of Yavatmal district. After the meeting was over, Joshi was chatting with the villagers when he heard an interesting anecdote related to the plight of goddess Sita in Ramayana. It is well-known that after being abandoned by Ram, Sita took shelter in a forest where her two sons, Luv and Kush were born. But in Raveri, Joshi heard for the first time an epilogue of that story. Villagers believed that it was in their region that Luv and Kush were born. Sita, exhausted after delivery, requested the villagers for a fistful of wheat to cook lapshi, a simple but healthy traditional semi-liquid food given to young mothers. Sadly, none of the villagers gave her that wheat out of fear of King Ram. She was angry because she knew that unless she fed herself she could not breastfeed her new born sons. In her anger she cursed the village saying, ‘No wheat will ever grow in this region.’ For several centuries no wheat grew on that soil. Eventually, in recent times, during Green Revolution some new type of wheat seeds was found to take roots. There happened to be a partially destroyed temple of Hanuman near that village. His nine feet idol showed him in a tied up pose. Such a statue of Hanuman was not seen anywhere else. Villagers believed that when Ram performed his Ashwamedh yagnya, his horse came over here and was stopped by Luv and Kush from going further. They also defeated Hanuman who had accompanied that horse and tied him up, as that idol showed. It was impossible to ascertain how true folklore like that was. But villagers seemed to believe it. There was a dilapidated Sita temple in that village and Joshi felt this temple should be renovated as a memorial to Sita. He felt that innocent, helpless women abandoned by their families could seek shelter here and learn some skills which could give them financial independence. He tried hard for some years but nothing much could be done. When he was a member of Rajya Sabha, from the funds 236
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
