Hemanta’s fields of gold

As the crisp, soothing breeze of Hemanta beckons the coming of winter, most urbanites become nostalgic about their village home where the air is filled with the intoxicating fragrance of ripe paddy and delicious rice cakes cooked in thick, sweet molasses with the new grains of rice from the latest harvest.

It is a time when the farmer and his entire family get busy with the long sequence of tasks involved in preparing the newly harvested paddy. It is all arduous labour in the blazing sun yet there is little to complain about – a good harvest means a temporary respite from financial worry and enough food for the family. For those areas of Bangladesh where floods had swallowed up most of the rice stocks, leaving behind only hunger and uncertainty, it is a special blessing for the coming days.

The festive atmosphere of rural Bangladesh at this time brings with it a semblance of security and hope amidst the bleakness of financial stress, energy crisis and spiraling inflation. For a little while we can forget our troubles and join our brothers and sisters of the villages, the real heroes of this land and who literally feed us all year round, in celebrating these moments of joyfulness as they bring in the golden harvest.