I belong to Delhi, the capital of India since birth. I never saw any village. I had read and heard about our villages. The more I read about them the more I cherished to see one for myself. This became one of my cherished dreams. And it came true at last. One day our teacher announced that he would take us to Kila Satwai village, situated at a distance of 11 kilometers from Delhi. He planned to see us for ourselves the crops of the season.

Our college broke up for the summer vacations. We started in the morning of a Wednesday in a bus. The journey from Delhi to Kila Satwai was much fun. The moment we were out of Delhi we seemed to have entered a new world. The very air seemed to taste sweet. Everything was different from what we had seen in the city. We reached the village in half-an-hour. Our teacher contacted the Village Pradhan. The Pradhan was 45 years old and strong, agile and healthy.

The Village Pradhan offered to take us round the fields. Walking through the village I had a strange feeling. I felt free the way I had never felt before. There were no city crowds, no maddening din of the work-a-day world. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry. There was no terror of the speeding traffic. It was all in complete contrast to what I had grown accustomed to in the city to see people engaged in their work. I saw people just sitting outside their houses, doing nothing and I saw others who were moving about to attend to their work. But none, working or idle, seemed to be pressed for time. There was a strange expression of calmness, contentment and courage on every face.

Coming to the fields we saw all the beauty of nature, all the wealth that mother earth yields to her beloved children. Full grown, bountiful crops were waving in the fields. We stood on the edge of a field and saw the expanse of land before us, land laden with the fruit of human labor. The scenery fascinated us. For a moment we forgot our city world. The experience was like a rebirth.

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Soon I heard the voice of our teacher who was telling us about the crops before us. All that we had read in books came alive before our eyes. The headman made everything more interesting by adding comments from his own experience. We stayed in the fields for an hour or so. Then our teacher took us to a well. It was surrounded by trees. We sat under these trees and had our lunch which we had with us. The Pradhan joined us on our invitation. He liked our lunch very much.

In the end our teacher thanked the Village Pradhan and we started for home. It was indeed a day of joy for all of us a day on which we really lived.