1-3) The Call of the Soil

1-3}The Call of the Soil
ICE BREAKERS
               

The First Crop
The Scent of Rice
        
  
  BRAINSTORMING

Apr-05		The agriculturak officer		Devu Handa knew about
started his search	👉	did not help to find kasbai	👉	kasbai
for kasbai rice				👇
		Devu Handa suggested to go an Adivasi nvillage
		👇
Bought kasbai
rice from an adivasi woman in a remote area

• Discuss the following with your partner and complete the following 

sentences. 

 (a) Before eating apples brought from the market, I wash and peel them 

off 

 (b) In a farmers’ market, we find 

 (c) Food adulteration means 

 (d) Organic food is grown by using 

 (e) Organic fertilizer means 

• Complete the following web diagram :

Rice varieties available 

at my Grocer’s shop

• (i) Find out from your grandparents or parents the names of vegetables 

and fruits they had eaten in their childhood and mention how the 

vegetables and fruits are different from the ones today.

Name of the vegetable or fruit Shape Colour Taste

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2.

3.

(ii) You might have learnt about organic farming. Make groups and 

discuss the difference between conventional farming and organic 

farming and write it down.

Sr.No. Conventional Farming Organic Farming

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2.

ABOUT WRITER-  Venkateshwaran (Venkat) Iyer : Born in 1966, 

Venkateshwaran (Venkat) Iyer is a science graduate and a certified project 

management professional. He last worked with IBM in Mumbai 

as a project manager for software implementation(अमलबजावणी). After seventeen 

years in the IT industry, he quit in 2004 to live on his organic 

farm in Peth village in Dahanu Taluka, Palghar District, 

Maharashtra.

    His book 'Moong over Microchips' traces his transition from 

techie (तज्ञ)  to farmer, over a period of 15 to 17 years. "It was not 

a career change, but a life style change I was looking for," he says about his decision 

to shift to the quieter environs (शांत वातावरण) of a village. He insisted

 on practising organic farming from the outset. He was resolute(दृढ)  inspite 

of numerous challenges which he faced. 

Today not only does he deliver lectures on organic farming, but also has joined 

hands with organic farmers and NGOs working in the organic field to propagate 

organic farming to "ensure that the land at least is not ravaged(उद्व स्थ )  while they try to 

make a living out of agriculture."

        It was April 2004. I stood in the middle of the lush (समृद्ध) 

green field of moong (green gram) and looked around me. 

It was just before sunrise and the sky was turning a bright orange.

The ground was damp and the leaves were shining with dew. 

My bare feet were muddy as I walked around gingerly,

 (very careful) inspecting the plants.

        Around me were rows of chikoo trees and below 

a dense foliage (leaves of tree)  of moong. 

At that point, I could not have asked for anything more.

The moong plants, not more than two feet tall, had green pods hanging out. 

The pods were not yet ripe and there was a light fuzz 

growing on them. There was still some time before 

the harvest. I felt exhilarated.(happy) 

        I stood watching the sun rise above the towering trees across

 the fence and slowly made my way back to the house, a white structure 

in the middle of this greenery. I could not believe that I was the

 owner of this land and that I was looking at my first crop asa farmer.

 After I had paid the advance money for the land, I thought I would

 have some time to get familiar with farming. But Moru Dada, the 

broker who got us the land, had other ideas. He was keen that we

 plant moong at once. I was not prepared for this. I was still reading

 books and trying to figure out what we could sow and how we should go about it. 

Moru Dada was quite firm. He said the season was right for 

sowing moong and the best seeds were available in Surat in 

the adjacent(जवळ)  state of Gujarat.

    I made a quick trip to Surat and bought around 10 kilograms

 of moong. Moru Dada rented his tractor to plough the land 

and quickly planted moong all over the place.

        A few days later, we were overjoyed to see tiny green leaves.

 I had never seen moong growing before and was thrilled at the sight.

 It was the same thrill I had felt as a young boy when I saw the first 

of the hibiscus I had planted bloom (फूल झाड) at the Railway Quarters 

in Vile Parle in Mumbai. I was grateful (कृतज्ञ) to have taken

 Moru’s advice.

        The next thing Moru Dada wanted to do was spray 

some pesticide on the plants. He claimed that it would 

give a higher yield9 उत्पन्न) . This was something we did not 

want to do. We were clear that we would not use any 

chemicals and tried to explain it to him. He reacted as 

if we had suggested hara-kiri. (a formal way of killing yourself 

by cutting  open stomach with sword)  It took a lot of 

convincing to ensure that Moru Dada and his friends 

did not use any chemicals on the farm. They refused 

to understand how crops could grow without sprays.

