Ramu's Independence

After a hard day's work in the field, Ramu, paused to look at the sky. The sun was on the verge of setting and Ramu was looking skyward searching for rain bearing clouds. His wife Monu had brought lunch for him in the afternoon. She was aware of his pensiveness. '' Are you worried of something, Ramu? '', Monu showed her concern. '' '' For the past few years there have been normal rainfalls and we have had good time at our fields with bountiful harvest. But this year, I feel that rain may betray us, '' Ramu seemed troubled sharing the information with his wife. '' We are still not independent and have to be at the mercy of rain Gods,'' complained Ramu. He rued badly being not independent from the monsoon. He knew that if rainfall was not adequate, his harvest of crops would be affected and then he would fall into the clutches of the money lenders. 

Natobar, a small time pawn broker in the village had just started his business of lending money to the needy. He knew he couldn't fail. Since eternity man had the habit of borrowing to fulfill his and his family's desires. So on the basis of this theory he began and slowly began with low interest rates for first time borrowers gradually moving on to higher more pressing interest rates for repeat borrowers. His theory was to usurp the Independence of the borrower so that Natobar could become wealthy at the cost of the borrower. Gradually, Natobar was getting richer with more and more borrowers falling into his clutches and losing their independence. 

After the crops failed Ramu for two consecutive season due to erratic rainfall, the time had come for Natobar to entice Ramu. Natobar had an eye on the farm land of Ramu as they were very fertile being close to the village river. He knew if modern irrigation techniques were applied to Ramu's land then year after year there would be rich harvest and dependence on the rainfall would reduce. So Natobar targeted Ramu and his land. If only Ramu fell into the deadly trap of Natobar and mortgaged his land then the wily lender would usurp it at any cost. For the rest of his life, Natobar could enjoy the bounties of Ramu's land. 

So be it, Ramu voluntarily walked into the clutches of Natobar. '' Please don't go begging for money to that wicked Natobar, '' pleaded Monu, Ramu's worldly wise wife. '' We'll manage somehow, '' Monu sounded confident. But Ramu was impatient and felt very vulnerable if he didn't have adequate money in hand to spend. So ignoring his wife's wisdom, Ramu fell into the sweet talk of the lender and pawned his fertile land to Natobar. The condition was in case of failure to pay, Ramu would transfer the ownership rights and work on his own farm as a labourer under a different landlord. 

As things went, Ramu failed to curb his spending habits and due to unfaithful monsoon and poor harvest, he had to surrender his most fertile fields by the river and transfer it favoring Natobar. Gone was his independence and Ramu began to toil in his own fields under a different owner. 

Natobar, being so wily and cunning had done the paper work in such a manner that the land once transferred to Natobar would never go back to Ramu, even if he managed to repay. Because repay he could not due to the burden of high cumulative compounding nterest. The condition had been such that after Ramu, his son Sanju, would also have to till the land and work for Natobar as a landless labourer. So Ramu and his family's independence had been sacrificed forever. 

But, somehow, Ramu had some good angels supporting him. After many years of hard toil in his field and even many years of repayment of loan money to Natobar by him first and later on by Sanju, his son, the fortunes changed dramatically. For Natobar had now become a very rich and powerful agriculturist. There were sweeping changes taking place in the agricultural field. Natobar failed to read the signs of the time. 

Big multi national companies were scouting the Indian rural areas to buy profitable land and consolidate these small scattered parcel of land into a big farm to apply modern agriculture techniques to get a huge yield. Natobar, failed to read between the lines and thinking of leasing out his land, inadvertently sold out his land which included Ramu's and Sanju's too. 

Now with this transaction the loan of Ramu from Natobar was nullified. Natobar though got well compensated but his independence was gone forever while Ramu's and Sanju's Independence was restored to some extant. They would no longer have to work in their own land for Natobar and neither have to pay installments for loan. 

On the contrary, this multinational agricultural company employed Ramu and Sanju for tilling their previously owned land and now with large-scale modern agricultural equipment. So some sort of their independence was restored and economically their financial condition was improving with the salaries of father son duo, Ramu and Sanju. Ramu now knew his independence and promised to strictly guard it against all evil.