SCENE ONE. Int.
Conf. room, Corporate Affairs Deptt., Big Company Ltd, Mumbai, India
Afternoon, 1500 hrs, post lunch slumber
PROJECT CHAIRMAN (CHAMP), PROJECT COORDINATOR (CORD) and PROJECT OPERATIONS DIRECTOR (DIRO) are sitting wide-eyed, heart beating faster than usual, their minds feeling the thumping of their relatively faster heartbeats, with the BIG WIDE GUY (BIGU), The MANAGING LADY (MILADY), and the EXECUTIONER (X), waiting for the REALLY BIG GUY WITH OKAY STAMP (RbG pronounced ‘AARGEE’).
AarGee enters with a grinning face. He seems to be a seasoned champion. Everyone wishes each other good days. DIRO sighs, hoping the hardest he has ever. X makes some corrections with pencil in the one page note that he has prepared for AarGee.
CHAMP: Good Afternoon Sir! we…
AarGee cuts him down in between.
AarGee: I know just a little bit…let me just read the summary.
The service person brings in tea and some biscuits. From the last meetings, DIRO has come to love those biscuits and he waits for BIGU to offer them, as always.
AarGee reads the one page note prepared by X. He collects that some of the team members are IITians. He raises his head to take a look at the people present around the table.
AarGee: …IITians… they are usually good people!
AarGee buries his head again in the note. DIRO counts the seconds he is taking, while remembering that he is supposed to get engaged the next day; he hides his smile and waits for AarGee to finish reading. After about a minute, AarGee is done.
AarGee (slightly nostalgic and smiling, to CHAMP): … you are from IIT Delhi, but we will accept you.
AarGee (to DIRO): …and which one are you from?
DIRO (broadly smiling): Sir, you will have to accept me, I am from Kharagpur.
AarGee: Are you saying that you are going to arrange a train, 400 odd highly talented young people, some role models, and the entire workforce needed to execute this.
(X gives a frowning smile, MILADY holds back a smile, BIGU looks passionate; DIRO, CORD, CHAMP skip a beat.)
DIRO, CORD, and CHAMP: Yes sir..!
DIRO, CORD, CHAMP steal a look into each other’s eyes. They had been practicing this coordination for over a year now. They all easily realize whose turn it is to speak.
CHAMP: …and not only that sir, many of these young people will hail from middle India – second and third tier towns and villages of India.
AarGee: I would love it if they could but could they. Do you realize that this is a project where things that could go wrong are much greater in number than things that can go right?
AarGee (to BIGU): Let us discuss this internally and then, understand it in more details.
CORD and DIRO look at each other, wondering how to excuse themselves as both have to catch a flight to Delhi in order to respectively, meet her spouse and get his spouse in the first place. Old coordination comes to help. CORD looks at DIRO and then, from the corner of the eye is passed an instruction to keep looking at CHAMP unless the connection is established.They do so and CHAMP slightly nods using eyes.
CORD: I am sorry; DIRO and I may have to leave immediately to catch a flight. (She makes it sound as if this flight was equally important to AarGee as was to her.)
All nod, and CORD and DIRO leave.
SCENE TWO Int.
One room Project Office, Balgovind Wadi, Prabhadevi, Mumbai (DEN)
Morning, 0830, early morning zeal and freshness in office
DIRO looks into his laptop screen and notices the immense amount of dirt that its screen has gathered by frequent traveling and outdoor ad-hoc presentation preparations. He makes a mental note to call his fiancée to find out the best anti-static dusting solution available in the market. The emails have been downloaded by now. DIRO looks at the subject Headings and feels adrenalin gush through his tubes.
The subject headings read: Presentation version 1 … presentation version 2 … presentation version 3 … Presentation 10… note to head sponsorship … documents needed… and so on.
Some text from the rapidly downloading emails flashes in the bottom right corner of the screen: Important, crucial, focus, all energies, all systems go…
DIRO types furiously trying to answer around 98 emails, stretched eyebrows to displaying slight tension and creative nervousness aptly displayed on his tense face muscles.
Velji Bhai, the office man brings in endless cups of coffee. Vinod, the courier boy is sent out to deliver important documents which MUST go out to the printer today.
The Screen reads:
0800: Meeting with TV Channel
0930: Meeting with BIGU
1230: Meeting with potential Radio Partner
1400: Meeting with potential employees
1700: Team meeting to discuss the plans for the month ahead
2000: Dinner with Team
2200: Monitoring the final presentation for the next day meeting
2230: Call MILADY to confirm meeting with AarGee
2300: DO GO TO SLEEP
The work engine runs for a number of hours, continuously, never stopping except for the energizer that Velji Bhai brings in. It is evening.
SCENE THREE Ext.
Evening, 2030, Somewhere in Chembur, Mumbai
A roadside tea-seller is busy brewing tea to serve the customers, including DIRO.
People are discussing the current political situation. It is evident that the crowd is well-fed on information by Television and starved of any original thought. They all one by one are agreeing to one single fact – the government needs to do something to uplift them economically.
DIRO sighs, lets out a cold breath, and collects his tea and leaves.
SCENE FOUR Int.