        Contrary (उलट) to what everyone had told us, nature did 

her job and she needed no bribes (लाच) to get the work done. 

Soon it was harvest (कापनी) time and we managed a 

respectable 300 kilograms. An awful lot of moong and 

with it a lot of confidence. Now I was certain the land was 

fertile(सुपीक)  and that it was possible to grow crops without 

chemicals. It was a major morale booster.(प्रोत्साहक) 

The first year I was late for the rice-sowing season 

and had to resort (उपभोग) to growing the GR4 variety that

 was short term and recommended by the agricultural 

officers at Kosbad.

 The next year we decided that we would start early

 and try to find some good traditional 

variety of rice to grow. 

We had read about traditional(पारंपरिक)             

varieties of rice and knew that they did not require 

very high inputs of fertilizers. 

These varieties were also quite strong and resisted 

pests. (कीटक) We were sure that it was this type of 

rice that would grow well in our 

farm where we did not use any chemicals at all. 

Our previous year’s experience and low yield had taught 

us a lesson and we were sure we would not plant 

hybrids (हायब्रिड) this year.

        In April 2005, we started to look for a good variety 

of traditional rice. It was one of our neighbours in the village,

 a businessman from Mumbai who owned land, 

who suggested that we plant a local scented variety of rice.

 Most of the farmers in and around the village 

of Peth had switched over to hybrids. 

The younger generation of farmers thought I was crazy to ask for 

the ‘desi’ variety(देशी जात) , as they called it. 

My regular visits to the villages around searching for a 

good traditional variety also did not yield any results and we were 

almost giving up hope.

        I decided to give it one last try and spoke to 

Baban’s father and some other elders.

 After many meaningful conversations, they mentioned 

the name of Kasbai.(तांदला च्या जातीचे नाव) 

Kasbai is a traditional long-grained rice variety 

which has a distinct aroma,(सुगंध)  though much milder than Basmati. 

It’s a long-duration crop and most of the 

older people remembered growing it years ago. But 

they all shook their heads when I asked them about 

the seeds and told me that it had ‘disappeared’.(वापरत नसलेला) 

        The tales of Kasbai made us more determined to ( दृढ) get it. 

We decided that if we did manage to get some 

seeds this would be a great rice to grow.

I thought the government may know something about it.

 A visit to the agricultural officer was enlightening.

(give knowledge and understanding)  

He had not even heard of this rice variety. 

He said the villagers were taking me for a ride and 

there was no rice bythis name. 

He rattled(talk rapidly )off the names of a number of 

latest hybrids and even offered to give me some of 

them free of cost for a trial. Cursing myself for wasting 

time with him I moved on to the next destination(ठिकाण) .

        This time it was the Adivasi Mahamandal at Kasa 

which buys rice from the Adivasi villagers on behalf 

of the government. 

Kasbai did not figure in their files. 

A good indication why people did not grow it any more. 

The market itself did not recognize the rice, so 

if you grew it you would not be able to sell it. 

However, the officer incharge here had more knowledge 

of rice and did remember Kasbai being sold to him 

a few years ago.

        So when I in Dhanivari, Baban and I started looking 

for Devu Handa (व्यक्ति चे नाव) and found a greying(करडा  रंग) 

old man wearing a cap, sitting outside his house on a

 charpoy. (खुर्ची) 

An ex-sarpanch(माजी सरपंच)  of the village, he had acres of land, 

a huge house and a large family. 

After exchanging the usual pleasantries (आनंद दायक गोष्टी) 

we came to the topic of Kasbai. 

The mere mention (सध्या उलेख) of Kasbai and 

Devu Handa drifted into the past. 

His eyes turned dreamy and with a 

tremble in his voice he told us how the entire village 

at one time grew only Kasbai.

 He said, "There was a time when people passing 

our village during lunchtime would be forced to 

stop and ask for a meal. 

Such was the alluring (मोहक) aroma of Kasbai."

 The entire area would have this heady(तीव्र)  aroma 

hanging in the air as all the houses cooked the same rice.

Today, he said, no one grew Kasbai and everyone had 

shifted to (वळणे )growing the new hybrid varieties. 

