My husband and I recently visited Munnar in Kerala and spent a week in a tiny cute hotel situated inside a tea estate which was in a small village named Chitrapuram. It was such a serene place that had gorgeous views of mountains and tea estates and melodious sounds of the birds chirping and whistling. Why can’t we stay in such a beautiful place forever? we thought. But is moving to the hills really a good idea?
Throughout the week we noticed the simple lives of the people in the village. Most of the locals who lived around, worked in the lush green tea gardens or owned small bakeries/shops or worked for the big hotels. Regardless of what their job was, they seemed to have a lot of time, unlike the city folks who are always in a hurry to achieve something or become something.
Upside of living in the Village
The locals breathe in crisp air and absorb the rays of the golden sun, rising over the mountains everyday. They chat with their neighbours in the evenings with a cup of chai. They play with their children amid the farms. Sometimes they just stand, looking in some random direction, doing nothing – which in fact made us really curious. We even looked at what they were looking at, and there was nothing. And this is their daily routine.
We wondered if they have any kind of agitation at all. They looked so tranquil and content with their lives. We on the other side, are living in a cramped city, swirling in the chaos, dissatisfied, frustrated and restless even after having everything we wanted.
Kids in the village have limitless empty open lands with tall trees and hills on the sides, to play whatever they like. And here are our kids, already stuck with phones and ipads, with no space to play, in a hurry to grow up and battle their way up in this competitive world.
We envied their lives.
Probably they envy our lives, thinking people in the cities have every facility and luxury they want. But little do they know, how unfulfilled and discontented our lives are.
May be nobody is satisfied with what they have. May be we should learn to be happy with what we have and where we are. Anyways, that’s a different level of maturity and spirituality which some day I would like to attain.
Can we really move?
Coming back to our envious thoughts, my husband and I often think of shifting our whole life to a small village on some hill station with abundant nature, great whether, valley views and peace. We feel like it’s okay to get a local job which can earn us enough to satisfy our necessities. May be that is what we need today – The satisfaction is small things.
Probably most of us wish to move closer to mother nature every once in a while. A simple, peaceful and minimalistic lifestyle seems to be much more satisfying than the sophisticated city life.
We read stories of people leaving everything behind and moving to their village or getting into farming or settling on the hills or setting up their new life close to a beach. They surely inspire us to want to do the same thing. It seems to be easy, but is it really?
While giving some real thought to this possibility, I asked myself a few questions.
Can I spend a few hours doing nothing but just looking at the birds chirping, or the trees drenching in the rain or just admiring the shapes of the hills or the shades of the sky or the infinite beauty of the moon?
Can I spend a few days without network; be it internet or phone or TV?
Can I live without eating any junk for a month?
Can I forget about shopping malls, cinema halls and fancy restaurants for a year?
Or a bigger question like:
Can I raise my kids along with the village kids instead of a top-notch international school? Will they fall backward compared to the kids in the cities? Will they be able to get the jobs they dream of, with their education and background? That’s too far away though.
I really wish the answer for all these questions were a big YES. Sadly, I am aware that I am practically not ready for it. But someday I really wish I could become that person. May be I’ll start working on becoming that person.
Wholistic You 