Deep in the woods there lived the children of god-Part II

Note: Ignore this if you have already read >>>> Deep in the woods there lived the children of god ( Complete:Part I+Part II )


PreScript: Excerpts from " Deep in the woods there lived the children of god-Part I "... Soon after my  engineering, I had worked as a volunteer in rural development activities for BAIF (NGO) in Coorg tribal block with its office located in KushalNagar. I worked in villages called Sulebaavi, Sajjehalli, Balegundi and few more in implementing a project to demonstrate technologies in improving the livelihood of people in rural villages. Read the first part if you would like to know more about my early life in Coorg before you start this particular write up or its fine to continue reading this write up. please find the first part link address below or on the side menu "Deep in the woods there lived the children of god-Part I" http://aradhya-lifeleisure.blogspot.in/2014/08/deep-in-woods-there-lived-children-of.html

6.35 AM . Kushalnagar, Coorg .........

The morning was calm and pleasant. I was half asleep and the sun light fell on my face from my bedroom window. It was another night with heavy rains and water droplets from the terrace fell on the edge of the window producing a rhythmic sound. I could hear the birds chirping right from my backyard making it a more pleasant morning. I expected no guests to office today on a Sunday. Slowly I lost myself into early morning sleep as I had slept late in the night trying to complete an unfinished work. I stayed in a house cum office facility set up by the area manager Mr. Ashok. An old BSNL phone started to ring loud back from my office room irritating me early in the morning. "Oh my fate , seems like another busy day. I could have slept more" I murmured and woke up to reach the office room. While I saw papers scattered all over from last night's mess that I had created and the telephone stopped ringing. For a moment I felt happy as it stopped and turned back to move out, but the phone started ringing again. I felt dejected and picked it to answer the call "Hello, This is Kavita subramnyan from The Hindu" said a beautiful female voice from the other side. Excited me said "Hey Kavita how have you been? long time!!!". Kavita understood my excitement and told "Hey Aradhya!!, nice to hear you from there. Hey did you guys forget my appointment with Ashok today?". I wondered and looked at Ashok's(My manager) appointment calender to see if her meeting is scheduled for the day. "Not at all Kavita how can we forget that! where are you right now?" I lied. Kavita knew that I had forgot and replied "Oh come on Aradhya, I know you. Wake up and come soon to kushalnagar bus-stand now. I will reach in five minutes" I grinned and walked out to reach Kushalnagar bus-stand which is 5 kms away from my home. I pulled out my bike but the bike had been completely altered overnight by some one. I was surprised to see my bike altered so well and felt strange for the first time in the morning. Though I wanted to know more I had to move quick to avoid keeping Kavita waiting. I started my bike and made my way to the main road and to my surprise there were no grown up people on the road. Kids were leaving the  balloons in the air and the roads were full of colorful flowers fell from the road side trees. For all these five years that I was travelling on the same road but I had never seen any trees bearing such colorful flowers and in fact many were eucalyptus (Nilgiri) trees which never bear colorful flowers. But today I see and I am perplexed by this strange yet beautiful scenes. Something was strange and I was not able to understand but just kept riding. I met Kavita in the bus stand and picked her back to office. She had visited our office quite a few times before but she is not speaking a word about all these sudden changes. She sat behind me as if there's nothing new without even uttering a single word but just clicking the photographs of the serene beauty on the road. 

