OCR Text Analysis : หน้า 10/194

2 The Fields of Nakorn Chaisri Socati puttehi putimā Gomiko gohi tatheva socati Upadhihi narassa socaṇā Na hi so socati yo nirupadhiti Those who have children will have sorrow because of their children. Those who have oxen will have sorrow because of their oxen. Such attachments are the origin of peoples' sorrow. Nandana Sutta (S.i.108) It was daybreak in the paddy fields of ‘turn of the century’ Nakorn Chaisri. A group of young men clad in dried palm-leaf hats and the rag-tag, drab-coloured waistcloths that identified them as farmers, hastened down the beaten pathway that followed the top of the dyke dividing the paddy fields. Yesterday they had sped along the same track — but today they had got up a few minutes earlier. In an uncommon show of enthusiasm to reach the fields first, they turned the final corner onto a patch of the quilt of crops always kept completely free of weeds — a patch that always yielded more than that of the neighbours. “Not again!” came the disappointed cry from the youths — seeing the gaunt silhouette of a girl already bent double — face to the ground, back to the sky— plucking weeds from her crop. No matter how