Nightfall, 2045, Parking lot of a half-constructed building, welding machines and water pumps lying around, some labourers have already retired for the day. The water treatment plant of the building whirs constantly in a distorted monotone. The air is full of particulate matter – cement, sand, dust, white cement, paint fumes
DIRO walks up to the makeshift lift for carrying material for construction work, presses the button to go to the sixth floor.
As DIRO enters the flat, the stark naked emptiness of the flat strikes. There is not a single piece of furniture; there are just two electric fixtures – a bulb and a geyser in the bathroom.
DIRO starts whistling, looks into the horizon as if bracing his armour; he fires up his laptop, connects his data card, commands it to connect. As it connects, DIRO cracks his fingers.
One after another, versions of documents are opened, juice collected, waste discarded, saved for further processing. The presentation gets ready slide by slide, the story weaves itself. The brain gathers every word from the meetings, weighs, discards, plans, visualizes. The number of slides keeps growing. While the interface shows innumerable buttons being pressed, the insides are burning with adrenalin. It makes DIRO question the theory again and again and find gaps and fill gaps, or else kill gaps. DIRO is extremely brutal; he kills all that does not make sense. The answers are kept ready.
The clock strikes 2300. Diro smiles. The fire burns till 0300. The presentation is ready – not for presentation, but for further readying.
SCENE FIVE Ext.
Morning, 0830, somewhere in one of the old mill compounds in business district, Mumbai
DIRO and CHAMP meet. Both are dressed up - carefully ironed shirts to respect the formality, khakis to wear the run of the day ahead, polished shoes. Carrying the laptop, pendrive, required stationary, business-cards, and a mind so full of information and strategy, they wish each other good morning.
Meeting with the Head of the media advisory company.
Meeting with the Chief Editor of the TV Channel.
Back again to the meeting with the Head of the media advisory company.
Meeting with the Marketing Head of the Potential Radio Partner.
Realisation that we need a car to be mobile but costs are to be kept low. A deal is struck with the Yellow-Black Driver. He charges less on guaranteeing minimum number of Kilometers, which DIRO and CHAMP are sure of.
Meeting with BIGU
Meeting with MILADY
Meeting with the Creative Director of the Advertising Agency
Stop over for an Uttapam each. Story about DIRO’s father teaching him how to use cutlery when he had to attend a high dinner, when they lived in the small town. Memory generated laughter.
Debrief at the DEN, followed by meeting with the team members that lasts three hours.
The group goes for dinner together. All wish good byes to each other.
DIRO and CHAMP work further on the presentation. Changes are made but optimized with time and resources. Some things are left with just a marker – others are changed completely.
DIRO then goes looking for a printer. Late into the night, presentations, papers and documents all printed-bound-folded, a text message informs CHAMP that we are ready to take on AarGee, BIGU, MILADY and X the day after.
SCENE SIX Ext.
Late night, 2355, The Washerman’s shop in a makeshift arrangement just outside the apartment building where DIRO plans to stay for the night.
Washerman: Try to make it early next time; it is too late waiting for you.
DIRO: I understand. Thank you. By the way, have you thought of expanding your shop into a full-fledged power laundry?
Washerman: I want to, but I wonder where to get the money to invest. I actually plan a good home delivery system but it requires some money which I am collecting.
DIRO is visibly happy and in some way, the conversation has helped him gain confidence in himself, his theory, his strategy, and his reason to be in the city.
DIRO collects his bundle of clothes, happy that he had managed to rotate his wardrobe to be able to use his lucky shirt for the meeting the next day.
SCENE SEVEN (Contd… from SCENE SIX)
DIRO hears great howling; his mind flickers; it takes a few seconds to come out of the plan and presentation. He realizes he is under attack. More growling, scratching and barking follow. He turns around to see three canines charging over at him – full speed. All he has is the bundle with the lucky shirt – that’s so important and so easy to get ruined. The canines are furious as they realize the victim is frightened. The victim realizes that he just gave out wrong signals. The only hard thing around is the laptop he is carrying. A copy is in pendrive. Laptop becomes the sword.
The laptop comes off the shoulder and hits two canines on their jaws in one stroke. They go away making furious sound. The third one does not realize the fight back. It charges ahead and pierces its claws into man-flesh, followed by its canines. It gets rewarded by another charge of strong kicks. It realizes the danger and runs away. They leave but not before injecting their venom.
DIRO looks at the laptop and the bundle. They are fine.
DIRO realizes that there is some kind of danger. Nothing comes to his presentation infested mind. He calls his fiancée. She is handling the night shift releasing the copy of the newspaper for the next day; she is under great pressure of work. She tries to help but the phone gets disconnected. Next, DIRO calls his friend with internet connection.
Google happens.
The friend calls back to inform that DIRO should immediately go to a doctor. DIRO sighs, goes into the apartment building to keep his laptop and his bundle of clothes.
He comes out back again, shoos the canines away again out of anger, and walks to the nearest hospital
The Washerman comes running to help and to opine – Sir, Don’t wear khaki pants. Dogs don’t like police men.
Hospital. Injection. The program for next five injections. All seems normal.
Suddenly, the skin starts turning purple in patches. Irritation begins in the entire body. DIRO is kept under observation till 0500.