                  Once we reached the office Ashok met her and she had breakfast in our home prepared by Bramara aunt(Ashok's wife). She had come all the way from Bangalore to develop a story on our dream village where children of god lived i.e Sulebaavi (Tribal village ). Government of India had sponsored a project called "CentreOfExcellence-ModelVillage" under union ministry of tribal affairs. I was appointed as program office under our program manager Mr. Ashok by Baif institute of rural development(NGO) to execute and implement the project. Few success stories had popped in local newspapers which had influenced Kavita to develop a story for her news paper.She was the journalist from The Hindu and I was still not able to believe that she had come all the way to write about our Sulebaavi. Sulebaavi is a village situated deep in the woods in the forests of Kushalnagar region. Travelling on car was never possible in the forest roads which made us to prefer the bikes. Soon I started my extra altered bike, Kavita a young journalist aged around 24 years made herself comfortable to sit behind me with a bag in her hand. I had to travel almost 40 kms deep in to the village and she kept silent again on the journey which was a strange thing for me. Every-time she met us, she was never silent but disturbed us by asking  out of the box questions. But this time her silence worried me but I kept moving. After travelling 5kms, we came across Harangi reservoir on our way. To my another surprise the gates were open and the water was flowing out of the dam with full force. "Oh God, what's happening!? Summer has started to begin and there was no water in the reservoir yesterday but it is overflowing today." Before I crossed the reservoir road, I observed some creature crossing the road. I was shocked and stopped the bike instantly. But kavita jumped out of my bike in joy!!!! She took out a camera from her bag and started taking pictures of the creature that I had never seen for all the five years that I stayed here. It was a snake almost as big as an anaconda. As she screamed in excitement it just stopped and looked at us. I was terrified and simultaneously I was sweating a lot. I am struggling and she is enjoying!!!, I felt strange for the nth time by now. "Something is strange and what the hell is happening with me today" I wondered. I was recovering from the shock and the creature just passed on to disappear in the reservoir. She again never spoke and we continued our  journey. I was feeling tired and the roads were becoming increasingly invisible on a broad day light but I kept riding. As we traveled over the beautiful country roads and mesmerizing forest roads, she kept herself busy in taking pictures sitting behind me. After riding for almost an hour and a half, at one point I stopped my bike and informed Kavita that we have reached the village. Though she had visited our office few times, she was visiting Sulebaavi only for the second time. She had visited the village only once before I had even started implementing the project. She got down and tied the falling hairs back. I knew she was beautiful and but today she looked extra beautiful in the middle of forest covered with colorful trees. As I looked at her, I forgot the strange things happening with me from morning. She wore a white top and sky blue long skirt. That cute artificial blue ear rings which she wore didn't help me to stop staring at her. She had an attractive red stole around the neck which made her look even more attractive. She kept silent when I wanted her to speak more. But she kept smiling at me every now and then with a lovely dimple on her face. I know I was feeling insanely mad at the moment. Should I ask her or She will ask me!!!??? "Hey stop this nonsense idiot! Why are you looking at her so much today!? she is a journalist and you are an idiot, Its an unbelievable match for you two" said my soul. Before I stopped staring at her, she spoke for the first time after we left our office "Hey what's up Aradhya! I know you are an idiot, stop staring me now and let's move to the village" She laughed. 

