Formula One transforms Indian village for better and worse

Salarpur : DANKAUR-SARLARPUR, India: India’s new Formula One circuit has made rupee millionaires out of hundreds of farmers who sold their land to make way for the track, but many are unhappy at the changes to their lives. Life was tough but simple not very long ago for farmer Sanjay Singh and his tight-knit family of six who say they were content with their small piece of land on which they harvested cucumbers, vegetables and other crops. Not any more. Construction of the new $350 million circuit outside New Delhi, set to host the first Indian Grand Prix Oct. 30, has turned their lives upside down. “We sold away our land for the organizers of the race,” Singh told AFP while supervising the construction of his new two-storey house in Dankaur-Sarlarpur village which overlooks the race circuit.