Page:Sharad Joshi - Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage.pdf/96

 Joshi said, ‘That comment of Mama contains the seed of entire history of farmers’ struggle.’ After the election fever subsided, from April 1978 Joshi again started focusing on his farm. Situation had become critical. There were financial problems and also family tension. After returning to India, Leelatai was also looking for some independent avenue for herself. Pune-Talegaon belt was emerging as a poultry centre. She did a course at Government Poultry Training Institute at Khadkee and soon started her own poultry. She was working hard at it. She started from her house but as business expanded she shifted her business to Ambethan where the cages for chickens and a shed was constructed. Unfortunately, from the beginning poultry business ran into one difficulty after other. A major power failure resulted in the sudden stoppage of the refrigeration unit in which she had stored the produce and the entire lot was destroyed. Once, some mongooses somehow managed to enter the cages and ate about five hundred of two and a half thousand chicks enclosed there. Like in the farm, the burden of loan kept mounting. During those days of turmoil Joshi reached an important milestone in his intellectual journey. It happened when the Annual Day was celebrated at St Joseph Convent where Shreya and Gauri studied. Though originally the Convents were started by missionaries to educate ordinary masses, somehow all over India they came to be equated with elite schools. Spacious buildings, playground, dedicated staff, school buses, good library and laboratory, high standards of English and many such assets ensured their high reputation. It was not easy to get admission in these schools and those who got it usually came from higher echelons of society. That Annual Day, like other parents, Joshis also attended the celebration. There was colourful festive atmosphere around; balloons and ribbons, shining Hands in Soil

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