The countryside in Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts of North Bengal, nudging the Bhutan hills, as winter fades, is as pleasant, pretty and accessible as it can get. As the hard-topped road gives way to country tracks, the small car moves on two parallel grass strips, with the beaten path in between used by humans and of course that great hardy blessing of modern living, the motorbike.
Two other gifts of modern technology underline both the change taking place in the countryside and what country folk now take for granted. Electricity came a couple of years ago and the dish antenna popping out of an occasional tin roof bears testimony to the farm family’s need for entertainment. The most recent addition is a little pucca toilet tucked into one corner of every courtyard. All these are in sharp contrast to the ancient farming technology — bullocks and plough — still being used.