Hatod ~ Pix
...
Thats Harjeet Singh on the left -- our "caretaker" of sorts. And Maiya's on the right -- our "sharecropper" of sorts.
Two terrific people, and thick as thieves too.

Harjeet is a Punjabi Sikh, son of our neighbour to the south, Mahinder Singh -- who's sometimes also referred to as "Atharsee" since siring a total of eighteen children with his one wife (of whom, in turn it is said, that she can still outrace any other woman her age to the top of the hill).

Harjeet with his brothers and sisters (only thirteen survived to adulthood) have all been brought up entirely illiterate, to be just "farmers". His father used to be spoken of as something of a "major" farmer for several years, but as his sons grow up, it seems clear that each shall have no more than about four acres of land to his share of the old homestead, with no other land to be had.

It's the sort of thing we see happening all over India, all the time.

Harjeet regularly earns the equivalent of about US$ 15 per month from us to plant, protect, and nuture tree saplings all over The Last Resort,... at his own convenience.

He has a wonderful green thumb with a guileless love for nature.

Fifteen dollars is about a third of full wages Harjeet could expect from a full-time job, and so we do additionally pay him daily supervisory wages for certain works, and allow him half our share of the little crop Maiya does.

We hope to soon make a small cottage for him and employ him full-time in some profitable enterprise onsite, for he's a jolly good fellow.

Maiya, in turn, is a local Sairia tribal.

Alongwith other local tribals (such as the Mogia), Sairias have traditionally been thought of as lesser castes, or even outcasts, in traditional Hindu society. This has cost them dearly through milennia, and is not entirely done with today.

When we first came to Hatod, Maiya was "employed" by Harjeet's father, Mahinder, to live with his family in a bivouac near our present site, scaring off boar, monkeys, and other wildlife from the crops.

Mahinder Singh was our sharecropper at the time.

Maiya was also a mud-mason who can justly claim to have erected "half" his native Kota village (1 km.).

At any rate, there was a parting of ways between Mahinder and Maiya, reportedly due to the former's sons (other than Harjeet), in early 1996.

Having recognized Maiya to be a wonderful chap, we contracted him soon after this to build a neat little hut on our site at our cost, move into it with his marvellous family, and be our sharecropper and friend.

It's been great between all of us since then, AND Maiya gives us five times the crop-share Mahinder ever did. [note: only 1.5 acres of The Last Resort goes under the plow]

On the other hand, Maiya and his youngest son learned cement-masonry (against full wages) on a tiny cottage we're having built for ourselves (right) ~ and while it is terrific in so many ways, it's also almost hilarious in some details!

Finally,... Maiya's wonderful wife (picture soon), with her unceasing concern for us all smiling through the creases of her tattooed face, is said to be a medium for Beti Maia, the Mother Goddess manifested atop the hill!
(read about Beti Maia on the Hatod ~ Legend page)