Satappa Kudari, 55, Afzalpur village, Gulbarga Like the skies above the deccan plateau, Dudhamma's eyes are empty. Two seasons of scanty rainfall and an invasion of pod borers was enough to kill not just all hopes of sustenance but her husband Satappa Kudari, 55. In an attempt to break the shackles of penury, Kudari had decided to go for the cash-rich tur instead of the more traditional crops. He expended his sweat and money to buy insecticide, fertiliser and even a pipeline from the river Bhima, 200 m away. But nature denied him success when the drying skies and pests threw his precariously balanced life off the edge. One failure meant that Kudari sank deeper into despair and debt and there were no government schemes to help him out.Relief from life came on April 10 from a can of the same insecticide that failed to kill the pests. "I saw him drinking the pesticide after we had dinner that night," recalls Dudhamma, her frail body racked by anguished sobs. "He said he had received notices from the bank and the moneylenders, but there was no money at home." If the state Government is generous, they will give her Rs 1 lakh, as they sometimes do. It will immediately go to the moneylenders: Kudari had borrowed Rs 22,000, but as of December, the suffocating interest had pushed that up to Rs 70,000. What now? "Only God," she whispers, "can help me."Published By: AtMigration Published On: Aug 29, 2012--- ENDS ---
