The unsung heroes of life: Farmers and scientists

 I was brought up in a village where I had the chance to interact with farmers. Many people in our neighbourhood were farmers. The items cultivated were mainly paddy, coconut, arecanut, and tapioca.

I participated in paddy cultivation by planting rice saplings. We also had paddy fields where we grew paddy. When the paddy season ended, we switched to tapioca, long beans, etc. At harvest time, everything was in plenty, and we celebrated the harvest festival, Onam.

I had seen the hardships behind these cultivations. At that time, machinery was scarce, and mostly manual labour was used. Right from sowing to harvesting, there are various processes involved that require a lot of physical labour, which was not adequately paid.

Poor farmers get only very little profit. We are ignoring the fact that we will starve without them. Gradually, the means of livelihood changed; technological advancement led to the development of machinery, substituting manual labour. People switched over to other profitable businesses and careers, making the place a consumer state.

Now, due to health consciousness, people are slowly reverting to farming, and the government is providing incentives and awards. To protect ourselves and our families from pesticides, many are resorting to organic farming at their own homes, which is a very good initiative.

After my marriage, I shifted to a prestigious university in the country. My husband was a scientist, and I could understand the immense work pressure he was going through. 

My husband did Phd In USA. On the first day at his university, the professor came to the class, held up a book, and said, "You are being taught from this book, and the person who wrote this book is sitting in this class". That was the importance given to a scientist abroad, and that is why they are progressing fast technologically.

He came to India with the sheer intention of serving the nation. Many of the scientists on our campus have that attitude. They are paid a meagre salary and have to live with that for the passion of doing research and building up the nation. 

It takes a lot of time for the projects to get sanctioned, equipment to be set up, and research to start, as government allotments take time and lack of money. Rarely do these scientists get recognition in the form of an award with a meagre amount.

There is a saying: science and life never go together. One of my friends had to postpone her marriage many times because she was working in microbiology, where bacterial culture takes a minimum of three months to grow, easily gets contaminated, and then has to start culturing from the beginning. So, winding up the PhD was late, thus affecting her family life also.

When we come to the entertainment industry, it is flourishing like anything. What they are giving to the progress of the nation is minimal. But the salary, fame, and accolades they get are immense. People and the media are after them, and the immense love and respect that they get for enacting larger-than-life scenes are voluminous.

I have the habit of watching travel vlogs. Even in village areas of island nations, people are well aware of actors but don't know any scientists who work hard to improve life.

When it comes to a pandemic, we turn towards scientists for a vaccine. During the COVID pandemic, I could hear a scientist retorting Why are you coming to us only now? We were here earlier itself striving too hard to produce vaccines. 

I am not underestimating any other jobs, but suggesting we should give some more respect to farmers and scientists, without whom mankind would not have reached this technological level.

People can live without entertainment, but how can they live without food and medicines? Why do we give so much value to actors and their personal lives when there is a lot to be done for the country?