A ‘Kuruvai’ Harvest in 2021

A ‘Kuruvai’ Harvest in 2021

My father was looking at the sky. The trend was as if it was raining. The harvesting machine went down to the field and began to reap. The harvesting machine, which was supposed to arrive in the morning, arrived just after noon.

Twilight had begun to darken. The situation can be dealt with in the day time. My father was worried about how to deal with the rain in the night time. He was leaving me wandering the field and the house to fetch the tarpaulin sheets and buy me tea. Unsatisfied, he said it would be better to rent two more tarpaulins. I came and stood with two more tarpaulins.

After waiting until the afternoon the drinking water in the bottle was empty. Eating two prottas for lunch was enough to keep intensive hungry when it was past eight at night.

My father said, "If you can get it in the hotel, bring thirty iddlies, and bring some drinking water." There is no more iddlies in hotels above eight o'clock at night. Everything was sold. After saying this information, he said, "Listen. It is better, if you can get iddlies prepared from home."

Then at home iddlies were prepared. The sky was heavy dark when it came to iddlies and drinking water. Not a single star was seen in the sky. The light drizzle was starting. It was only when the harvesting machine that came to dump the paddy could not pour it that it became clear that there was no diesel in the tank.

My father was upset that he could not afford to buy diesel even when the situation was like this. Those who were operating the harvesting machine were replying that the diesel would arrive in half an hour and the harvest could start immediately.

In that half hour, he was saddened that even if it rained slightly, he would have to stop harvesting.

Diesel arrived when half an hour had passed. By then he had completely lost the mood of thirst and hunger. The sky began to rain slightly. The machine was filled with diesel and ready to go. An hour and a half later the harvest was over. After that, he took some water and drank it. He spread out a tarpaulin sheet and made everyone sit down and began to serve the iddlies on the banana leaf. Exactly the hour had passed by then. The sky also seemed to be clear without clouds. He made a bow to the sky.

The talk started after everything was over. The talk lasted until twelve o'clock. They kept talking like a miracle that the harvest was over without rain even though everyone said let's go.

My father said what else can we sleep in here too. It is difficult to bring him to home. After many times of compulsion he came to home without interest.

"My son, the sky has done so much good!" My father kept saying that. I fell asleep when he said the same thing more than four times. He must have been saying the same thing over and over again after I fell asleep.

When I woke up in the morning it would be eight o’clock in the morning. Missing my father lying on the side. I asked where he was. It was said that he had gone to the field at six in the morning.

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