I was pretty envious of my father who retired and quietly moved back to his village and live amongst family. The quality of relationships, sense of community, tolerance for a lot of things i have taken granted (24hr electricity, pest free place, restaurants etc..) and most importantly the slowness of life which gives way to enjoying each one of the above mentioned.
how slow is life?
No matter how many times i went across last 3/4 years, the place always seemed the same.
- 0 new houses
- 0 new people
- 0 new places (temple, food)
The only change we see is change in surroundings that reflect the season.
Surrounded in equal measure with livestock and people.
Reliance on farm means still thriving water bodies (at least seasonally)
It takes some getting used to though (insects, snakes, little to no mobile network access except for bsnl and eating the food you grow every single day)
The pluses far outweigh the inconveniences and in some sense we definitely feel very lucky to have a base where you can go and sit down when all this chaos ends!
Hike up the hill