A play about the farmers’ problems
On one of the first nights with Oxfam we went to see a play that was done by the local people. It was very happy to start with – the men were wearing matching outfits, dancing and singing very happily with lots of bells tied around their feet and playing instruments. All of it was in the local language, which even my Dad (who speaks Hindi) didn’t understand. Everyone was very interested in us and about 500 people crowded around us, laughing and touching us.
| Children acting in the play |
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I was very happy watching it. When my Mum asked me if I knew what it was about, I said no but it was very jolly and colourful. My Mum told me that it was about the plight of the local farmers who had become so desperate that they had taken their own lives. The children acting in the play were the sons and daughters of these men. This kind of ruined the whole happy atmosphere. After the men had sung, the children came on. They did a play with lots of dancing and singing about what had happened to their fathers. It was so so sad you cannot imagine. These children were not more then 14 years old and some were only 9 or 10.
Can you imagine doing a play asking your best friend’s father not to kill himself? It really hit my heart when I thought about this. I wondered what could have pushed the farmers so far. This is what I found out.
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