Red or green? It isn’t just the state question of New Mexico anymore. But we’ll pick up on that in a moment. As some of you may have noticed, I have a fairly liberal personal definition of what constitutes a Desi Angle (TM) for your consideration. Perhaps this is due to my own mixed-up background — subconsciously, I probably worry that if you define desi too narrowly, there won’t be any room left for my mongrel ass. But it’s also that desi angles pop up in the darndest places. For example…
I have been working almost everyday on the drive to the double-wide. The last couple days I moved 53 tons of #2 gravel onto the drive. I believe I will need one more load to have everything covered good on the drive and to have enough to put a few around the entrances to the barns. It gets really muddy anywhere the animals gather up in the winter. At the ends of the barns is a soupy mess. Mud doesnÂ’t bother the cows, but it is a breeding ground for worms. Goats are very succeptable to parasites so they donÂ’t do well in moist places. ItÂ’s also hard on the horsesÂ’ shoes. It seems to suck them right off. Not to mention I hate walking in it.
Monday I noticed someone had used my tractor while I was at work. Turns out BJ had to feed hay to Mamaw and Papaw StaleyÂ’s cattle. Papaw said she did it like she had been doing it all her life. I told him it was just that she had a good teacher. Today I went and set out some rolls of hay to the same cattle. Same story where he has their cattle. Pretty much a soupy mess. They have rented my great uncle FredÂ’s old place and have about 25 head running on it. A few weeks back someone shot two of his cows. They must have done it in the night and just left them to die. There is enough loss in farming without such senseless things as that.
Let’s play Spot the Desi Angle, shall we? In the preceding quote, the Desi Angle is…
(a) Great-uncle Fred is Hindu, and his cows were sacred
(b) The writer is a share-cropper at the Maharishi’s farm in Iowa
(c) The writer is a blogger for an Indian farm equipment company
(d) Don’t be fooled by the names. This story takes place in Madhya Pradesh.
And the answer is…
The answer is (C). The quote is from the most recent entry on Life of a Farm, a blog by Joel Combs, 32, of Pine Knot, Kentucky, and hosted on the corporate website of Mahindra USA, the American subsidiary of Indian firm Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd.
Now before we get to the Mahindra part, I have to say that this blog makes for some very interesting, enjoyable reading. It’s clear from the writing and the photographs that Mahindra USA has sponsored a real-life, young family farmer from a deeply rural part of the country — southern Kentucky, about 60 miles from Knoxville, Tenn., as he develops his land and builds a home on it with the aid of his trusty Mahindra 6000 tractor.
Read a few entries — they are fairly infrequent, and the site only dates back to mid-2006, so it won’t take you long — and you will get a rather compelling glimpse into family farming, and one that is quite forthright about the struggles that family farmers face in a country where agriculture is so heavily controlled by large corporate interests. Joel (pictured here with kids Kaylee, Mattie and Garret) is a sympathetic character and a frank writer, and seems quite sincere in his affection for his Mahindra tractor.
Intrigued, I made my way to “The World’s Largest Tractor Community,” tractorbynet.com, where tractors are compared and criticized and maintenance and other issues are discussed to the tune of over one million messages so far. It was quite fascinating.
As you may or may not know, the dominant player in the U.S. tractor market is John Deere, one of those iconic American brands and one associated with a particular (and quite attractive) shade of green in which it paints its products. There are a number of competitors — Kubota, New Holland, Kioti — but it seems that in recent years Mahindra has been coming on strong, with aggressive pricing, successful advertising campaigns, and dealer and customer service that seems to have earned a solid reputation.
Mahindra is doing the color thing too. Their tractors are all red. Deere’s are green. The discussion on the board often uses the colors as shorthand for the brand.
The non-American origins of the Mahindra brand are well known to these family farmers. There are some very interesting discussions about the meaning of American products: there is a general preference for buying American, but a savvy understanding that Deere products are likely to include as many or more components sourced outside the US as are the competition.
It’s worth getting your tractor geek on and poking around this site to hear perspectives — not just on tractors, but on the farming life — that y’all city macacas don’t usually get to hear. It’s also noteworthy how easily an Indian brand has spread in this salt-of-the-earth, so-called “redneck” community, while resentment against desis grows in the suburban office parks of the nation.
thanks for the story! i’ve seen the mahindra logo gracing the green landscapes in the carolinas, too, so it’s not so foreign.
for the record, like your desi open-mindedness. and i think a lot of other people on this site do too.
