I am born in a town, and I live there. So I had no occa­sion to visit a village. One day my cousin, who stays in a vil­lage near Burdwan railway station, sent me a letter to spend my summer vacation with him in their village; and the request I welcomed with great enthusiasm.

I was, however, allowed by my parents to go to Nabagram in the Burdwan district. The train left from Howrah station. It took about three hours for the train to reach Burdwan junction station. My cousin waited there for me. We got into a cycle-rickshaw that reached us home within half-an-hour.

It was a village, but looked developed, and had some of the facilities of modern life. There was electricity; and I noticed a T.V. antenna on their roof top. I was happy to think that the night at least would not be dreadful for me, a town boy.

I was allotted a separate room. My cousin, who was of about my age, stayed in the adjoining, room. After a wash, I met all the members of the family. My aunt was glad to see me. My niece, who was younger to me, felt shy at the sight of me, for she had never seen me in the past. We sat together and had nice Tiffin. My uncle came home in the evening from his office. He asked me about the welfare of our family, and also about my studies.

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Next morning, my cousin took me out in the village. We went into the interior part of it, and saw the real life of the villagers who seemed to be simple and honest, although most of them were poor.

Some of them offered me fresh milk that their cows gave. Some presented to me ripe man­goes gathered from their trees. I found the green and ripe mangoes hanging from the branches of trees. They looked pretty.

As we walked down the muddy path, we saw a large tank, in which some men were engaged in fishing by spread­ing a thin net in a peculiar style. We went further near the paddy field, in which the farmers were ploughing.

While passing by the side of a bamboo grove, we heard the sweet chirping of little birds of different colours and shapes. I was simply charmed with the pleasant scenes of greenery and the innocent life of the people of the Indian village that I saw.