He claimed he had to force himself to eat this rice 

that was so insipid! (बेचव) 

With the advent( क्रांति)  of irrigation, farmers were

 tempted (मोह) to grow a second crop and Kasbai, 

being a long-duration rice, was replaced by the shorter 

duration hybrids so that the harvest could be done earlier. 

This ensured (खात्री)  that the farmers could take up

 a second crop.I asked why he had shifted if he

 was so unhappy with the hybrids. 

No one forced him to, did they? 

He smiled and replied that their fields did not have fences 

and once the harvest was over the cattle were released 

into the fields.

 ‘If my field alone has Kasbai it will 

be a treat(मेजवानी )  for the cattle,’ he explained.

        ‘Sometimes, we have to fall in line with the 

community,’ he lamented.(expression of grief)दुख याचे  भाव )

 Hybrids need more water, fertilizers and pesticides.

 He said that yields were good initially but of late,

had reduced a lot. 

Besides he said that each year they had to increase

 the quantity of urea and pesticides they used. 

It was as if the newer hybrids had an 

insatiable (IMPOSSIBLE TO SATISFY) appetite (भूक) 

for chemicals. 

He told us that even when there were flash floods in 

the sixties, Kasbai had stood its ground. 

He fondly( प्रेमाने) remembered how the rice was still

 standing when they 

all returned to the village after the floods had receded. 

‘Such was the strength of the rice. But look what we 

have done,’ he rued.(पच्चाताप )

        As he went on reminiscing (remembering a past story)

  about the rice, we gently guided him back to the

 reason for our visit, the Kasbai seeds. 

He was sure that there was not a single 

villager in his area who would have the seeds of Kasbai. 

According to him, the only people who still 

grew it were the Adivasis in a hamlet  (लहान खेडे) 

at the foothills of the mountains in the next village Asarvari. 

We bid (निरोप घेणे)farewell to Devu Handa who 

lovingly blessed us and said, ‘Mahalaxmi, 

the local Goddess, will give you the seeds of Kasbai.’

        In Asarvari village, we asked the sarpanch to help 

us as we were not very fluent with the local dialect. (बोली भाषा)

He sent his assistant Jeevan with us into the hills. 

After a half-hour walk through thick vegetation, (झाडे झुडपे)

crossing numerous streams and ditches (पाट) and scrambling (जाणे) 

over rocks and gravel,

 we reached the sleepy hamlet of Boripada. 

There were just two ramshackle (a state of severe repair )

 houses in front of us and we wondered if this was the right 

place. 

A wrinkled old woman sitting before one of the 

houses looked at us with curiosity.

 As we approached her we signalled to Jeevan to ask

 the crucial question. 

She muttered(पुटपुटणे)  in reply and we looked at Jeevan for a 

quick interpretation.(अर्थ)  He broke into a smile and 

informed us that she did have the rice and wanted to 

know who we were and why we wanted it. 

        It was a difficult task to keep a straight face and 

I had to control a strong desire to hug her. After 

searching for months, we had found the elusive (पकडण्यास अवघड) 

Kasbai. We explained to her that we were from Peth 

nearby and we needed the seeds to grow it. We asked 

for 10 kilograms of rice.

 She muttered and scowled. (कपाळावर आठ्या पडणे) 

Jeevan interpreted (अर्थ  लावणे)  that she had never heard of Peth 

village and also did not have a weighing scale. She 

was willing to give  (तयार असणे ) the seeds only in baskets. We 

asked for a single basket of rice and Jeevan told us 

to pay her something. I handed over a 100-rupee note 

and for the first time in the last ten minutes, her face 

broke (बदलणे)  into a smile. She nodded (मन हलवणे)  her head in approval.

As we walked back, against the fading sunset, 

leaving behind a smiling old lady, I couldn’t help but 

wonder that here, nestling  (वसणे_ in the foothills of an 

unknown mountain away from the hustle and bustle 

of the road or the city, were the real people of India. 

These were the people who still held on to the rich 

biodiversity (जैव विविधता) of our land and no one even cared about 

them. They had never heard of hybrids, fertilizers or 

pesticides. They just grew their rice and ate what they 

got. The old lady we met had probably never left 

Boripada. Her world was unspoilt by ‘progress’. And 

for once I was grateful for that.

-Venkat Iyer

(A1) (i) Read the extract and state whether the following 

statements are true or false. Correct the false statements. 

