Santa dramatically throws down his kudal with a loud sigh, wiping sweat from his brow.
“Hai re Bhagwan!”
“Banta, look at this khet!”
“It’s less khet and more patharon ka dher!”
“Every year I pull out stones, and every year new ones sprout like mushrooms!”
“Sometimes I think our ancestors decided to farm on a rockfall just to make our lives difficult!”
“The people in the plains have it so easy with their soft, deep soil.”
Banta, calmly tending his own nearby terrace, chuckles.
“Well, Santa, you might be closer to the truth than you think with that ‘patharon ka dher‘ remark!”
“But instead of a curse, it might actually be the secret behind our surprisingly good harvests up here.”
Santa raises an eyebrow.
“Good harvests from patharon ka dher?”
“Banta, has the sun finally cooked your brain?”
“Not cooked, Santa, just well-seasoned with a bit of mountain wisdom!” Banta retorts with a grin.
“Think about it.”
“Where did all this soil on our steep slopes come from?”
“Did the gods sprinkle it from the heavens like ‘prasad‘?”
“Well, no, I suppose not…” Santa concedes.
“Much of it, my friend,” Banta explains, picking up a handful of soil mixed with small, weathered pebbles, “is the great-great-great-grandchild of ancient bhuskhalans!”
“Massive bhuskhalans that happened not hundreds, but thousands, even millions of years ago.”
“The mountain roared, threw down a colossal heap of rock and rubble – a chaotic mess, much like you described your khet.”
Santa shivers dramatically. “A terrifying thought!”
“Indeed, at the time, it would have been!” Banta agrees.
“But then, Mother Nature, our greatest alchemist, along with Father Time, her patient assistant, got to work.”
“For centuries upon centuries, the sun, the rain, the frost, the wind – they all started breaking down those big, angry rocks into smaller pieces.”
“Little plants and hardy grasses began to grow, their roots prying open tiny cracks.”
“When these died, their remains mixed with the rock dust, adding jeevansh.”
He rubs the soil between his fingers.
“This soil we till, Santa, is like a million-year-old khichdi that nature has been slowly cooking!”
“The landslide provided the dal and chawal.”
“Then, weathering added the paani, biological activity from plants and tiny creatures added the masalas.”
“And time, lots of it, simmered it all into this precious, life-giving soil.”
“Our ancestors then skilfully carved these terraces, like beautiful plates, to hold this precious ‘khichdi‘ from washing away.”
Santa looks at his field with a completely new expression, a mixture of awe and amusement.
“So, every time I hit a stone with my kudal, I am actually greeting an ancient uncle of this soil?”
“And this ‘rubble trouble’ of mine is actually a slow-cooked feast for my crops?”
Banta laughs.
“Precisely, Santa!”
“So, you see, that initial ‘catastrophe‘ of a bhuskhalan, over immense spans of time, became the very foundation of our agriculture here.”
“We are indeed farming on the legacy of ancient mountain tumbles, made fertile by time and nature, and tamed by our forefathers‘ hard work!”
Santa picks up his kudal again, a grin spreading across his face.
“Well then!”
“Let me go and lovingly till this million-year-old, stone-filled, bhuskhalan khichdi!”
“Maybe if I talk nicely to the ‘ancient uncles,’ they’ll trouble me less!”
संता – बंता की इस जुगलबन्दी से आज हमने क्या सीखा:-
- मिट्टी का बनना एक अत्यधिक धीमी प्राकृतिक प्रक्रिया है / Soil formation (pedogenesis) is a very slow natural process.
- पहाड़ी क्षेत्रों में पुराने भू-स्खलन मिट्टी बनने के लिये आवश्यक कच्चा माल उपलब्ध करवाते है / In mountainous regions, ancient landslide debris often provides the parent material for soil formation on slopes.
- विखंडन, जैविक क्रिया तथा समय मिल कर इस कच्चे माल को उपजाऊ मिट्टी में परिवर्तित कर देते है / Weathering, biological activity, and time transform this raw debris into fertile soil.
- हमारे पुरखो ने खेती-बाड़ी के लिये भू-स्खलन जनित मिट्टी को सीढ़ीदार खेतो का स्वरुप दिया / Our ancestors developed terracing techniques to cultivate these landslide-derived soils, turning potential hazards of the past into agricultural assets.
संता – बंता की यह जुगलबन्दी आपको कैसी लगी, कृपया हमें जरुर बताये
व
इस जुगलबन्दी को बेहतर बनाने के लिये अपने सुझाव अवश्य दें।
हमें हमेशा की तरह आपके सुझावों, प्रतिक्रियाओं व कटाक्षो का बेसब्री से इंतजार रहता हैं और सच मानिये इसी के आधार पर हम अपने आप में, अपनी सोच व रचनात्मकता में सुधार करने को प्रेरित होते हैं।
सो अच्छा – बुरा जैसा आपको महसूस हुवा हो, कमेंट जरुर करते रहें।
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