Virtual detox | A village displays the best way

A small hamlet in Maharashtra takes a collective ruin from TV and smartphone monitors to rediscover the straightforward pleasures of lifestyles

Sangli,ISSUE DATE: Might 15, 2023 | UPDATED: Might 5, 2023 11:17 IST

THE GREAT OUTDOORS: Folks play volleyball throughout ‘virtual detox’ hours in Mohityanche Vadgaon. (Picture: Mandar Deodhar)

Each and every night, at seven sharp, a siren atop the Bhairavnath temple in Mohityanche Vadgaon, a village in Maharashtra’s Sangli district round 350 km from state capital Mumbai, blares for a complete 45 seconds. The sound of sirens is not anything strange right here within the state’s sugar mill belt, the place they sign the beginning of the paintings shift or its finish on a daily basis. However the 7 pm temple siren comes bearing a distinct cue for Mohityanche Vadgaon’s citizens. Previous, once they had to wind down after a difficult day’s paintings, they’d scroll thru social media, staring at the most recent prime-time display or day-to-day cleaning soap operas at the TV. Now not anymore. Now, because the night siren is going off, the villagers, most commonly farmers or sugar mill staff, need to get off their monitors, be it the tv or cell phone, for the following hour and a part. Youngsters can use the time to review, children can learn, or folks can merely spend some high quality time with every different or with their households. It’s been 9 months now because the 3,500-odd citizens of the village had been training this day-to-day ‘virtual detox’, such a lot in order that it has impressed the neighbouring villages to observe swimsuit.

Printed Through:

Arindam Mukherjee

Printed On:

Might 5, 2023