A Farmer's tale #ArjunKanungo

1980, Maharashtra.

The monsoon rains have not set in even after a month's delay. The scorching heat dries out the ever-fertile land. Arjun stands under the sun that just hit half a century. The bordering villages have seen rainfalls at their highest, but the clouds refuse to set in on the dry lands of Buldana which was once the greenest village in the neighborhood. Arjun's father, a farmer of 65 years lies on the worn out tape cot at home staring at the sky. The last time there was rain in the village, was when Sakhi stepped into its borders. The tale of a farmer's son Arjun and of Sakhi, the daughter of a Sarpanch, is a one to hear. 

"Ma'am, you cannot pluck the tamarind from the trees, it belongs to the sarpanch," Arjun warns Sakhi. 

"Hello, Mister, do you know who I am?" Sakhi has her hands on her waist. 

"I don't care about who you are. But plucking tamarind from this tree is forbidden," Arjun pauses his work and strides towards Sakhi. 

"This is my tree. I am the daughter of the Sarpanch," Sakhi says, arrogantly. 

"Sorry, ma'am. Please don't tell your father. I was just doing my duty," Arjun pleases Sakhi. 

Looking at Arjun's vulnerability, and to make her life at the village interesting, Sakhi asks Arjun to be her assistant until the monsoon vacation ends. Reluctantly, Arjun accepts her demand and works for her day and night. He takes her to the town to watch movies, rides her around the village on his cycle, and even dries her hair on the terrace every Sunday. 

His sincerity and loyalty impress Sakhi, and she falls in love with him very organically. On the last day of summer, Sakhi wishes to ask him to marry her. He promises to meet her in the cornfields that evening. Arjun plucks the fully bloomed roses from his backyard and carefully ties it into a bouquet. He waits for her until the roses wear out and droop towards the ground. Her father knows of her love with Arjun and sends her away to the city in exchange to not kill Arjun. Three years pass by, there is no rain, nor is there Sakhi. Every monsoon he relives their time together with a hope that she would return. 

Three years turn thirty. Arjun's father is no more. Arjun, from being a mechanical engineer to a farmer, to a dairy farmer is fifty years old. The land is still thirsty for a drop of water. Thirty years later, for the first time, the monsoon sets in. Far away, there is a woman walking towards Arjun, it is her, his Sakhi. She returns, thirty years later, after a failed marriage and a dead father. They reunite amidst the same corn fields. Sakhi did keep her promise after all.