SCENE EIGHT Int.
Conf room, Corporate Affairs Department, Big Company Ltd, Mumbai, India
Morning, 0830 hrs, Morning Freshness and full of activity
CHAMP and DIRO sit waiting for MILADY and X.
MILADY, X, CHAMP and DIRO wait for BIGU.
BIGU, MILADY, X, CHAMP and DIRO wait for AarGee.
AarGee enters with a grinning face, seems to be a seasoned champion. Everyone wishes each other good days. DIRO smiles. He feels confident, out of a lot of iterative hardwork. X opens up the presentation
CHAMP: Good Afternoon Sir! We…
AarGee asks for the presentation to begin.
CHAMP and DIRO take turns to speak about things relevant to their positions, and takes.
The service person brings in tea and some biscuits. From the last meetings, DIRO has come to love those biscuits and he waits for BIGU to offer them, as always
The room slowly gets in the mood. They all slowly get taken by the smell of thoughts well-thought, strategy well-placed and eloquence well-rehearsed.
It ends well.
SCENE NINE Ext.
Inside a car booked for the day, outside the building of the Corporate Affairs Department, Big Company Ltd, Mumbai, India
Late Morning, 1130 hrs, the hour of the Thirst for Tea
DIRO and CHAMP contemplate…
CHAMP: This day and hour we seem to have become relevant to the team at Big Company. We should make sure that we are up to the standards and beyond.
DIRO: I suggest that we follow the approach of under-promise and over-deliver. It will also help us to remember that we are quite far from anything substantial on paper, other than the good conversation we just had.
CHAMP: There you are…Next is further bracing of our project plan, get it to the micro detailed level. We need to hire more people to take care of various errands. We must remember that we are not experts of everything but we should be experts of managing everything for the success of Yatra.
…. The car begins to travel towards the north. They are meeting the CEO of the small company near the lake off the town in a plush suburban area of the city.
CHAMP: So, how have you been?
DIRO: Am fine, doing great. Just that I was bitten by a dog last night and was under observation till 5 in the morning. Else, all is fine. And yeah, I am marrying this July.
CHAMP: Get some rest.
CHAMP and DIRO look out towards Sky from their respective windows. No one speaks for the next five minutes.
DIRO: what exactly are we going to talk about to this CEO?
CHAMP: I would say it is mostly an introductory visit but our strategy here should be...
Ever since the Yatra came to an end I've been quite busy with my everyday college life and I have my CAT (MBA entrance exam in India) coaching classes on the weekends, but finally I found some time to write on my blog on the Yatra.
I've taken a look at objectives I went on the Yatra with to see if I got what I looked for. As for the networking aspect, I networked with people but I didn't get a team for any enterprise I have in mind (although I know where to look for people to work with me on an entreprise). The insight from the role models were invaluable, especially ones like the Dabbawalas, Vijay Raghavan, Aravind Eye Care Nandi Foundation, and Goonj (these were my favorites actually). More on these Role models in future blog entries.
About the opportunities, I realized that India is full of opportunities. As Sohail Seth (by the way he's got the guts to speak.) put it in the CNBC debate in Anand, "Even if someone grew a beard and started something called the art of breathing, there would be a million people to follow it." However I don't intend to start any entreprise like that.
Learning from fellow participants - There were things I would have learnt from them but nothing strikes me at the moment. Its probably all gone down into my blood and influencing my behavior.
Last but not the least firming my principles - I have decided that honesty and integrity towards anything is always the best approach. I will follow this as much as I can. I also decided on what I would call a succes in my life. I feel that to be successful, I should have taken some issue in India and addressed it through some means (need not through entrepreneurship but will turn out to be mostly.)
Other than these objectives I learnt a lot on how social entreprise works and what kind of mindset I should have when I develop an entreprise to develop the country.
The yatra experience was something very hard to describe. 18 days in a train, taking baths at places like waiting rooms at railway stations, bogey watering pipes and train toilets, interacting with 350 people from all over the country and the world, absorbing so much information through discussions, role model vists and casual talk everyday, the oily food (although tasty, wasn't the most healthy) and many more. We probably visited (and even performed the Yatra Geet) at some of the best auditoriums in India and if it wasn't for the yatra who knows when we would have performed or even gone there? From the Taj Palace in New Delhi to remote villages in Orissa, from an aspiring entrepreneur's perspective I feel we covered India quite well.
Post-yatra the impact of the yatra is still there. I relate to different events of the yatra when I encounter different situations or people these days. The good memories of the yatra still lie within. We, ex yatris must keep in touch in order to collaborate and do wonderful things for the nation!
More on specific parts of the Yatra in my later blog entries.
When the yatris had departed for Selco and Tide presentations, I stayed back for a short break from the yatra pace. I walked back after sending off the last bus to an empty train to discover something special.....
