Fruits of Education - Street Play

The following is the Second of the Educational Street Plays written for the people of Vaitarna....

Narrator - One night in a farmer's home....

Sumati (Wife) - What happened ? Why are you so sad ?

Ramprasad (Farmer) - Nothing, everything is fine...

Sumati - Look, I'm your wife..when we got married, we promised that we will go through happy and sad phase in life together....equally share the burden of life...You have to tell me.

Ramprasad - You are aware that the unseasonal rains this year have ruined our crop...so many of the farmers in the village have committed suicide….we too don't have enough money now...no savings...there is no problem from Suraj's (Son) side...he will become a farmer too...help me pay off our debt...As for Neelam (Daughter), we will get her married early...you keep her involved in household chores...she will be a good wife to her husband....what worries me is how are we going to survive now ?

Sumati - We would have not been in such position is we would have been educated a bit, at least we could have worked in some small government office in the village or may be we could have managed our daily finances better....

Ramprasad - Education doesn't matter....Am I educated ? No....Yet I am able to feed you all and take care you three....Look at Vishal, he went to the city for education, got into bad habits...wasted the money and now he spends the whole day drinking…Now you tell who is better off ?.....don;t worry, things will be fine….

Narrator – One day, his son Suraj falls ill. He is having high fever with chills and altered consciousness…Ramprasad takes Suraj to the local government small hospital.

Doctor – Malaria has set into the brain (cerebral malaria)….He has to be taken to a higher centre in the city for further treatment..we have done what we could best within our limited resources.

Narrator – Forgetting his worries, Ramprasad and Suraj head to the city…The poor farmer felt amazed looking at the city….the dressing of the people…girls and boys given freedom to wear what they want….At the hospital,

Ramprasad – Doctor sahib, I have come from a distant village…this is our referral letter…

Doctor ( a beautiful young female) – Your son has to be admitted immediately.

Narrator – while Suraj is admitted in the hospital, Ramprasad takes good care of him….medicines…love…

Ramprasad – Suraj, son you wait here….I will go and get some Nariyalpani (tender coconut) for you..afterall it is ‘Amrit’ for our family….it is what gives us all that we have…money,food…life.

“1 nariyalpani do”(Give me 1), to the shopkeeper….take this 5 rupees.

Shopkeeper – (Angrily) Which village are you from….It costs Rs.20 in this city.

Ramprasad – What ? I grow them on my land….we sell each for Rs.2 and you are asking me 10 times the price !!

Shopkeeper – In the city ,everything is expensive….buy it if you want to otherwise go away !

Suraj – (Looking at his father’s sad face) What happened ? Baba, why you look so sad ?

Ramprasad – Son, would you believe this..I bought this Nariyalpani for you for Rs.20…we sell each for Rs.2 and this shopkeeper gets 10 times the price…the middleman takes the major chunk of it..we slog day in and day out…live in such poor conditions….with no money, no food for days…..and these middlemen and shopkeepers make huge profit at our cost…I wished now that I had understood the value of education before, at least you could have come to the city and looks for higher avenues…

Suraj – Baba, don’t worry…its never too late for a new beginning…Once I’m well, we will go back to our village…I will learn the basic math and accounting and let us see where we can start.

Ramprasad – That’s a great idea….Son, you will be support for the old age…But let me share something with you….looking at the educated, decent female doctors here, I too feel that I would do injustice to your sister if I  don’t let her study…..she needs to come out of the village,see the city…I don’t want her to suffer like we did…being uneducated when the world took advantage of us …

Narrator – 3 days later, they return back to the village…

Sumati – By God’s grace, our son is fine now….my child….Hey, why you look in anxiety ?

Ramprasad – (Tells her everything about the city)….Now I have decided that our children should be educated too….I will ask a math teacher to come and teach Suraj….and I will arrange to send Neelam to the city for education…I want her to be a doctor…I will spend all my savings on their education, meanwhile I will find out the actual role of the middleman .

Narrator – Slowly, Ramprasad found out all the information about how the middlemen would buy so cheap from the villagers and sell at high price to take away all the profit…meanwhile his son was studying hard to get his accounting right….daughter had managed to get admission in a medical college in the city.

Suraj– Baba, I suggest we buy a tempo on loan and from now on, I will go personally and sell off our coconuts….why don’t we completely get away with the role of the middlemen…my accounts say that will be more profitable and money saver for us…

Ramprasad – Good idea son, I’m grateful that you are by my side…I’m proud of you my child.

Narrator – Ramprasad, Neelam and Suraj, all worked very hard in their respective fields…..soon the farmer started making huge profits and became a rich man….bought himself more land, labourers and trucks…selling most of the village’s coconuts himself and giving a major chunk of the profits to others as well…The farmer suicides had stopped too….Im 5 years, neelam had grown up to be a doctor and returned to the village to open a hospital in her parents name.
One night, 5 years later…

Sumati – Do you realize, approximately 5 years back….we were in such messy conditions financially, no food, no money….Look, God has been so kind to us to give us so much happiness…

Ramprasad – Do you remember what I had said about education that night ? I was all wrong….It is not God who has done wonders for us but Education….All this happiness and pride would not have been there had we not taken the correct decision to educate the children at the right time….(with tears dropping from his eyes) One day before I die, I want to use this money to open up a school in the village so that other villagers too understand its importance….