Uttarkashi, November 2003.
M and me seated amidst a cluster of sunflowers. Would you believe it if I say this picture was taken by a farmer? We joined him and his family at work in their farm, and dug out potatoes from moist earth for a couple of hours.
All this while we were waiting in some lost village for a bus to take us back to the nearest town. Apparently, buses only plied once in three or four hours in these regions. So by some stroke of luck, we ended up potato farming. Don't let all that sunshine deceive you. It was quite cold up there, and according to our farmer friend, by January, his farm is full of snow.
For a long time after that, I wanted to become a potato farmer. Have a piece of land in the mountains, live in a small house with a stream running nearby, have five dogs for company, and a bicycle to take me to nearby towns and villages (so I can buy other vegetables too, instead of ballooning up on home-grown potatoes!).
