Dear Friend in the city,
If you ever visit our village, I will take you to my uncle's three-story house. It is the tallest building here. When you stand on his roof and look out, you can see the river and the green fields. But you will also see something very funny.
Right now, almost every roof has giant, fat, green vegetables just sitting there, soaking up the sun like little green pillows.
Every roof looks different. Some have green mangoes drying to make achaar (pickle), and some have golden wheat spread out. But climbing all over the sloped roofs of our houses are the vines of the petha (ash gourd). My teacher told us that Agra is famous for making a sweet out of them, but here in Bihar, we actually grow the most of them!
You might wonder why we grow them on our roofs when we have so many big fields around the village. I asked my Baba the same thing.
He told me that pethas are sun-lovers, and the roof gets sunlight all day long. Plus, up there, the stray cows and goats cannot reach them! They grow very heavy, and keeping them on the warm, sloped khapda (clay tiles) stops them from rotting at the bottom like they would in the wet mud of a field.
Baba says it is a very smart system. Because the vines spread so wide over the sloped roofs, even a family who doesn't own any farm land can still grow a huge crop right over their heads.
I think it is very clever. Even if a house is small and made of clay, the roof is actually working hard to grow food. The best part is when my mother brings one down and cooks a hot, fresh subzi with kalonji (nigella seeds) for lunch. We get to eat the food that was growing right above us while we slept.
Next time you see a giant petha in the vegetable market, you can imagine it taking a nap on a village roof before it gets there. :)
Khushi, Class 6th
