It’s ok even if ….
Justaju jiski thi
Usko toh na paya hamne
Is bahaane se magar
Dekhli duniya hamne…..
These lines in the silken voice of Asha tai( Bhonsle)
kept running through the mind today.
Two weeks back I had visited the nearby town of Shafter for that notorious speeding violation. That day before I made it to the court I lost my way and kept driving 4-5 miles ahead. That’s when I chanced upon this almond processing plant. I turned around and went for my court hearing. Once the dark clouds that hung over my head were gone, and I wept heartily in gratitude and relief, I remembered and went back to explore this almond place 😄. Two men were about to get into their car in the parking lot and drive off. Seeing me pull up one man walked up to my car. I pulled down the window and told him I was interested in seeing the place and taking some pictures there for my book about Kern County. Who should I talk to for permission ? That would be me, he said. I am the chief executive. He scribbled his name and phone number on a paper and asked me to contact him in a couple of weeks when he would have more time.
Sure enough yesterday was 2 weeks from that Friday. I texted him. Didn’t get a response. Decided to go check out if he could let me see the place today. It was 8:30 am and a nice sunny day when we set out of home .
We passed by miles and miles of farmland and several dairies. Cotton was growing at places. There were almond and pistachio groves, grape vines, alfalfa and tomato farms, wheat fields , pomegranate orchards and citrus orchards. Indeed a delightful drive as we entered the city of Shafter. The town had some nice murals painted on the walls. Took pictures there before heading to the almond factory.
The premises of the factory appeared quiet on a Saturday morning. A single staff member sat at the office window. She told me the boss was out of town this weekend. She couldn’t give me permission to see the operations inside because there was heavy machinery blah blah .
Ok.
Just as we were leaving the place a big truck with the almond harvest pulled in. I hurried to speak to the driver before he got out of the truck to go into the office. He told me the place where he had picked up the almond load and confirmed that the work was still in progress for me to go see within the next 3-4 hours. It was about 30 miles south, on the other side of Bakersfield.
We set out again , this time for Arvin. Barely 2-3 miles out, a farm truck with some nasty looking equipment in the front of it crossed in front of us. I asked hubby dear to turn around and follow him. May be he was heading towards almond harvest. He was going slow and we behind him. No sign of stopping. Finally caught up with him. His truck was meant for adding fertilizer in the farms, not harvesting any crop. We turned around and followed our earlier directions to Arvin. ( I have deliberately deleted narrating a huge tantrum that the better half threw during the circus of following the farm truck. But I remembered mom’s recent admonishing and kept my cool despite everything. Then patted on my own back for it 😄).
Once in Arvin we tried to find the location the driver had given me. Kept going round and round , several miles . Lots of orange groves everywhere but nowhere almond trees to be found. It was past 12:30 pm by then. Both of us were hungry. All morning we had been running around looking for something that we had no luck finding.
As I was about to get out of the dirt roads onto the freeway hubby said let’s go to Tehachapi and eat there. And so that’s where we turned to go even though that was in the opposite direction from home. At least our favorite bakery was open and we could sit and eat there before heading back home.
A good 150 miles of driving today under the blue skies and open fields. Couldn’t see the almond hulling and shelling factory from inside but enjoyed a lot around the countryside.
As Harvanshrai Bachchan said:
मन का हो तो अच्छा.
ना हो तो और भी अच्छा !
If you get what you want it is good.
If you don’t get what you want, that’s even better!
What you want is what your mind desires. If you don’t get what your mind desires then you get what Providence desires for you and that will be superior any day.
Saree : a thick cotton kotpad paired with printed blouse.
This post was written on October 21st, but got posted past midnight hence dated October 22nd.
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