Pettiness of Village People

When people hear the phrase "village people," they often imagine simple, naïve, and helpful folks. If that is what you think, you may need to change that notion. 

Reality is not always so romantic. I lived in a village for the first fifteen years of my life, and I saw plenty of pettiness there. Let me give a few examples.

I painted those incidents to quench my nostalgia too. 

1.

My father had many flaws, but he was a wonderful gardener. From his modest salary as a teacher, he spent some money buying beautiful plants. Our front yard had many pots with roses. Green, yellow, pink, and other colores. When they bloomed, it was beautiful. The glory of our house.

But some people could not control their envy. One day, some village boys broke into the front yard and stole the flowerpots. My father paid a few people to find out what happened to the rose pots. Later we discovered that the pots had been thrown into the pond in the village edge. Can you imagine such cruelty?

2.

We also had many orange trees in our backyard. We never sold the fruits, but we simply ate them at home and shared them with guests and relatives. One day a badly behaved boy in the neighborhood picked a bag full of green oranges and tried to sell them to someone. Because very few people in the village had orange trees, others quickly realized where they came from and complained about the boy. By then the damage had already been done. The fruits had been plucked too early and were ruined.

3.

In front of our house, there was a large cement tank filled with fresh water. Our house was on the path to the village market and church. People walking that route would get thirsty, so they were allowed to open the green gate and drink water from the tank. 

Sometimes people would come to take curry leaves for family functions or community feasts and again leave the gate open. 

But many of them were careless and would leave the gate open. Goats would enter the yard and browse the plants my father had carefully grown.

Yet we never imposed restrictions. We continued allowing people to drink water and take curry leaves.

4.

Once my sister and I went to the village market to buy vegetables. We were bargaining for custard apples when a woman quietly tried to walk away with a bag full of our groceries. Luckily, we noticed it in time and confronted her. She claimed she had gotten confused, but it was clearly intentional.

5.

We also had a big mango tree with branches full of fruit clusters. Instead of asking politely, some people would throw stones at the tree to knock the mangoes down, without caring that the stones could hit someone inside the house. If they had simply asked, my mother would have happily given them a few mangoes.

6.

Today we know how costly parking spaces are in the United States. Recently when we went to Legoland, parking itself was $40. People rent their houses, charge tuition, and charge money for every service.

But my father's generosity was always free. We had a spacious front porch, where people would park their bicycles and two-wheelers there as if it were public property. Strangers would constantly come and go, disturbing our privacy. When I see paid parking spaces today, I remember how we unknowingly gave away our own space and privacy for free.

7.

When I was preparing for national entrance exams, I studied in a small room behind our house. One poorly mannered boy would sit in a chair in his yard and stare directly through the window. I wanted sunlight and fresh air while studying, but to avoid encouraging such behavior I had to close the door and window.

8.

Once a man asked my mother for a papaya and requested that she send it through a boy. My mother gave the papaya to the boy, but later the man claimed he had never received it. Later the boy told his mother told once the fruit had entered their property, it can be returned. Imagine the logic.

9. There were also lotteries organized in the village. Strangely, the children of the organizers often ended up winning the prizes - televisions, and other rewards.

10. In a quiz competition organized in the village, loafers participated. The questions came from a magazine which they had clearly crammed. Eventually my sister and I still won first and second prizes, anyway.

11. Once a dimwit put my bicycle in a drain as I was in my tutor's class. When I got the bicycle out, all stinky, he must have giggled from his hiding spot. He forgot Karma is also watching from a hiding spot.

12. Some of they talked about money and earnings during funerals.

There were many such incidents. So please don't tell me that villagers are always naïve and innocent. They can also be petty, jealous, and careless. 

They can be great body-shamers too, but that is a story for another day.

Perhaps all these nuisances happened because most people had no clear purpose. When people have little purpose in life, they often become petty. The cycle continues across generations. I feel sorry for them. 

Such is the strange nature of human behavior.