The Spirit of Jagriti Yatra
Lonely she stands like a spinal curve
Secure, relaxed in silent slumber
Basking in the open, a hibernal trance
Beaded homes, sixteen in number
A moist zephyr strains across
The shuttered but empty cublicles
But for the rhythm of the swishing brooms
On the platform, no life is audible
I stare at this motionless tenement
Itself resting in a short sojourn
Like a vein drained of all blood
Lifeless, still, a sparse ghost town
I step into an end residence
And walk through the dim-lit corridors
A chaotic departure, clear evidence
Of response to call of orders
I stop to hear muffled voices
Seeping through the closed entrance
And as they pass I re-submerge
Into the deafening depths of silence
I buckle and sit in tense reflection
Of this abeyance and what’s missing in it
And then exhaling in quiet comfort
I know they will return, and so will the spirit
Raj Krishnamurthy
Bangalore
1 Jan 09
I will never forget the Yatra, the Yatris and your spirit.
I was one of those yatris who were on the yatra for reasons other than starting a venture. I was there to meet new people, listen to their thoughts and explore India with them and so I did. It was rather an amazing experience which the youth of today can have. We all are so glued to shows like Roadies, but this was by far better than that, this was the real thing. We couldn’t expect anything and we were supposed to expect anything and everything at the same time. We did things which most of us would have never even thought of. Living in the 3-Tier non AC coach for 17 days was in itself an adventure. Each day made us learn new things and meet new people. I have been to many places and attended many programs but no where have I seen 300 odd people wanting to meet everyone around them. Such openness is unseen and rejuvenating. Asking everyone to get out of the Train at 2:30 am, and then roaming on unknown roads at Bhubaneswar at 3:00. I was with Gargi and Atik at that time and we were leading our pack of wanderers as I walk faster than others do. Suddenly Gargi tells us that she wants to ride a cycle. Atik and I look at each other and the next moment I am stopping people on bicycles and asking them to lend me their cycles. I know, I am a bit crazy but try being crazy sometimes and enjoy the high it gives you. I did all sorts of crazy things on the Yatra. But more than any of that, I did those things with so many friends that I made. And now I am back at my home place, sitting in my office and thinking about those beautiful days. I know nothing in permanent and life moves on and so it should.
While travelling back to Delhi on a Rajdhani I felt so lonely. It seemed that I was in an altogether different realm of reality. Such wide corridors, AC, clean passages, large toilets. But still I was missing bumping into other yatris and striking a conversation. All the comfort was nothing in comparison to those walks through the bogies to reach the AC chair car to attend the sessions and sometime sleep during them. I believe whenever I would travel by train now, I would always compare it with the TJY train and miss it like anything.
I left Mumbai on 11th Jan itself and reached Delhi on 12th and headed straight to office. No need to tell how horrible I looked but we were in a habit of not caring about our looks and just getting up each morning and heading towards our destination. But this was different. I came to office after almost 20 days and got work immediately. My whole day was spent in that. In the night I was unpacking, and each memento in the form of the books we received or the watch or something I shopped reminded me of some beautiful moment. There are so many of them, inane in their own way but still so mesmerizing. Moving from one part of India to another, I believe we too have moved personally and emotionally. We do connect to what we used to but now we have more relationships to live in. I have digressed from what I had set out to write but I just wanted to share my thoughts with you all as I did during the Yatra. Thanks to have read through it all.
May God Bless You…
Love One Love All
RJ Mohit Chopra (Bindaas Bol !) ;-)
Early in the morning we reached Delhi. The nights have become very cold now as we proceed to the north. It was so cold and we were all bundled up in sweaters, gloves, shawls and anything that would keep us warm. Nowadays I have breakfast on the move, since I wake up with just enough time to get ready and head for the bus. The presentations and all the late blogging and chatting nights have made me tired and make me sleep heavily once my head falls on the pillow. On bus trip, ‘Doctorsaab’ aka Sujeet pointed out quite some hospitals - trauma centers, Mulchand flyover out to me since he had been to Delhi before. He even shared some anecdotes about some of his trips there when he came to give the medical exams. Soon my tiredness gave in and I dozed off.
We reached Goonj , an NGO that believes in fulfilling the most basic need of a needy and poor person – clothing. Here, we finally got to meet our role model (assigned to group P) Anshu Gupta. The stories he narrated completely shocked me. When I saw photos of naked children during the winters of Bihar, I felt ashamed. Here I was wrapped up cozily in a shawl while people all over were dying. How can we carry on with our own lives, our selfish concerns? Why do we show this indifference? Why am I not concerned? Why haven’t I taken out the time to know about my India? These questions disturbed me. Anshu Gupta’s passionate speech and description of what Goonj was doing in this direction made me feel proud to have him as our role model. We were taken through the entire process of a collection system, sorting, and segregation and distribution system for the clothes. Priyanka from the Goonj team did a wonderful job of explaining everything to us and answering our questions with patience and sincerity. She was a role model in herself – she had studied Social Work and then moved on to working for a shelter and was now part of Goonj. Goonj was a simple idea executed with a social cause in mind. It excited our entire team.
