Hot Farmer Fair Day in India

This morning I was treated to an awesome gym. Had ALL the gear, so that was a good start to the day. Breaky was even better with muesli, yogurt and all my favourites. We then headed out to the Punjab agricultural farmer fair. It was very busy, and we were shown through some of the stalls by a local farmer and president of the Punjab University Farmers Club. It was pretty hard to all stick together, and we wasted a fair bit of time just trying to get the group together. But there was a huge variety of things on show. Small machinery, Seeds, Crop Varieties, Ladies stalls with their home produce etc. They had quite a bit of technology for farms on a very small scale, but it was interesting to read in the local paper, that many farmers were complaining that the fair was only for the rich farmers and there was nothing there for the everyday farmers.

We were dripping in sweat by the time we got to an auditorium where they were doing presentations for the local farmer awards. We were placed on the stage as guests of honour for the day, and sat in front of probably 1000 farmers as speeches were made, songs were sung and trophy’s given. As it was all in their local language, we had no clue as to what was being said and it was a long 3.5 hot hours, but a memory that will last forever that’s for sure. We were very honoured at the end to be awarded a framed certificate each and have photos with the dignitaries.

We continued afterwards to explore the museum, and explore the field days a little more. Unfortunately we were running on Indian, so most of the stalls were closing up. We were all really worn out, hot and hungry so we certainly didn’t make the most of it. We made it back to the hotel, and had a very well enjoyed freshen up, and then headed out to a local farmers place for dinner.

This guys was doing REALLY well, and had a beautiful home. His 2 young sons, 26 and 29, had both lived in America and Canada for a period so spoke perfect English. We were spoilt to a beautiful meal (WAY to much), while we fired questions at these blokes about everything to do with Indian culture and how young people were fitting in with the Indian ways. Agriculture was forgotten for a while as we discussed weddings, arranged marriages, housing, starting businesses and more. They were very welcoming a spoke openly about their lives in this country.

It was irish’s birthday, so they even thought to have a cake and we sung happy birthday. We had a beer back at the hotel to celebrate the birthday too, and finally retired to bed around midnight.

 

 

Farmer visit yesterday

Hot and Tired at end of day

Univerity Halls, a little different than ours, their culture is so different in terms of the conditions they choose to work in and live in.

View from th stage out, there was no nodding off!