The Farm

The trip to the farm was a delight to the eye. We saw the ever present scooters, cars, ox carts and bullock carts plus, of course, walkers. It took about an hour, and we passed lots of construction of huge buildings for computer companies. Ashwin, Nikhil's dad said that the customer service people will be housed in these buildings, but for now he doesn't know where they're located. Something I found interesting is that the scaffolding around their modern buildings are made of bamboo poles, lashed together - some low tech is still the best.

At the farm the first thing one sees is vegetation - 80 mango trees plus lemon, papaya, almond and various flowering bushes and trees. The family that live on the place have worked for the Parikh family for generations. They have a house made of corrugated iron sides and blue tarp roof. When we got there they brought out a festive umbrella with several lawn chairs. It was sunny and breezy - very pleasant. The lady fixed Nikhil's favorite bread for all of us. Sunita, Nikhil's mom, brought out cheese sandwiches and boiled eggs she'd prepared at home for our "picnic". There is no house yet, but a leveled place where it will be - a 5 bedroom 2 story home to be used on weekends. The front of the property will be subdivided and sold for others to build their own weekend get-away. Now the water system is the primary project.

After we'd seen and walked the farm we went into the village to the farm foreman's home. It was a large adobe-type building with tile roof. Just to the right as we entered the front door, we saw the cows. There were 4 water buffalo and 1 cow plus 2 other adult cows and a baby calf. He runs a dairy. I was amazed at all the stainless steel containers, so shiny and clean, all stacked on shelves. We were shown the cooking fires and storage room. Like I said, a very big house.

We saw several young children and had candy for them. Their parents encouraged them to come up to us, since they were shy. Aswin and Nikhil talked to the men. We stood around and smiled. We had expected more children, but a cricket match in the field occupied the older ones.

When we got back to Pune, we had supper at McDonalds - much like the one in Berlin with the place to order downstairs and the dining area upstairs. There was a group of young teen girls and a couple of moms that were having a birthday party, singing and embarrassing the honoree - some things are universal, I guess. What a wonderful day!!!