Will check pout the blog. Non-writing-lit-journalism blogs often have more candor.
Talking of this industrial type desi sightings – NYT has this article about Oreck and 200 welders being brought over from India to work at a plant in the south.
Moreover, Mahindra & Mahindra is planning to start selling the Scorpio and its pick ups in the US from 2008 onwards. If I move back to India I am gonna buy myself a Scorpio……..really find it ubersexy for some reason!!!!
I remember reading a while back that Mahindra and Mahindra used to be Mahindra and Mohammed but the mohammed fella moved to Pakistan post partition.
Whats next? Bajaj!
You mean they are two different colors? I resent your deuteranopic-unfriendly titles. You just lost 8% of your Indian male Brahmin readership.
for the record, like your desi open-mindedness. and i think a lot of other people on this site do too.
Ditto. Ever thought of the possibilities of cloning?
Yay! You wrote about my rural Southern farming neighbors. They get a bad rap sometimes on this site so I hope this helps people realize they don’t all hate brown people, or their tractors.
shiksa, where are you from?
Virginia. Haven’t seen any Mahindra tractors around yet, but I’ll keep an eye out.
yay for the south (and not in a south-shall-rise-again-kind-of-way)!
i’m in south carolina.
I marked
I should get credit because it does take place in the Middle Region (of this country). There are multiple correct answers, Professor Mitter. Can I have the points for this question please? If I don’t get this point, my grade will be a B- and my GPA will fall below 2.5 and that’s the minimum GPA for getting hired at the local company. If I don’t get the job, I won’t have money to buy medicines for my mother who will then die of CANCER. Professor Saab, please…rehem keejiya. Meri baat suniye, professor saaaab…..
What an awesome post. You have outdone yourself.
I’ve often wished I’d have a stronger connection with that whole rural landed aspect of our society.
just curious – i know the mahindra jeep was knocked off the WW II american vehicle by the same name. i believe this was a collaboration that went sour and the americans pulled out.
so who’s providing the knowhow to the current organization? to the best of my knowledge only BEML and Tata have indian r&d ops.
also, some of the equipment seen on the Mahndra us web site seems a far throw from indian farming. tractors, yes- but no earthmovers of any note to the best of my knowledge. they just hire laborers to move stuff like termites to a woodpile. are all these equipment being made (assembled?) for export purposes only?
fascinating thread btw – great find SM.
Great post!
I have a strange experience about the rural south.
When at college, we just loved (and i still do) Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, CCR and other greats … Stevie Ray Vaughan’s hillbillies from outer space was (and is) a favorite.
After coming to the US I was told that anything south of Virginia is to be avoided, partly because of the apprehensions of desishiksa.
Only later did I come to know that 1 originated in 2.
But no one can take away Allman Brother’s Blue Sky or the Rambling man from me ever.
I too love this post too. Fantastic post, fantastic subject. Good point about the Mahindra/Jeep issue. I remember the time when the Mahindra Jeep had its name changed to Mahindra Legend for that reason.
John Deere is a symbol too, I hear. In the 2003 Iowa caucuses, while Dean’s people were wearing the campaign’s orange caps, Edwards’ folks wore John Deere caps and that really resonated with rural Iowans.
Tata is making highpowered toilets for US customers who want to escape the EPA’s tyranny and desire a 5 gallon per flush monstrocity in the men’s room!
Actually, Bajaj has been around for so long in Indonesia, that people think it is an Indonesian brand. In fact, most tuk-tuks in Indonesia are no longer manufactured by Bajaj, but they are still called Bajaj everywhere.
V. cool. I’ve also seen the occasional Ashok Leyland bus/lorry on Egyptian roads…and other random Indian industrial product brand names pop up (fans, water heaters, pipes). On a less positive note, Fair and Lovely is another popular import…though I’ve never been sure if that’s a Lever brand thing or a particularly desi product.
A truly enjoyable post. I’ve tried ploughing the odd field, but as this has been pure sahib farmer indulgence in a bit of American exotica, it’s been a strictly John Deere affair. Glad to see that the real folks in the heartland are more discerning.
