy is after me for a new mobile phone. The other day he created a ruckus suspecting his wife had eloped. We lodged a police complaint. Only - she returned in the evening - said she had gone to Shimla to shop for a watch!!! Can you believe it'!
'So all is well now'?
'Apparently. After a severe beating in the night by Ramu. As told to me by Ramlal, the Gurkha of my neighbour who complained to me of the noise they created at night'.
‘What about the sprays’ I had asked.
“Oh, the sprays! Their number keeps increasing! This year I did some 6 anti-fungal sprays, sprays for the mites, bacteria, and also growth promoters. It cost me twenty grand. Then ‘pruner charged me another 20. The labor I hired for fixing nets and then removing them was 12000. The plucking cost me 10000 Rs. The grader who separates the produce as per size and color and packs it in boxes cost me 40000 Rs. So if I add everything it’s more than 1Lakh! God, I have incurred a loss of 1 Lakh Rs after all my troubles!
‘If you consider the re-employment that was on offer ,
you can add another 12 lakh Rs in a year that you sacrificed to live in the
garden and provide a respectable job to Ramu to support his family back home’ I
had added munching the peanut masala and sipping Colonel’s beer in his beautiful
veranda soaking in the greenary all around with birds chirping and butterflies hovering in the air and the Shali Tibba in the
distance through passing fog and clouds.
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