Over the years, the Indian subcontinent has been witnessing regular natural disasters like cyclones, flash floods and earthquakes. As lives and livelihoods suffer devastation, the aftermath often takes years of recovery. It goes without saying that the most affected by the devastation is rural India. Acres of fields, cultivated with months of blood and sweat get uprooted or submerged in a matter of minutes. The prior warnings can hardly help save agricultural produce that have not been harvested. As it was with Amphan.

A chat with one of our VFS customers revealed how the twin trouble of the pandemic and Cyclone Amphan jeopardized her life.

Suchitra Mondal and her family dreamt a life of financial stability with the support from VFS. Their primary source of income was from the cultivation of three different kinds of marigolds and hibiscus. As a secondary source, the Mondal family used to be fish sellers in one of North Kolkata's prominent bazaars. The local train commute made it possible to give them access to Kolkata's markets where demands of fish remain perennially high.

The dream was upturned when Cyclone Amphan made landfall in the month of May. Their blooming fields were washed out, so were their hopes. As our conversation progressed, Suchitra reminisced how the day before Amphan came, she prepared to save her marigold buds by constructing fences around the fields. But which bamboo fence could ever hold ground against a super cyclone raging at a speed of 260 km/hr?

Adding to the grief, the pandemic induced lockdown halted the busy local train to an unnatural halt forcing fish sellers like Suchitra Mondal to sell in their local market at subsidized rates.

But what amazes me with our rural customers is their resilience. Even with the setbacks, Suchitra regains her hopes for the festive season as she looks forward to her hibiscus cultivation. Workers have been employed to clean the fields and restart cultivation. But the question remains, will the renewed efforts bloom in time for the Pujas?

Meanwhile, the struggle to stay afloat during the crisis remains. With the help of her husband, Suchitra somehow manages to meet the family expenses through their local fish shop. While the couple struggles to make ends meet, their 12-year-old son patiently waits for the school to reopen. The luxury of online classes is far from the reach of the Mondal family.

The process to rebuild their fields and renew their hopes has started again. Our rural India may get hit by forces beyond control but it will be impossible to keep them down for long.