I recommend A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Maria Lewycka
Hey, when you eat as much sabzi as I do, you really can’t (ahem) flush it down properly with a low flow toilet. Those are really designed for white folk eating a basic American diet, super low in fiber, a lot of meat and simple starches. There’s a reason why American culture is so (figuratively) constipated.
Same for Vietnam. Tuk-tuks are also called ‘bajaj’ there, I believe. My Vietnamese ex had refused to believe that they were not Vietnamese when I’d first told her about this.
First tractors then tuk-tuks, Tata and now toilet tao. Before I get the finger for forging a frivolous footpath on this ftp-fibril, my original factoid was not only falthoo but fictitious.
s:
this is why i love your posts- you put a spin on things and keep things ‘refreshing’…
Brownz exporting manufactured equipment to a discerning western market? I’da never thunk it growing up. Interesting how they didn’t feel a need to anglify their name either.
No need! Try the American pronunciation. It’s cool. Ma-HIN-druh.
Beautiful, No von Mises. So bunker occupants, whatever happened to Fo-Fo-Fofatlal?
Interesting how they didn’t feel a need to anglify their name either.
Hey, don’t slam folks who have done that. They have typically immigrated during the dark days (70s and earlier) when culture had a narrow definition. No one does it these days. Anyway, during the pre environmental reg. days a lot of Indian buses/autos were found on the roads of the Middle East, SE Asia, Soviet Bloc. Now that a lot of the original patents (mechanisms to regulate emission) are expiring the auto/bus companies can enter countries that have stringent patent ownership enforcement.
Although tractors may be exempt from the EPA regs.
My father ran a John Deere dealership down South for years, and I have to say — anyone who thinks Deere is protecting the interest of average Americans is on crack. Yes, the outsourcing issue siddhartha talks about exists, but the company also treats its smaller parts and service providers like shit. Contracts are amended and renegotiated at odd times with completely slanted terms, non-competition agreements are violated, and the whole situation generally rebounds to the benefit of the big corporation at the expense of the small businesspeople and employees who actually sell and maintain the things to end consumers.
NOT that I’m saying that any of this is particularly worse than any other facet of corporate America. It’s not. The little guy gets screwed. But again, anyone thinking Deere is all amber waves of grain and purple mountains majesty needs to think again.
Love your liberal spin!
Great perspective
You know, that other comment I made on the haldi thread, I actually thought it was a great article, and I wonder that my comment was taken as sarcastic or a criticism
Stellat, Siddharta! This half-city half-sticks macaca wants to add that the manhole covers in NYC indicate that they were made in 24-Parganas, but have not seen any similar in any county seat up the valley. Will keep an eye out for red tractors upstate from now on.
Sorry, I meant stellaR. Pity John Deere took over wobbly landscaping mower production for emerald waves of golf courses.– there is no substitute for an old Bolens.
Desishiksa, not trying to pry but I’m in VA too. How far are you from Richmond?
Only thing left to conquer is the baby stroller market.
tractorbynet.com has an entire forum dedicated to posts about Mahindra tractors populated by some very englightened members.
Isn’t that the Indian pronunciation as well? Maybe a longer draa at the end intead of the druh, that’s all.
Manish Vij wrote an interesting comment about them here
I enjoyed spending some time reading the tractorbynet forum where people where talking about various mechanical issues with their tractors and lots of folks posted helpful comments. Thanks for the link, Siddhartha. Always nice to see a commmunity where people help each other out with technical issues.
Like Siddhartha noted, it’s interesting to see the farmers happily take up Mahindra while software types are getting hate.
Did y’all see the shout-out on Salon this generated? 😀
Great post. I used some of your quotes on a post of my own about this blog. Combs’ home is in Appalachia and I write quite a bit about the mountains here. (We used to get called Hillbillies as a derogatory term, so I’ve adapted it as part of my handle… so I love your use of the word Desi. Folks should be proud of who they are and where they’re from and I applaud you guys for your spirit. Enuff soapbox…)
If you get a chance to check it out I’d love to hear some comments. Particularly about my closing question: Does the success of this company have something to do with their Indian corporate, and thus Anglo/British heritage?