It's like that only

A villager's attitude can often be quite baffling to one who has lived and grown in a city. And most baffling of all is his tendency to shrug off just about anything and say: It happens.

Did you know a coconut tree has fallen and blocked the road?
(shrug) It happens.

But it's snapped the electricity wires! We'll have no light till they fix it!
(shrug) It happens.

Some insect has eaten up every single leaf on my teak tree. What to do? (Why do I even bother to ask?)
(shrug) It happens.

There was a snake in my garden yesterday!
Ohh. Ahh. (shrug) It happens.

Sometimes they'll add for good measure: It doesn't matter. Or: It's like that only.

Why, why, why does it have to be like that only? I want to ask. Why can't something be done?

(Shrug.)

It's not so much that they're fatalistic, but that they accept the things that I (with the city in my blood) find hard to accept. And this is particularly true when it comes to the natural environment that we share.

I often think this must be what is meant by "living in harmony with nature". They don't struggle against it as I do. They placidly accept the frogs in their well, the monkeys who steal their chikoos, the ants in their food, the rats nesting in their roof as a natural part of their world. A villager will briefly lament the dog who kills and eats his rooster, but he won't threaten to sue the owner of the dog. The owner of a mud house will bemoan sometimes the bandicoot who has tunneled underneath and threatens to bring the structure tumbling down, yet he won't lose too much sleep over it. If a cow eats up a favourite plant they only shake their heads.

The huge palm leaves that crash down to the ground, and which I don't know what to do with, they will weave into a canopy to protect them from the heat, the wind and the rain. The cow crap they're happy to collect (the dog crap they ignore).

They do what they can since they know they can't change what's like that only. They add alum to the well water they drink to cleanse it of the frogs who live there. They avoid planting large trees near dwellings so that rats and snakes don't have easy access. They keep cats and dogs to take care of unwanted creatures. They gather and burn dry leaves so that white ants won't breed there. Beyond that they can do nothing.

The only thing that seems to spur them into action is the presence of a snake, especially if it's known to be dangerous. They won't go to work that day. They'll gather neighbours and relatives, and armed with sticks they'll hunt down the snake.

Sometimes I wish I could be like them.