Digital detox | A village reveals one of the simplest ways

A small hamlet in Maharashtra takes a collective break from TV and smartphone screens to rediscover the simple pleasures of life

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

THE GREAT OUTDOORS: People play volleyball all through ‘digital detox’ hours in Mohityanche Vadgaon. (Photo: Mandar Deodhar)

Every night time, at seven sharp, a siren atop the Bhairavnath temple in Mohityanche Vadgaon, a village in Maharashtra’s Sangli district spherical 350 km from state capital Mumbai, blares for a full 45 seconds. The sound of sirens is nothing unusual proper right here inside the state’s sugar mill belt, the place they signal the start of the work shift or its end each single day. But the 7 pm temple siren comes bearing a definite cue for Mohityanche Vadgaon’s residents. Earlier, as soon as they needed to wind down after a troublesome day’s work, they could scroll by the use of social media, watching the newest prime-time current or every single day cleansing cleaning soap operas on the TV. Not anymore. Now, as a result of the night time siren goes off, the villagers, principally farmers or sugar mill employees, should get off their screens, be it the television or cellular phone, for the next hour and a half. Children can use the time to overview, youngsters can study, or people can merely spend some prime quality time with each other or with their households. It has been 9 months now given that 3,500-odd residents of the village have been practising this every single day ‘digital detox’, so much so that it has impressed the neighbouring villages to adjust to swimsuit.

Published By:

Arindam Mukherjee

Published On:

May 5, 2023