It was a silent moonlit night. He was standing in his field, staring at the moon. It was beautiful indeed. But, what was more beautiful for him was his land. It was parched. But, still he was too proud of it. He had no family left. All that was left for him was his land.

His education was stopped by his mother after primary school. She was unable to pay his fees and buy him notebooks and uniform. His father had passed away due to a mysterious disease immediately after his birth. He never regretted leaving school for he was never good at studies. He found it boring. After leaving school he started doing some menial work. Whatever he earned he would give some part to his mother and rest he would spend according to his own wish. He would go to the talkies in his village to watch movies. He was very fond of movies. His was a simple life. He lived according to the desires of the day. Sometimes he won’t know what to do when the sun rose. He would just go to some shop and offer his services for the day and in return get whatever money they offered. He never bargained with anybody. His mother worked at various houses as a maid and earned money.

Years passed and he grew into a young man. One day, all of sudden his mother collapsed in the morning while setting out for work. He rushed her to the hospital, but it was of no use, it was all over by then. He cried for days together in her memory. She had kept a suitcase with herself supposedly given by his father. He opened it one day and found some money in it. His mother had saved it, for what purpose he did not know. He decided to buy a piece of farm land. The money was not sufficient for purchasing the land. He sold their hut and took some loan from the local zamindar and bought a small piece of land. He put up a small tent in one corner of the land and started living there.

After he bought the land, his life changed forever. He worked hard day and night. Farming was absorbing all his time and energy. He was no longer the care free person he was. For him, the land and farming were not the means for earning money. They became his everything. He sometimes felt all the occurrences in his life before the land came were that of some other birth. All morning he would work in the land. At night he would sleep in his tent and on those nights when he didn’t get sleep, he would simply be gazing at his land. He would spend many evenings sitting alone in the land looking at the sun set. The feel of earth beneath him, ‘his’ own earth gave him a sense of completeness. His life was complete. All other petty desires had vanished just like darkness on sunrise. He was contended and happy with his small piece of land. Sometimes he would think, after his death he should be buried in that land itself. The land had become an inseparable part of him or rather he had become an inseparable of the land. He had blended his identity with it.

After one year, all his hard work gave its benefit. The yield was good. Whatever money he made he spent in settling the debts incurred for the purchase of the land. But, after that the drought started. There was no rain. He didn’t know what to do. Without water whatever he did was of no use. Two years passed thus without rain and without money. He had used all his savings. Without rain the land had become parched. The government officers who visited his village said a bore has to be dug at his land from which underground water could be tapped and irrigation can be done for his field. But, all that would cost money and he didn’t have any of it. If he didn’t arrange for irrigation soon the land would lose its fertility and would become useless, they had said.  That was when the local zamindar asked him to sell the land to him. He was furious. The land had come to mean so much to him. His life without the land was unimaginable for him.

He tried his best to procure a loan. But who would give money to a person with no possession and no one to sign surety for? He went to all temples and prayed to gods and goddesses like he had never prayed before. He prayed for rain. He prayed for water. He implored the lords to come and save the land and in turn save him. He couldn’t afford to lose the land. It was his everything.

A dog’s bark suddenly brought him back from his past. The Zamindar had set tomorrow as the last date for him to sell his land if he wished to. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t sell his land, it was unimaginable for him. But, as the officers had told him, if he didn’t, the land would become useless forever. It was as if the entire world was conspiring against him. Neither the immortal nature nor the mortal humans were ready to support him. He started walking. There were cracks everywhere, his feet hurt by walking through them. He hit his right toe against a crack. His toe started bleeding, he winced in pain. He sat down there. It appeared as though his own land was angry with him for not taking care of it. The entire piece of land was clearly visible in the moonlight. It had cracks everywhere. He couldn’t see its plight. Tears started flowing from his face to the ground. He cried hoping that the tears from his face would cover the ground and provide it the required water. He cursed himself for the stupidity of his thought. But, the tears didn’t stop. They kept on flowing incessantly.

He must have slept off crying at the same place for when he woke up the sun was rising. He tried to stand up. His toe hurt. He kept looking at the rising sun for sometime. After that he went to the zamindar’s house.

“Kaise aana hua? Zameen ke baare mein kuch socha?” Zamindar asked him.

“Hum Zameen dene aaye hai”. He replied curtly.

 He put his thumb impression in all the papers required.

Zamindar was happy. As soon as the formalities were over, zamindar took out the bundle of notes to hand it over to him.

But, he had already started walking towards the gate. “Arre paise tho lete jao..”  Zamindar shouted.

He turned. With his head straight and eyes meeting the eyes of zamindar he said in an even voice “Humko paise nahin chahiye. Hum humari zameen aapko bechne nahi aaye. Hum usse paani nahin de sakthe. Aap de sakthe hai aur denge bhi. Isi liye aapko zameen dene aaye”.

As he turned away, he felt heavy. He started walking without a destination.