A beautiful post written by our guest writer - Ankita Chawla

Early morning drive, a lazy sneaky sun and never-ending fields of Gold can bring even the drab task of documenting reproductive health care centers, to life. Dhabas by Dhabas, and by toll taxes every few hours, the workmanship of the folk living by the highway stretched a golden sight all the way to the hills. These were punctuated only by the Babas and their billboards around Kumbh-struck Haridwar.

The crew left Delhi a little later than expected. But at six, the traffic was still letting us breathe and so we reached Jolly Grant, in the outskirts of Dehradun, by early afternoon. All through the sleepy six hours I noticed how, as the highways got narrower and the villages got frequent, Eucalyptus trees gave way to fields of wheat – a sight more pleasant and definitely less towering.

The rest of the trip was one long stare out of the window at the serene fields that seemed to be beckoning while a Shahrukh Khan – Kajol soundtrack played itself out in my head. Overwhelming though, in a good way, is the best way to describe the sight.

From one shoot location to another, wheat remained the backdrop.

Eventually I started to think aloud, wondering how cool it is that we humans figured out that this certain grain is to be dried and crushed and sculpted into dough and flattened and roasted to make chapattis. A long route and a long-drawn procedure turning into a staple of a North Indian’s everyday diet. The director of the documentary happens to be a History major and made an observation as to how evolution of Agriculture has been one of the markers of how advanced a civilization is. Ironically it was interesting to note, that as the fields took on more tangible space the level of assumed development of the area receded. Strange are the ways of our civilization.

With the story ‘the weed that became my chapatti’ ringing in my head, I stared out again. We reached a community where streets were relatively empty and thus shooting in the sun was nice and easy. Bathing buffaloes, strolling cows and whiffs of early morning tea are not exotic experiences. However, the awesome bit – and really in terms of the Awe it inspired – was acres and acres of cultivated land in the backyards of the houses we entered. Immense gardens of gold and green and plastic bag Scarecrows; the first sight every morning, the clean breath everyday and the scared crows still not used to the still man on stilts. What an e-e-easy pace of life it seemed to be.

More interviews, more tea, more sun, more driving and lots more wheat. This time round, strangely I did not want to run through the fields, but lie on the grass and float as the breeze swished and swashed them around. It was such a strong urge that the idea of me falling to the ground, crushing the grain beneath me did not occur at first. This seemingly insuppressible urge to glide made me realize how Bollywood-ness had given way to Mahabharat’s dying man (Bhishm) on a bed of arrows.

When my folks called from Delhi, all I could say was… “The fields are beautiful!” My father added to it “See how nature works, it’ll all be ripe in a week, then it’ll be time for harvest and then they’ll be making land ready to be sown again, with a different pretty crop this time”. If not golden, maybe yellow sugarcane.

At the end of the day’s shoot, we stopped to take in the sunset and while the camera man cursed, for us to not ruin the Nat sound; we clicked away at the gold, the green, the white clouds, the orange sun and the shadow of the Himalayas in the distance.

The work was done, the shoot schedule completed, we left for Delhi through the crop- colored highway roads. While we slept a lot, the wonderful shots of doctors, patients and kids dominated the subject for a while, and the golden wheat stood intact in the background. Ready to be ground for the chapatti’s you’d eat at one of the many Vaishno Dhabas.

- Ankita Chawla