Vinay, son of 53-year-old Prayag Jadhav, a farmer in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district who killed himself
It's a rickety ride to Ghoti village, around 60 kilometres from Yavatmal town in Maharashtra. It's hardly rained in Vidarbha, but the one lane road in this village that falls under the region infamous for farmer suicides, is peppered with potholes.
Similar to Prayag Jadhav's life - the 53-year-old farmer, faced with numerous hurdles, finally ended his life a few days ago by consuming poison.
At his stark, one-room brick-and-mortar home in the village, his son Vinay and wife are still visibly numbed by his death.
The account from Jadhav's son - corroborated by officials - is replete with the most common triggers: unpaid loans, mounting debts and a failed crop. But it's the administration's apathy, Vinay insists, that pushed his father over the edge.
In early June, Yavatmal received its first showers, leading the farmers to promptly sow cotton seeds in the belief that the monsoons had arrived. It had, just that it then simply stopped raining.
Given the unpredictable pattern of the monsoon, Jadhav dug his own well under MNREGA, the Centre's rural jobs scheme. He now had a backup to water his fields.
But all of a sudden, power supply to his farm was cut. "We got his complaint that power supply had been cut and his brinjal and cotton crop were drying up in the heat. So we went to check it. And indeed, it had all died," said Naseer Mohammed Ali, an Agriculture Assistant with the government.
"For 25 days we didn't have power even though we had paid the bills. So we have filed a court case against the electricity board," said Vinay.
Weighed down by the ever-increasing loans, Jadhav finally broke down in front of his family, saying he could take it no more.
Hours later, he committed suicide.
Ironically, Jadhav had water in his well to counter the impact of a fickle monsoon.
"Exactly perhaps, the rain gods aren't always at fault," Vinay laments.