We should never think we are wiser than our parents
I have not updated my blog for one and half year. That is long. Way too long. I did not intent to update it today. I just lazily checked it because I was reading a friend’s blog and it made me think of my mine. Then I read the first paragraph of the last post, which is about my mother wanting to plant potatoes every year despite the yield being poor.
And it is this plan of hers, her drive and desire to farm that wanted me to write a post today. So, like every year, last year as well, she won and we planted potatoes. In fact, our effort is minimal. We plant the potatoes. She sows pumpkin seeds, peas, and beans. And that is that – almost. We go twice to dig and weed, and then the third time to harvest. No tending in between. No fertilizer, no manure. So, what we harvest in the end is completely organic and gift of nature (I think) because we put no effort to maximize the output. And even for this travel that we have to make four times to a 10 KM distance, we complain. And we can’t seem to find time. The time that my mother fixes always seems to clash with some sort of program that we have. And even as I write this, I feel guilty that we have always given less priority to what she considered important and we were cloaked in our own ego that we know better and our plans stand above hers.
My mother says that the land is gold. She is 75 years old now – so she is that many years more matured and has seen more hardship – the times when there were no roads and no electricity, let alone this fluid economy of transacting everything with money and doing almost everything on mobile devices. So, when she says that the land is gold, it means, it only matters whether we have the heart to work or not, and if we do, there is nothing that we can’t get from it. And it proved true last year.
I heard only yesterday that a kilogram of potato costs Nu. 100. When in history has it cost that much? So, while some others must be paying that much for a kilogram of potato, I am saved because we gave in to my mother and we planted it. And I tell you, I have not bought pumpkin as well, for over six months now and pumpkin is the main ingredient for my two sons.
Covid-19 gave us a big lesson. You may have money but if you don’t have someone farming, money can’t grow food in your home. With the news of Covid, I saw all my neighbors racking every small corner of unused land to make kitchen garden. And also thanks to my mother, I have a small kitchen garden right in front of where I live – and I get to cook fresh, right-out-of-the-garden vegetables once in a while.
So, it tells me this: we may have gone to school and our parents could be illiterate, but we should never think that we are more educated or wiser. Experience probably is the best teacher.
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