A day in the life of a (relatively new) farmer...
Last month, we finished fencing the frontage of our field. Two days later, our farmhand (who also is named Anand) calls and tells us part of the fence has been wantonly damaged. If you're familiar with village life and strife in India, these sort of border disputes tend to get blown up into major fights. So, slightly apprehensive, my dad and I decided to first visit the site and check out the damage before proceeding with "other options".
The damaged section was very small - the portion covering a bund/ridge (வரப்பு). The guy who did the damage lives right next to it. He came out after several people tell him to come out and talk with us. He seemed somewhat belligerent and this was his explanation.
When he went out in the morning, there was no fence. When he came back in the evening, the fencing had been completed. He was completely drunk and didn't see the fence. He fought with it for the right of way, and lost - scraping his knees badly in the process. In a drunken stupor, he stumbled home, grabbed a crow bar (கடப்பாரை) and extracted vengeance on the poor fence. Apparently, he might have done more damage to the fence and probably himself, if the villagers hadn't relieved him of the crow bar.
He complained that we should have done the fencing in one stretch and not trick him like this. We didn't know whether to be angry or just laugh. We ended up pretending to be angry.
Postscript - a few days later, the fence attacker made a peace offering of some raw mangoes. They made for some delicious mango pickle. He also made an offer to repair the fence, but we declined.