After a quick lunch, we went to the hotel Taj Palace. It must be mentioned that all the way in the bus, I was clicking photos of the greenery. The tree lined roads were really something I liked about Delhi. I wish Mumbai was as green. The air would be cleaner then. Once in Taj, we attended the fifth CNBC TV18 debate – Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, Rajdeep Sardesai and Arbind Singh. The topic of discussion was ‘Power of ONE’. I was disappointed when I found out Dr Kiran Bedi was not coming to inspire us. This was made up when I found out that my mother got to meet Kiran Bedi in a function the next day. So it’s all in the family! After the debate, I went to meet Mr. Gautam Srinivasan, the anchor for all our debates. He was his usual charming self and even joked with us! After the debate, we had tea and some cookies. Fortunately, we got a break which group P utilized in shooting the skit. It was great fun and we had the advantage of a great backdrop of the Taj Banquet hall all thanks to the generosity of the Taj. The skit was about introducing Anshu Gupta by relating to the scene of ‘Draupadi – Vastraharan’ from Mahabharata. This theme had been suggested by the boys in our group. I had written dialogues and directed the play. It was done with cool dialogues (I’m being modest!) but in a comic vein.. Krishna would speak his dialogues like Amitabh Bachchan starting with ‘Mein aur Meri Tanhai..’. It came out amazingly and we had a great laugh! We had a hurried dinner. As we rushed towards our bus, Achin, Zakir, Vinod and I were taking photos wherever we saw a suitable backdrop – be it paintings, an antique ‘jhula’, the stairs, the garden. I’m sure the hotel staff must have thought that we had never visited a hotel before! We giggled about this later – this trip made children of us – all excited and open for fun!
During the return bus trip to the Delhi Safdarjung station, I was going over all the pics and slept a little while. When we reached the platform, we had to wait for the train. It was colder than ever. One more fun first was that I even saw white mist coming out of my mouth as I spoke. Blankets and Shawls were just not enough so people were singing, dancing. Some of us sang nursery rhymes like ‘Put your right hand in’ and followed it up with steps. We even sang ‘Oranges and Roses’ and had a tug of war. We, a group of 18-25 were kids unafraid that we were dancing about and not embarrassed that people were wondering what’s going on! Finally the train arrived in the platform and I went through my motions of blogging, discussions with fellow Yatris, working on presentations, some more blogging and working on synthesis with Rohit, Achin and Zakir. We had a sleepless night tirelessly working and at the same time ensuring that we don’t sleep by sharing stories and cracking enough jokes to keep our eyes open.
We reached Lucknow this morning with the train announcements on the platform about trains getting postponed. I surmise this must be due to the fog. It was very cold last night. I finally used a monkey cap (which was bought by Zakir and Rohit on my request!) - another in my list of firsts. Mumbai's weather never allows the use of a monkey cap. In the bus trip to Imambara, I was awestruck and very pleased to know that right from the railway station till Imambara, there were so many buildings which displayed the architectural style of Lucknow. I loved all what I saw. The Bara Imambara is a monument that is huge beyond description. It is a tomb and was built in 1784 by Asaf-ud-Daula. On entering the site, there were whoops and greetings all over by the Yatris. I was completely bowled over by the spectacular architecture. The guide told us the structures were due to Shahjahani and Ganga Jamuni (inverted lotus design) architecture. There was no echo effect in the place due to stucco walls, we were told. I felt like I was being embraced by beauty and history. We all ran around as fast as we could so that we did miss out anything more spectacular that this place had to offer. We went running to the external staircase which led to the Bhulbhulaiya – a maze (as the name suggests) with 489 doorless galleries. I promised myself that I would definitely come back to enjoy at leisure this heritage and treasure India has quietly hidden away in Lucknow. After countless photos, we finally dragged ourselves back to the bus which took us to SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association).
Shabanaji and Ayaz – the senior people working in SEWA briefed us about the institution. SEWA in Lucknow was founded by Sehba Hussain and Runa Banerjee. This organization recognized the right of a woman to be self reliant. There was also the chikan work that they didn’t want to lose from Lucknow and hence this enterprise helped people as well as helped preserve the culture of India. The handicraft articles like kurtas, scarves, saris, dress pieces etc were in demand and the exhibition room soon turned into a bazaar. Yatris were excited about all the ‘Lucknowi’ work they saw on display and everybody wished to own some. Before we left, we were lucky to meet Runa ji. Dressed in a sari and a sweater and a large bindi, Runa Banerjee clearly was the leader. She spoke about her fight with her father, about how she had started SEWA. She and her entire SEWA team were so motivated. They sang 3-4 songs, each of which was very inspiring. The song “Ruke na jo” was my personal favorite. Runa ji showed confidence in her staff and their ability to take over in her absence. This is very essential for an organization to thrive. She said that they didn’t make any savings but they sustained and how well, we saw, off course. She was very proud of how her coworkers had overcome their personal battles. Many organizations tend to lose the spirit or the vision with which they were built once they begin to grow. SEWA had not let that happen to them. Chikan was the occupation and means of earning, but the ladies who made that were far more important to the organization. Runa ji cited examples of how SEWA took a personal interest in the welfare of its employees even today This is what I liked most about SEWA. For once, we gave song for song! So as a small gesture of thanks, we sang our Yatra Geet as we parted.
