As I sit on buses either barrelling or inching along the roads between India's cities I am struck with the difference in lifestyle between the cities/regional towns and rural farm areas.
I have found Indians in general very happy people, content with their lives whatever their circumstances. I often see children laughing and playing in the dirt of the street, when to the outside world they look like urchins...
But there is a calmness to the people in rural areas. It is not crowded, there is space and green and open sky. Although it is dirty, the dirt seems more under control. The farmers and workers are some of the poorest but seem cleaner, stand more upright - is it pride?, have a sense of themselves - is it that they have more personal space and so are able to develop a different atmosphere around themselves? and work more independently. There is a sense of order in the rural areas - a small family home surrounded by a yard and a paddock of some crop. Or a thatched shack surrounded by a swept dirt yard and a couple of cows and cow dung fuel patties in piles drying in the sun...
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