Siddappa

Sidappa and his wife are absent from the village for some 8 months each year, going in a group of 30 or so to nearby Surpur. There they have a patron who provides them with regular agricultural work and gives them loans – but they are committed to return whenever needed. Thus, when the opportunity to work in their own village materialized, they were able to avail it for no more than 20 days or so before they had to leave for Surpur. As Siddappa pointed out, the work in Adhibhavi was only for a year, whereas his relations in Surpur are far longer and expected to last into the future, so the choice was clear. Neither Sidappa nor Rankamma feel that they really benefited from the project.