Lifestyles–It Is Not All About Clothing And Eating Out!
September 19, 2008
When most of us talk about lifestyles we usually refer to the lavish or simple way people live. However, let us take a look at the way many Indians are living their life out in the wilderness in the mountains of the north or the villages of the many states of the country.
You will be surprised at how easily people in the villages of India can cope with difficulty and illness. The fact is that they are better equipped than most of us living in our apartments and condos in the metros and other developed cities in the country. Now, I am not saying that all the village dwellers are well off; many of them are lured to the towns and cities in their quest to earn more money. However, they soon find that life in the villages is far less stressful than in the larger cities.
To begin with let us analyze the way people in the mountains live. Theirs is the simplest lifestyle I have ever witnessed. First of all their housing needs are the simplest anywhere. They don’t need to locate a supplier of building material and fancy tiles for their toilets and kitchens. Whatever they need is available all around them – for free. Rocks, mud, and wood you name it. Many of them don’t even have to buy the land they build on so long as they look after the forest the government does not mind them living there.
For food they just need to domesticate some fowl and cattle, they get their daily supply of eggs and meat. Goats and cows are a good supply for milk and believe it or not – the barter system is still in vogue up in the abodes of the God’s. I came across this family in the remotest part of the hills with seemingly no one else to be seen for miles, but over a cup of tea I was introduced to a fellow from a neighboring village that came over with his offering of wheat, and all for a daily supply of milk, eggs got them some other cereal and what not. For money some member of the family goes to the nearby town and works for a month or two this brings in a couple of thousand rupees which serves them for the remaining two months – then some other member goes off to earn.
This was the simplest lifestyle I ever witnessed. An income of 1200 Indian Rupees a month served this family of four well – and the hospitality this family extended to a complete stranger – me – cannot be bought with any amount of cash!!! The actual Indian lifestyle can be found only in the Indian villages – life in the city is ‘synthetically’ artificial.
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