                                                                     As we moved we heard a sound from far, She said "Hey I remember, it's the stream right!? Oh my god I am going to get wet today again.My dress !!!" She cried.A strange silence fell on us and I kept completely quiet till we reached the stream. "OH MY GOD!! UNBELIEVABLE, what have you guys done here!!!" she shouted in excitement. Last time she visited here, she had crossed the stream with great difficulty with no option except to cross the stream to reach the village. She had literally stepped into stream and she was almost scared to death. She was seeing a bamboo bridge over the stream beautifully painted in yellow. The bridge was systematically built with strong bamboo wood such that it looked more solid and safe.She soon took out her camera and clicked few pictures of it.I started to speak "The bridge has been constructed in just 21 days by the people of this village with their own efforts, what we all did is to tell them how the bridge can be constructed and inspire them to construct a bridge". She was surprised by my words and said "but how come they listened to you, an outsider you were for them". An outsider, oh yes! that is what the people thought when I went there. No body cared for my words except that one man Mr. Thammanna in my initial days. I had lost into thoughts of my own as we moved towards village she heard a motor vehicle coming towards her from the village. She stopped and switched on her camera instantly. She saw a four wheeler moving effortlessly in the forest roads which she had not observed till now. She read "SULEBHAAVI COMMUNITY MOTOR VEHICLE". I asked to stop the vehicle and she took pictures of the vehicle and she suddenly recalled her last journey to this village.As the road was narrow and only one person was allowed to walk at a time. She then understood that roads have been completely widened enough to allow a four wheeler transportation. She asked me "Who did this ? Did the government finally answer their calls and built these roads?" I smiled at her and replied "Hey kavita, Don't you know that there is a conflict with these people and government. Till the issue is resolved, no government projects will be implemented here." kavita wondered at my words "You mean to say even this work was done by the villagers themselves." I felt good and there came a slip of tongue "And I take the privilege to say that I lead this work myself being a part of  physical workforce for this project". I felt embarrassed for a moment for the slip of tongue to praise myself but she looked  at me with pride and patted my back!!! Oh I am telling you again, she touched me and I was on cloud nine. I looked at her eyes, I crumbled, I lost my senses and I surrendered. I surrendered to her beauty that I cannot define in words. I stopped walking and she had walked few meters ahead of me and stopped after realizing I was not with her. She turned and shouted "Hey hello hero !! Why did you stop!? Come on quick". I gained back my senses and moved fast. As we neared the village she stopped and started looking at a shed far away from the living area. She ran towards it even without asking me what it was? She was taking pictures of a dairy shed which housed around 100 cross breed cows. Every house in Sulebaavi owned at least two cross bred cows.Initially we had planned and supported 5000 rs to each house sponsored from the development project to buy two calves. And then we had held regular meetings in the villages about community dairy development. All the villagers had collectively built the dairy shed without costing it a single rupee but using the bamboo from the forest and the coconut leaves from the village.The dairy unit produced approximately 1000 liters of milk everyday thus accounting for  4,50,000 rupees per month!!!!! That would give 9000 rupees per home from the unit in the village.She took pictures and wrote down the calculations that I explained about the income generated from the dairy unit. The community vehicle that she saw while walking down the village was carrying the milk from the dairy unit and of coarse the motor vehicle was bought by the dairy development committe at the village and was used as a multi-utility vehicle.She was surprised at the details I told and looked at me with wide happy eyes. People who never went out of forests today have learnt so much about making a life out of community development.
As we were discussing about all these, we started to hear the noise of desi drums from the village, I was surprised to hear that and we both moved in to the village. Things had changed like I had never imagined. Men were well dressed, women were singing loud and children shouted in joy. I had no words but...... We entered the village and kids came running with the colorful flowers spreading them everywhere. Flowers were beautiful and I was seeing such colorful flowers for the first time again. Things are strange, I was both happy and shocked by the strangest firsts happening on the same day. We could observe some men cooking on the other side and the women preparing garlands for the pooja. Thammanna came towards us and smiled at me. He seemed to have understood my shocked expressions and started explaining me "Namaste sir, welcome to village festival. We are celebrating in the honor of our village god, in the honor of our community and in the honor of our changed lives. We were about to come to your office to invite you but I am very happy to see you with a special guest as well" Kavita seemed even more happier. He continued "I am very happy to inform you that, every raw material used in the festival is either available to us from the forest or mostly grown by us. People are very happy that we are self dependent today. Every children in our village heads to school everyday without miss and few of them have passed 12 th standard in first class. Next year we are planning to build a resource center in our village  which can monitor and guide our entire village kids  to pursue higher education. From last five years we have amassed approximately ten lakh community funds generated from dairy, agriculture, advanced honey bee rearing and many such activities." I could not say anything as I had no words looking at Thammanna speaking so matured and so well. Kavita was immensely excited and was beaming with happiness as she listened to Thammanna. She slowly held my hand as we sat there in front of Thammanna's house. That touch made me go crazy and I forgot Thammanna while I looked at her face continuously. And I interrupted in the middle and started to speak to Kavita..............."you know what (beep beep beep)........." 

         "Hey idiot Aradhya, wake up man!!! it's 9 '0 clock and what the hell are you speaking" heard Bramara aunt's voice suddenly. I slowly opened my eyes to see me still on the bed. My mind started asking me questions " Who is this Kavita? Where is Kavita? Where am I? What about that snake ?, a ellow bridge?  a village festival, dairy unit, ten lakh community funds for the village development, higher education, Kavita's touch, Kavita's beauty, colorful flowers, her happiness and me surrendering". Bramara aunt said again "What the hell has happened to you? Are you alright, see a doctor soon and get married as well idiot!!! What did you dream tonight? " Yes, I was dreaming and what a good dream it was! I had realized my dream of seeing Sulebaavi village as a model village. I woke up for another normal day at rural development office in Kushalnagar and sat on my bed to sip the flavored lemon grass tea prepared by aunt. My personal mobile started to ring and as I picked, I heard a voice saying "Congratulations, You have cleared all the interview rounds held at our Bangalore office and has been offered the position you had applied for. Request you to join our team as soon as possible" . There was a project called Center of excellence sponsored by ministry of tribal affairs, GOI that I was implementing but i could not really do well in such a short span of time. After I spent an year working for the rural development activities, I moved back for pursuing so called career like everyone does in Bangalore after they complete an engineering degree. People do say that early morning dreams do come true and that may not be true but I wish it to becomes true one day. Today I look back and still have the plans to realize the dream of having this village as a model village. Recently I had written in detail to an independent MP from Karnataka, Mr. Rajeev Chandrashekhar (Not this Kavita subramanyan story but a formal request)  to consider this village for our prime minister's Sansaad Adarsh  Gram Yojna under him. Hope he takes up this village and I involve as much as I can in implementing best practices in this village to realize my dream.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/FarmerPortraits

Thammanna in pic. Honey b-zzzzzz-ees. Every time you run away from a bee but think of him. He loves his bees, says they run the farm!

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