The poem ‘The Farmer’ Wife’ by the Volga takes up the contemporary problem of many a farmer committing ** unable to repay the debt taken. It takes a refreshingly different angle of perceiving the problem from the farmer’ wife’ angle. The poem is an eye-opener because generally when we hear or read about the acts of **, we think only about the tragic plight of the farmer who was pushed into the act of committing **.
While it is true that the state of the farmer deserves our sympathy, it is equally true that not many of us view the problem from the angle of the family that is left behind. The fact ** that the family would continue to be in the state of insolvency and such a family would be in the worst state of affairs because the so-called ‘man of the house’ is and the family still has no source of income. The widow of the farmer or any other person who is left behind to shoulder the onus is in a very pitiable condition indeed! Hence, the aim of the poem is not to single out one case of ****, but to throw light on a social problem which needs government intervention to be resolved.
On the one hand, the poem is a plea to all those who give up their struggle not to do so and to brave the storm courageously, and on the other hand, it is a tribute to the ***** who show greater forbearance than men in facing difficulty and in tackling problems. The poem also mocks at the idea of a man as the breadwinner and his sense of superiority over the woman he takes for a wife. The poem, at yet another level, is an appeal to the government and perhaps even social organisations to support those people who want to live with dignity but are forced to eat dirt.
