Paddy

-Irenipuram Balarasiah

Paddy crop was waving in the field. Birds were picking the paddy in large numbers. The farmer, Swaminathan was making a scarecrow!

He applied the soot to the mud pot and made ears, eyes, and mouth. And gave it a human shape! He stacked dry grass around it. To clothe it, he was searching for any old shirt!

All his shirts were in good condition! Helplessly he selected one shirt. Along with him, his seven-year old grand-daughter also came.

‘Grandpa! For whom you’re making this doll?’

‘Paddy is getting ready for harvest, dear! We’ll stand this doll in the middle of the field! Birds will think some person is standing there! So the birds will not come!’ He explained to her, clothing the scarecrow.

‘Grandpa! If birds come and eat the paddy, how much paddy we’ll lose? One kilo? It’ll cost fifteen rupees! To save this how much you’re wasting! Twenty rupees of mud pot.......fifty rupees of grass.......three hundred rupees of shirt. What the birds leave for us after eating is enough for us. So don’t drive away these birds, Grandpa!’

After listening to her . Swaminthan started dismantling the scarecrow!