Thank You Raju Hirani for '3 Idiots' !

Couple of weeks back I got a call.

“It’s 110 quintals of maize and we may get a good rate of over Rs. 900 per quintal”, I could hear the enthusiastic, gleeful voice of my eldest brother Allen on the phone. That’s what I call him fondly.

“Congratulations Farmer Sahab”, for the first time I was proud of my brother.

It is exactly one year back that '3 Idiots' was released. As we all know, the movie went on to become an All Time Blockbuster and also the highest ever grossing Indian movie (Robot fell short of beating it). I had already watched the movie before I travelled to my home the following weekend.

My brother Allen could define ‘laziness’. He works in a government office as a First Divisional Clerk. He hardly went out. He used to come back home from office by noon itself and did only feeding (himself), sleeping and watching TV. His favorite destination was the couch. I was sure Koel would definitely invite him some day for an episode for 'On the couch with Koel'. His 3 year old daughter, Zoya kept pestering him, “Pappa walking jayenge. Pappa walking jayenge”. He silently used to ignore her and switched the channels. No wonder he had touched 90 kilos.

With some insistence I could drag him to watch 3 Idiots saying it was a lovely movie. We both saw the film. When I had asked him how he liked the film, he didn’t answer. He was sort of in some deep thought. The next day he came to me and with some hesitance said, “I want to quit my job”

“What the..?” I was shocked.

“Since childhood my passion has been plantation, farming. I just love plants more than anything else. I want to pursue farming as my profession” he said without making an eye contact.

“Jesus! Farhan Qureshi? Never again!” I exclaimed.

I then continued, “See Allen, films are just fiction. I thought I was filmy but… these things aren’t pragmatic. Just look at yourself, you can’t move your ass out of the house and how can you imagine to work your ass out in the hot fields? It’s impossible”

“Nothing is impossible. My friend Imtiyaz is jobless. I will convince him and we can take some land and start cultivation on a partnership basis. After couple of years I can plan for plantation of fruits or teakwood” He was firm. He also showed me our garden where he had singlehandedly grown and maintained the lawn and had grown various plants of fruits, flowers and vegetables.

We then had a family meeting.

“Why the hell did you take him to that movie?” yelled my second brother Shan at me.
We then somehow convinced Allen not to quit his job. His friend could work full time and Allen could go to the farm in the afternoons.

Somewhere in March 2010, Allen and his friend leased 8 acres of land near Ranibennur. The land had irrigation facility. Soon they started moving around. They met my uncle who is a farmer and got to know the basic info about the timing of cultivation, kind of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc to go for. They sowed maize.

Allen kept visiting the farm in the afternoons and worked as late as 8 PM. Everyone was shocked to see what he was up to. Whenever I called him, he always spoke about how tall his crops were, his plans, his farm etc. I remember him saying that he would visit the Agricultural University at Dharwad to study the modern techniques of farming. For harvesting he hired machines and reduced the human effort and time. My uncle had patted his back saying my brother’s enthusiasm was inspirational to others.

Last time I went home, we had a small party to celebrate Allen’s first harvest, 110 quintals of maize. This year he is planning to lease a bigger and more fertile piece of land. “Black soil” he says. He keeps telling me that we should buy land and he can then work on his dream; ‘plantation’. I see my brother lot happier these days. He hardly takes out the bike, he prefers walking. And did I mention, with over 8 months of hard work in the fields, he has shed quite a few kilos and looks fit. All his trousers have become loose :-) lol. Since this year’s cultivation hasn’t started yet, he says he just can’t sit idle at home. In the evenings, he takes out Zoya to the ground and plays cricket. Zoya has started saying ‘I love Pappa’ more often than ‘I love Chachu’ which she often used to say before.

We sit everyday in front of monitors (during night as well, thanks to Blogs, YouTube and Networking sites) and TV and hardly do we think anything about working out something physical. Moreover do we have it in us to pursue what our passion is or where we suit the best? Do we have it in us to stand out from the crowd and say proudly ‘I love my job’ or do we still continue to flow with the flow and crib everyday about our jobs? Or may be we would crib when we grow old saying ‘Shit! I should have done it when I was young!’. I am glad at least my brother wouldn’t crib like that when he grows old. I’m really happy for him. I’m happy for Allen. Thank You Raju Hirani for 3 Idiots !!
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