In the return bus trip, Achin and I were chatting to a dozen. Soon, we reached Lucknow station where nutritious lunch was waiting for us (They make sure we get plenty of pulses and thankfully for me, most days they have curds in any form at least for one meal in the day! I absolutely love curds). The train is now on its way to Delhi where we shall reach tomorrow. In the train there are some adhoc workshops going on like the photography workshop held at midnight by our TJY photographer Vidhura and the entrepreneurship workshop was held today by Shashank’s brother Mrigank. I certainly hope there are videos taken for all the workshops and sessions held here and that I manage to get copies of it. While I may have missed some of them due to work on my group's presentation, I would not like to miss such learning opportunities.
Orissa The train entered Khunda Rd. Station early this morning. The platform was deserted except for a pair of eunuchs at the far end, and a few dogs. The yatris were still on the train. Fog narrowed our horizons. It still hasn’t become as cold as we are prepared for, but the mercury can only drop further from now on. As we grabbed breakfast and piled into buses, for we had a long way to go, I saw our breakfast trays piled on the ground waiting to be cleared up. A pack of dogs had made their way to the food and were lapping it up hungrily. A sole puppy tried to find its point of entry. A pair of kids followed soon after, looking longingly at the food left over on the trays. The Bus Ride Today was really all about travelling. For us at the TATA Media Combine, looking out means looking through two layers of glass. My colleagues often seek out a more natural experience by heading out to the other compartments, open to the air outside, but I stay cloistered in my compartment. The bus ride forced me to engage with the outside world. Initially it was truly too cold to keep the windows open. The wind screamed in and pierced through all my layers of clothing. After a point, braving it was just tempting illness. But in that window period I saw fields on fields, and some real hills on the horizon, instead of the mounds and gently rolling hillocks we had seen so far. Sometimes the evenness of farms partitioned by bushes was broken by a stark tree. In the distance were clumps and coppices; sometimes whole forests seemed to appear as I gazed. We had been up before dawn, and several yatris were catching up on sleep. The bus ride seemed interminable. We had anticipated four hours, but ended up being on the road for more than five. After several days on the train, this was, in a sense, a different experience. There seemed to be more exertion on the bus, even though the path we took was smooth and pretty much on the straight and narrow. Gram Vikas We reached Gram Vikas just before lunch time to meet renowned rural activist Joe Madiath. A hero to many working in the social sector, Joe wore a kurta and cut an imposing figure with kindly eyes. Taking up the mike, he began to tell us about his personal journey in a slow, near-rustic drawl. Joe Madiath led the Loyola College and University of Madras student bodies at a turbulent time in world history. The Vietnam war was on, apartheid raged in South Africa and most South American countries was ruled by belligerent dictators. At the same time, the Beatles were a worldwide range and Woodstock ’69 had just marked the crescendo of the counterculture movement. Joe thought that the energy of the youth could be harnessed in a more positive way, and set up Young Students’ Movement for Development (YSMD). YSMD recognized that while urban areas had enough people attracted to them because of creature comforts and amenities, rural India was largely neglected. They chose a team of people who were willing to work in rural areas to go ahead and do the ground work, and brought in others who would support rural initiatives from the cities. Soon enough, YSMD found their cause as well: the 1971 war brought hordes of refugees from Bangladesh, and Joe and a team of 400 students went to work in relief camps. However, soon after, in October 1971, a devastating cyclone hit Orissa. Recognizing that the government was preoccupied with the situation on the border, Joe and 40 YSMD volunteers relocated to Orissa to run relief and rehabilitation camps there. As the consequences of the crisis abated, most students returned to Chennai to pursue their careers. But Joe seemed to have found his calling. “I could work in Tamil Nadu, but there were a lot of brilliant people working there already”, he told us later. So he decided to focus on helping rural populations in Orissa. Learning On the Go Joe did not have any concrete background in developmental studies, so he tried solving problems as he became aware of them. “It has taken us a lot of time to mature into the organization we are today, with the aims we have today” he said. The first thing that hit him was the situation of the land. Much of the land was parched, irrigation facilities were non-existent. So Joe started working on Drip Irrigation projects. However, as the project grew, he realized it was helping the wealthy farmers far more than it was helping the poor farmers. This lack of equity disturbed him. So he looked around for a new project. He hit upon a plan of setting up dairy co-operatives. However, the villagers insisted the milk of the cow was for the calf, and for no one else. That project failed to take off because of a firm mindset on the part of the population. Soon after, Joe realized that forests were being depleted quickly for the sake of fuel. This made him think of developing Biogas as a good way to help reduce deforestation. Lucky Coincidences Joe had hit upon the right plan at the right time. Soon after he started working on Biogas, both Indira Gandhi and later Rajiv Gandhi made Biogas a national developmental priority. Government agencies, suddenly asked to develop Biogas projects all over the country, were at sea. The national promotion of Biogas had to be facilitated by people who had the technical know-how and experience in the field. Soon enough, enterprising government officials came to Gram Vikas to learn how to promote biogas all across the country. “We had always been told NGOs are good only as isolated islands of excellence”, Joe said, “it was impossible for an NGO to be a large-scale success. We decided that this statement had to be accepted as true or nailed as false. So we were the first guinea pigs in this respect.” Taking up the challenge, Gram Vikas decided to find out if they could have a large scale impact on the ground. Over the next ten years, they had constructed more than 54,000 plants at a cost much