Farmers 2.0

Joy

The silence was deafening. Everyone now turned to me and watched at me with peculiar awe and disgusting glances shot from time to time. People now were whispering with each other which sounded worse than the silence. A young man not any older than 18 broke the silence.

"We ought to work for you just for the small cup of flavoured water?" young man proclaimed. "Don't get me wrong, you have been a great man since the beginning but to give our lives just for a cup, that seemed unjust."

"Perhaps, you have understood me incorrectly. I, do not wish for you all to sacrifice your life for this. Instead, I ask for people who are interested in consuming this 'flavoured liquid' daily, which is called beer by the way, just by working little."

I turned to the whole crowd who had their eyes fixed at me. "I will not force you to do the tedious task against your wishes. You will decide for yourselves." I raised my voice higher and continued. "This plan of mine require a great deal of man power which will result in great number of consumables, tools and things I can't define right now. In spite of all, I do not ask you to work for free or work for nothing."

"This is Summer, we still have plenty of foods from last cultivation in our resource, and we will just spend the time doing nothing, but I ask you to work for the betterment of the tribe. We will work together and completely new heights. You all will amount so much to this tribe."

"Each day, after your precious hard work you will be provide the beer, but this is not the actual prize. After the completion of our task, we will get all kind of delicacies, with taste so good you will never even want to return back to that roti." I turned back and filled a cup with some beer. "The ones interested to work in this new plan of mine which will take us to new heights shall take this cup from my hand."

With that I extended hand which held the cup. People were frequently looking at each other and then at me. My anxiety was eating out my heart, but I knew I shall trust the process. If this doesn't persuade the people to come with us, I will not give up. I am just 21. I still have a long life to go if things go well.

My hands were still extended and had already started to pain. I had accepted that it was no use now. Well, I hope it was just me and Zoya to work on my dream then. I was lowering my hand just when I felt a strong force refusing to let my hand go down any lower. Tahari had grasped my arm and took the cup. He gulped the contents in mere seconds and wiped his lips.

"I am for you all, for I am your leader. I always wanted, want and will want what is best for you all, and here Joy has a claim that may help us achieve something great, so as a leader I wont back down. I am with Joy and with his plan. I will work with him to provide you all with the best I can offer." Tahari announced to the whole crowd. The whole crowd including me was stunned for his determination that I forgot what I should do now.

"I too! I too will help. For if the leader thinks something is good, it must be good." The young man shouted back from the crowd with the same determination as Tahari.

"Zuno is with us then!" Tahari said while lending his hand, allowing him to come at the centre of the stage. "Anyone else wants to join us"

"Me!", "I want to join!", "I will join!", One after the other the whole crowd shouted back. After watching Tahari something in their had changed. It gleamed with more dedication and determination.

Zoya and I refilled their cups, and in unison everyone chanted, "I will join!" This day was no less than wonder. I have to say my thanks to Tahari for his last-minute save. I didn't have to search for him though for he came to me and tapped my back.

"Oh Tahari, I don't know how should I thank you for today."

"You don't need to thank me." A gentle voice that was totally different from his determined voice back then replied. "I sternly believe in you, and I believe that whatever you are planning will really stand on top of what you claim."

"I will try my best to not disappoint you."

With that a childish innocence waved on his face, and he had a shy look. When I observed that, I couldn't hold back and pointed out.

"You want to ask me something?"

"Ah…yes… about that. I don't have any idea what your plan, in fact no one knows about it. In fact, I even asked to Zoya but she too doesn't seem to hold a good idea about that. Would you mind telling me?"

That fact hit me. The people weren't interested in the plan because they didn't even know what the plan was in the first place. They might have thought I would take them in as slaves. Man, must I be so bad at negotiating the people.

"I can tell my plan right here but the thing is, you will think of me as a madman." I replied.

"Trust me, I have met many madmen but you don't appear like one."

"Well, just trust me for now that's what you can do right now."

"Okay… but just remember I will trust you with everything till it's for the good of the tribe."

That was expected of Tahari. He does seem to care a lot for his tribe and have a sensitive side for them. The night dispersed and everyone went back to their huts, the stars shined bright in the summer night but their beauty didn't hinder my mind on how was I going to use all their man power for our betterment.

I would start the kids by giving them the basics knowledge that helped people formed civilizations. Spoken and written language, maths and measurements, and the scientific methods. They will spend most of their time engaging in these. I can teach Zoya about them first, making her the teacher, so she also keeps a watch over the kids.

For young adults and adults who are full of energy, physical works can be performed by the while the women can do the tedious and repetitive tasks which doesn't require a lot of work. This is going to be a good week for we are going to fast forwards all those years humanity have spent on trail and error and get straight into the correct path.

With the dawn of the new day, I asked every male in the group to gather in one point. After everyone was gathered at that point, I counted the number of make present there. There appeared to be 17 males.

On my command, we were off to the jungle. Tahari stood by my side but we didn't talk on the way, we just walked. It's been 4 years since I came back to this path, but everything seemed the same.

"Where are we going exactly? We have been walking for a long time" Zuno asked after breaking the silence.

It just has been 20 minutes since we entered this forest, but I can understand him. Ever since the people settled here, all they roamed was the near jungle and cultivation fields.

"To collect new food and their seeds." I replied that didn't seemed to satisfy his curiosity, but he didn't ask any further. After another 10 minutes of walking, we reached the place. when the sight landed on my eyes, I couldn't hold back my tears.

Beyond me stood the trees of apple and bamboos, the plants of black pepper and chilli pepper and chillies which hanged from the branches. Some corn plants which were followed by the sugarcane shoots, and many other plants.

4 years ago, after I landed in this world and somehow managed to survive, I got lost in the jungle only to find this apple tree. When I first tried this apple, it tasted sour and with very little flesh, but it was enough to feed me to reach back to my hut.

This apple tree had been my landmark and I planted every other plant which I found to be useful. We are reaching new heights of farming, we will cultivate not only grains but fruits and vegetables and flavouring components, this is going to get excited.