Manga Ram sat in the cool shade of the neem tree, stroking his moustache, and thoughtfully chewing his bajre ki roti. Something told him that all was not well. He felt uncomfortable. He looked at the crops in his field swaying in the breeze, remembering old times and the angrez sahibs....

He was young and hardworking then, His village used to depend heavily on the monsoon rain to grow just one crop in a year. It was just enough to feed him and his family. Much had changed since those difficult days.

With the coming of the canal waters, his land could grow more. Then the agriculture university-walas came and told him to try out a new variety of wheat. Initially, he was a little hesitant to believe in those pant-coat-wearing farmers. But when his neighbour told him that this new variety grew like magic, he was impressed. Lots more crop and faster too...

The pant-coat walas also asked him to use certain pesticides and fertilisers. They said that these chemicals helped control those nasty bugs which would periodically attack his crops and destroy everything.

Mice, moles, snakes, spiders, mites, grasshoppers were all getting wiped out. Birds that ate up those bugs suddenly started dying. The nasty poison was slowly creeping through the food chain.

Manga Ram now began harvesting two to three crops a year. They were told that they were a part of a revolution. The ‘Green Revolution’. His yields increased dramatically. So did his use of those pesticides. All over the mud walls of his village were painted large colourful advertisements of all kinds of pesticides. Aldrin, dieldrin, malahion, DDT they were called the friends of the farmers. They killed all those evil little critters that ate up all the plants. So the farmers sprayed them on the crops.

For a few years all seemed well. The farmers grew prosperous. Everyone in the village was happy and contented. But not for long.

The Bug smiled wickedly to himself. Of late, much to his and his fellow-critters’ surprise, the pesticides affected them less. In fact, he felt energetic and strong. His genes were mutating. Something odd was happening within his little body...

Manga Ram felt something was amiss when he first noticed the silence in his fields. There were no bird songs. In fact, some types of birds had completely disappeared. Even worse was to follow. Those awful pests had started to become resistant to his pesticides. However much he sprayed, they kept coming back to attack his precious crops. Manga Ram was miserable. How was he going to pay for all the money he had borrowed to buy those pesticides?