 (a) Growing in abundance is more important than the 

quality of the crop.             ❌

 (b) The author wanted to grow the desi variety of rice.    ✔

 (c) The author did not succeed in finding Kasbai.    ❌

 (d) The aroma of the ‘desi’ rice would spread around the village.    ✔

 (e) Newer hybrid crops have a great appetite for chemicals.    ✔

 (f) The author is an example of ‘reverse migration’.        ✔

    

(ii) Complete the flow chart. Consider this as an 

example of 

 Note-Making.

Discovery of Kasbai rice. 

(iii) Read the text and fill in the blanks.

 (a) The author wanted to grow organic moong.

 (b) Moru Dada wanted to spray on the moong crop.

 (c) Baban’s father and some elders mentioned the name of .

 (d) “Hybrids need more ”, said Devu Handa.

 (e) The author bought kilos of rice from an Adivasi 

woman who lived in remote hills.

(A2) (i) List the reactions of the agricultural officer to

 the author’s inquiry about Kasbai rice seeds.

 (a) He had not heard of Kasbai.

 (b)HE OFFERS TO GIVE the writer letest hybrid seeds of rice free 

 (c) He said that there was no rice oby that name 

(ii) Go through the text once again and note down 

Devu Handa’s fond memories of Kasbai in your exercise book.

 Devu Handa has fond memories of Kasbai. 

They are as follows !

 (a) It needs rain.

 (b)The entire village would grow kasabai

 (c) when people  pass ing by village would stop ...

(A3) (i) The writer says he grew ‘an awful lot of moong’.

 Explain the word 

'awful' in this sentence.

(ii) The word scent is different from its synonyms aroma, 

fragrance or perfume. Explain how the word 'scent' i

n the subtitle ‘Scent of the 

Rice’, has a deeper meaning than ‘perfume’ or ‘fragrance’.

Tick phrases having a similar meaning from the following:

 (a) In pursuit of            ✔

 (b) To smell a rat 

(c) To be keen

 (d) On the trail of          ✔

 (e) To feel under the weather

(A4) Read the following sentence:

(i) She muttered in reply and we looked at Jeevan for a quick 

interpretation.

(ii) These are two complete sentences underlying the above sentence.

 (a) She muttered in reply.

 (b) We looked at Jeevan for quick interpretation.

 These two sentences are put together by using the co-ordinating 

conjunction ‘and’.

 Such sentences which are joined by co-ordinating conjunctions (and/ but/ 

either...or; neither...nor) are called compound sentences. 

 Sentence ‘a’ and ‘b’ are Simple Sentences.

 Each of them has only one subject and one predicate.

 Sentence ‘a’ and ‘b’ can be written in another way.

 As she muttered in reply, we looked at Jeevan for a quick interpretation.

 This sentence begins with a subordinating conjunction ‘As’. 

 This is a complex sentence.

 Two simple sentences joined by subordinate conjunctions are called 

complex sentences. The subordinate conjunction need not always be in 

the beginning of the sentence.

 Make pairs and groups and find out some more simple, complex and 

compound sentences from the text.

 Prepare a list of subordinating conjunctions.

(A5) (i) Planting and growing more crops a year seems to be progress by 

normal standards; but the chapter makes a case against it. Give 

reasons.

(ii) Describe in about 150 words your experience similar to the writer’s 

when you pursued something and reached your goal. 

(iii) The writer goes in search of an invaluable indigenous variety of 

seeds. List three reasons for the importance of keeping records of 

our indigenous agricultural practices. 

(iv) Write a blog in about 100 to 150 words on organic farming.

(v) Write a short paragraph in about 120 words, to be used

 as Counter-View for the following topic. 

'Buy a bigger cloth for your coat'.

 View Section:

(a) We cannot survive by the dictum 'Cut your cloth according to your coat' 

in today's world.

 (b) In the mordern world we should 'Think Big' 

 (c) Think of increasing your income instead of reducing your needs.

 (d) We connot deny ourselves, what the new world offers us.

(vi) 'Organic farming is the need of the time'. 

Write your views in favour and against the statment.

Views Counterviews

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(vii) Appeal your classmates to say 'No to Junk Food'. 

Write an appeal to prefer organic food over junk food.

(A6) Projects: 

(i) Plant the seed of a flower or fruit of your choice in a pot or in 

your garden. Note its growth every day and maintain a diary 

recording its progress.

(ii) Find out more career opportunities in the field of agriculture, organic 

farming, sales, storage, distribution and marketing research.

Educational qualifications Job opportunities Work Profile 

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