lower than what the government had anticipated. Their success was phenomenal. However, once they met with success, they dropped the projects. They let their workers take the project forward and earn money for themselves. “600 workers left us to work on the field, with the option of returning if things didn’t work out within 6 months. Only 6 people returned to us.” “From Bullshit to Full shit” Now Joe had to look for a new area of working, and this time he did not want to make any compromise on inclusiveness. Gram Vikas found out that more than 80% of fatalities were because of impure water, and this was primarily because human waste in its raw form found its way into all the watering holes around settlements. “Sanitation was a need that cut across all classes and castes, so we focused on sanitation”, Joe said. The other guiding principle for Gram Vikas was quality solutions. “So far, it was an unwritten rule that poor people deserved poor solutions. We didn’t want to give the villagers anything we wouldn’t use ourselves.” The government’s hole in the ground toilets were no solution and were not used by villagers. As a result of this focus, villagers in Gram Vikas’s target villages got a toilet, a bath house, and three taps with 24 hours running water. Gram Vikas is unflagging in its commitment to 100% coverage. It decides not to work with villages if they do not agree to its all-inclusive programme. This is why, in each of the 522 villages Gram Vikas has worked in, the sanitation facilities are both completed and used regularly by villagers. This is because Gram Vikas only subsidizes 25-30% of the total cost of constructing bathrooms and toilets. The rest of the cost is borne by villagers only if they completely agree with the whole project. A corpus is created whose interest pays for the subsidization of more bathrooms and toilets in case new households are added to the village. “This is how we are sure to always have 100% coverage.” Even the water that is used is from fully rechargeable sources. Reducing the burden of women Until Gram Vikas came on the scene, women in Oriya villages had to walk anywhere between 3 and 7 hours to fetch water for household purposes. “Women’s empowerment will only take place when the burden of women is reduced”, Joe said. So three taps were provided: one for bathing, one for the toilet, and one for the kitchen. “In our villages, no woman has to walk more than 10 feet to get running water.” The other issue was the fact that women had to bathe in the open thus far. Bath houses gave them privacy. This is why bath houses were constructed in the first place. Each household had its own toilet and bath house. In this way, Gram Vikas hoped to bring the real burden of women down, giving them opportunities of leisure, which could then be used for their own development by themselves. Report Card Joe is the first to admit that progress has been slow, as many, many more villages are still to be covered. The main reason for this is Gram Vikas’s unflagging standards of 100% coverage. This principle may slow progress, but when it is made, it is consolidated. “We are changing twenty lives per day forever, and this gives us immense satisfaction.” Just before we headed to the villages, Joe reminded us of a quote by Mahatma Gandhi. “The man who fought for our independence and won it for us said in 1942, “India needs sanitation more than it needs independence.” Impressions Several yatris were quite floored by Joe, though the impact would probably have been far more had they not been so dazed from the bus ride. Suchitra, a yatri, wanted to know what sacrifices the people of Gram Vikas had to make, as Joe had started working in the field at the ripe old age of 22, a figure that falls squarely in the middle of our 18-25 demographic group. Joe thrilled by answering “I am a man who does not believe in sacrifices.” He went on to speak of how much satisfaction he drew from the whole experience, clearly saying his alternative careers – in MNCs or in the Government – would not have been nearly as rewarding. Interestingly, many Gram Vikas volunteers now use the organization as a stepping stone to more lucrative careers. Visits to Villages After the talk, we were hauled into our buses and got to travel to the villages themselves. The cleanliness and quality of life surprised even city dwellers. Houses were orderly and clean. The farms were productive. For several yatris who grew up in farms and now study in cities, it was an experience to cherish. Ashish, who now studies in TISS and grew up near Rae Bareilly, scaled stacks of paddy in response to loud challenges. For city folk, it was a photo op that’d put intrepid tourists to shame. They posed, nervously, next to cows, triumphantly on bullock carts, and melodramatically before hay stacks. Some even joined into the village cricket contest. Several thronged the local shop and tasted local entrepreneurship for themselves: local aerated drinks, churans, fryums, sauces and pastes were sampled by waiting yatris. Back to the Train After a long, hard day, most people just dozed on the bus ride home. It ate up more time than even our ride to Gram Vikas. After we’d had dinner and piled on to the train, we heard of a new development that’d make the following night the first night of its kind on the yatra. Gouri will fill all of you in on that soon! - Partho PC
4th Dec 09
Two of the most commonly heard phrases on this yatra are the words politics and politicians. People tend to use it extremely liberally. I have heard it in the train compartments frequently, over lunch, in the informal discussions and at the role model visits. Not surprisingly it’s alluded to almost every time, and I am making a statement, in a negative context.
The Myths
Most yatris here refer to politics as the dirty game which is the root cause of all our country’s problems. Each has an opinion on how we should rectify the system and make them more accountable. Let me list a few popular references (each of these has been said at least twice on this yatra):
- As long as we have politicians, we will never improve
- ALL politicians are corrupt
- Politicians should be shot
- Politicians are fools. They have no idea what problems people are facing
- Politicians are only after the vote bank – the poor
- The poor vote for politicians because politicians incentivise them
And not just here, but universally I have noticed this, each of us thinks we know exactly what is wrong with the political system and we know the right solution to solve it. Despite our own knowledge or education, we feel like the experts when it comes to politics. Politics is everyone’s ball game. And everyone is good at it. Especially the youth.
