With floods, Jalandhar villagers' dream of marriages of daughters also swept away

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, July 27

Shingara Singh (50) from Mundi Cholian is getting a disturbed sleep at night. He was saving money to marry off his daughters this year. With all his crops being destroyed in floods, the plan was also swept away. “Baakiya de layi sirf paani aaya te paani gaya, per saade layi, paani sab kuch lai gaya,” said an emotional Shingara.

Some from Lohian villages, who wanted to marry off their daughters, said they felt embarrassed now as they would have nothing to give in the wedding.

Shingara had lost his house in the 2019 floods which he had built again after taking loans, but the house developed cracks this time too, and now he along with his family is living in someone else’s house.

This marginal farmer had sown paddy on two acres “When we sow a crop, we sow our dreams as well. My daughters are of marriageable age and now I cannot think of their marriage. What will I give my daughter? Also, when we are having a hard time even to survive, marriage has taken a back seat, but I feel so burdened,” he said.

Farmer Balkar Singh from the same village said he had met a family for his daughter’s marriage. “We were going slow as I was waiting for my crop to mature so that I could sell it and get a good return to buy things for the wedding,” he said, adding that he hardly knew that whatever he was thinking would never turn true. He feared that the family would not wait now as they may not be interested in his family.

“Due to the floods, the lives of our daughters suffer. I had sown paddy on two acres and when floods came, I was devastated. Don’t know why nature is wreaking havoc on us and our children,” he lamented.

Shocker for farmers

When we sow a crop, we sow our dreams as well. My daughters are of marriageable age and now I cannot think of their marriage. What will I give to my daughter? — Shingara Singh, a farmer