Tuesday 30 October 2012

Unstoppable

The sun is down by 6:30. The moon rises like an egg poached in rum. By 7:00, all is darkness and moonlight. The team shambles to the cars. Pack-up.

And then we notice two pairs of headlights running circles in the distance. Those tractors refuse to stop. The local labourers have left, so has the JCB and the other tractors. We’re tired and aching to have a bath, a drink and a good night’s sleep. But these guys will not take no for an answer.

At the end of a long day, a sight like this breaths fire into your body. We sprinted all the way to where they were and clapped for them. Kaptaan whistled them down and thanked them.

They’ve been super productive. Absolute masters of their profession.

But wasn’t there one more? And there he still is – a pair of headlights snaking around the other end of the plot. Deputy S is riding with him.

Remember the Titans. These are the tractors that killed them.

The deputies have had a hard day as well. A hard day they can be proud of.

Kaptaan tells me that this morning he had stepped on a bhurut, the thorny menace of these lands, “and I must have said, ‘Ow’, you know. Deputy R was walking by and he said, ‘I have them inside my shoes. You get used to it.’ ...I loved it! This is what I’m looking for.”

Everybody had a major role to play. “They will all have stories to tell today,” said Kaptaan.

But in particular, a special mention for Deputy D. She was fasting today for Lord Ganesha, the remover of obstacles. She was out in that crazy heat all day, working non-stop without a morsel in her belly.

And if you could see how much has been pulled off in just one day today, you’d think, no wonder.

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