I don’t claim to know everything about the system, not anymore. Over the last two years, I have learnt that I don’t know many things about politics. And I wish others would learn them as well.
- For instance, politicians are certainly not fools. They run a country of more than a billion people (a billion political experts!). Every victory is a well calculated win. They are not there by fluke. Not to discredit their contribution completely, they have also done a lot of good development. After all, their collective wisdom has got us this far (I know that’s subjective as well).
- Poor don’t vote for someone just for the money. The driver in our bus today at Bhuwaneshwar knew more about the state parties than I did. Their vote is a calculated one as well.
- Not all politicians are bad and corrupt. Look at our role model, R.Elango. He’s a classic, pure and productive politician (the rarer package) Look at the work he has done. And there are many like him. Otherwise the “collective wisdom” would always lean on the negative side!
People Politics not Party Politics
There are also some yatris who think it’s us who need to create that change in the system. Now that’s a ray of hope (better than shooting them idea) One guy walked up to me today to talk about his interest in politics, and he said “How can you change the system without joining politics?” And he is not the only one with this view.
What we don’t realize is that the political system is running because of us, the citizens. If all of us joined it, who will we be governing? The point is our democracy provides is the means to keep our system in check and to improve it as well. You can vote to start with. Then you can get involved in politics at all levels, especially the local. What we really need is People Politics not Party Politics. We need an engaged citizenry.
I am going to join politics
Then there is the confident bandwagon that believes they have the answer and potential to change the political system. And these too, I must mention are many. Now that I think is a very good sign. But without dampening the spirit, I would say we need to assess the situation more closely and then assess ourselves more closely before we make such statements.
One of the popular sentiments on the yatra seems to be that good intentioned leaders should join politics. As long as they have good intentions. Jasmine Shah from Jaago Re was asked if he would join. So was Mr.Kishore Chalker from the Tata Group. And it’s this same sentiment I see when yatris say, I will join politics. I would say, ask yourself some tough questions, before you decide. Politics is a complicated game. There tons to it than meets the eye. But it’s undoubtedly one the best ways to create change. But a successful politician in India is not made only of good intentions. There’s more to the game than that.
I will leave you with a quote from Ramesh Ramanathan, founder of Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship & Democracy. “Having good intentions to join politics is like saying I am running a marathon and I am wearing Nike shoes. The race hasn’t even begun.”
January 5th, 2009... 5 days into the New Year, it had been by far the best beginning one could’ve asked for... I had an entire train I could call home, strangers until a few weeks ago looking out for me... old friendships getting stronger... every day a new city, a new state, making a statement, declaring that we’ve arrived in our own way, on top of our voices, mellow sometimes, tired even...but always sturdy... But I was very happy too soon... more was to come to be happy about you see...
After 10 tiring hours of parking our behinds in slapdashedly driven busses one could think of little more than throwing a bucket of water over oneself and give into sweet sweet slumber... But the memories of the beautiful landscape of Orissa in the early light, the sight of brightly clad tribal women preparing for a hard day’s survival in a setting that could be described as an artist’s impression of sublime beauty, the pockets of children waving up at us, the magnificence of the Chilika in the distance kept me up and awake and in spirits I couldn’t believe myself...
Just when the thought of retiring started creeping up, it was announced that we would be required to detrain for a while, whilst some technical rigmarole with the train was being taken care of. The thought of spending even a few hours on a platform at that unearthly hour was extremely exciting for me the nocturne; not so much for the ones fast asleep... I should say I took due pleasure in helping shake people off their bedrolls and sleeping bags thanks to the sadistic streak in me...
Once off the train and onto an unexpectedly clean Bhubaneshwar platform, there was no barring my excitement... the sense of abandonment, of getting to spend some time under the stars, in the middle of nowhere as it seemed to me, even grab a little shut-eye on the floor like in the romantic stories of the adventurous uncle whose luggage was stolen in a new city and had to struggle it out, had me all charged up... more than anything, there couldn’t have been a better opportunity to get to know your friends, have conversations ranging from profound to silly in the middle of the night at a strange railway station bringing in, taking away new stories constantly...
An initial delay of about two hours grew unexpectedly to day break... not one moment of which was evidently regretted... One could see the Slumberjacks bundled up cosily, card games taking place, people catching up on their reading, loners taking walks along the length of the platform, introverts opening up to acquaintances, people looking for conversations, some making photographic memories, some others having plain good old fun doing nothing.
I shan’t reveal which of these I eventually ended up doing but I will say this... This trip doesn’t stop making everlasting memories and impressions on me... Like the time a chill went down my spine when the gentle old man nonchalantly thrust the responsibility and along with it the realisation, the faith and the drive that we were to be the exemplary ancestors... Or the time when a strapping young man decreed for his generation to wake up... Or the time when ‘Vision’ took on more allusion than merely seeing... Or the time when magnitude and dimension let dreams and aspirations be what they ought to be; of huge ‘scale’... Just like the sixteen bogie train the country sees whizzing by...
Lekha Naidu
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