Heavy rains were pouring outside and I was sitting in a rural
development NGO’s office which closely looked like a government office. I was
listening to Chandra who had lost his crops in a storm lost week. The other man
Raja beside him was staring me continuously. But I continued to ignore Raja as
I was bit nervous watching him staring at me for the reason I didn’t know. Chandra
was almost crying trying to explain the story, how he tried to prevent the loss but in
the end, nature had the upper hand in destroying his crops. I tried to console
him by assuring few possible solutions within my limitations. And Raja had
not stopped staring at me till I interrupted him to ask what his problem was? He
raised his hands and I started to move back. “Is he going to hit me now? But why? Should I ask sorry? Was there
any mistake?” Before I said anything he broke down
explaining the sudden death of his cow which was sponsored by BAIF. I had no
solutions but few words to make him feel stronger again. I wondered!!, he had so much of pain in him and he is crying but why the hell was he staring at me? It was more than a
month I started to understand the language of the people who lived in the
forests of Kodagu. That staring was nothing but innocence and the people there are unbelievably innocent.
It was early twenties and I was out in the woods trying to learn
more about life rather than conventional way of being a corporate engineer.
Soon after my engineering I had volunteered rural development activities in
Coorg tribal block associated with BAIF institute of rural development. Later
it turned out to be my first job (It was not optional though, I had to choose
as I had no options!!) which didn’t last for many days but remains the most
memorable job of my life. It all started when I met Mr. Ashok, the
champion of management skills. Until then I never knew that I have got the best
mentor who would inspire me to work without any limitations. Every minute under
him helped me to develop personally and in turn made me to understand the value of
compromises which later helped me to come out of my immature thoughts on life.
It's sweetu- a 3 year old kid, son of Ashok and Bramara was my first friend
in Coorg. It was him who helped me to get rid of that boredom and loneliness of not having any friends there. It was a regular practice for
both of us to sit on the compound of our house where I lived. He would call out
all the girls walking on the road and they would smile at him. And he made a
point by calling only girls of my age as if he understood I was expecting them
to turn to me and smile!! Anyway I didn’t expect but you know that was not my
fault but the natural instinct of any boy in his early twenties!!
Bike riding was not so familiar to me until I went to Coorg on a
field job where they had given me a TVS StartSports 125cc, 4 gear bike. The tyres
never suited the Coorg country roads. It was one such monsoon in Coorg and it
had rained heavily all the night. The sun was just coming out and I was on my
journey to a forest village as usual. I was riding at 40-50 kmph with Natraj- my
colleague sitting behind me. As I approached the woods I saw something
crawling just in front of my front tyre. The next moment I realized it’s a 7 foot long snake
coming out for sun from the wet woods, both of us were on
the ground. I was shocked by the size of the cobra and had applied breaks
instantly. As the road was slippery, our bike had slipped from my hands and I
was on the path hole full of muddy water. Snake had passed and I too had almost
pissed out, not really!. That was my first fall
and many continued after that with many of my colleagues sitting behind me
having some of their memorable falls. If Mrs. Archana Murthy is reading this writeup, she is definitely going to smile as she had one such experience where I had
let her fell off from my bike in Kushalnagar.(Guess what, she was just a month away from getting married!!) The reasons of fall were plenty,
to mention few of them; muddy forest roads where vehicles never moved,
unsuitable bikes for the kind of roads they were, power in the bike never
allowed me to pull off some unexpected path holes and mainly I was an
inexperienced L board rider.
 |
| One such day in the village. |
Usually I stayed up to 5 o clock in the villages but later I had to leave back to Kushalnagar office as the villagers used to warn me of elephants. The nights are so dark with strange sounds of insects, birds and you are clue less if you lose your way back home making it even more scary. It is 67 years of independence that we have and still the villages lack supply of electricity. There is even an issue for the people with government for the land they live there. The say they once owned whole forests, they are born and brought up there, they are the proud children of the forest god and they will never move to the nearby towns. Few educated people would go to government offices in order to get the facilities down there to forests but in vain. I somehow felt that many efficient schemes developed by government in order to help the people there were exploited by dirty politicians. They fought hard for their rights; they fought hard for their life and survived many battles with the law. Slowly there were signs that government was making effort to recognize their rights but until it is done completely, it is never done.
Staying in Bangalore for more than 4 years witnessing many
issues including pollution, water scarcity, I had a feeling that the quality of
life was far better than urban areas here in the forest. They got the best
water from the streams to drink, they had the best air to breathe in midst of
dense woods. But then the life was not enough with all that for some though
that is the best. As there were no electricity cables in the area they lacked
entertainment things like TV, night life and many. Alcohol and the forest weeds
were the only source of entertainment. Most of them spoiled their hard earned
money on alcohol which was a serious issue considering their situation. In this
regard one man stood tall to tackle these issues. He is Mr. Thammanna from
Sulebaavi village in Kushalnagar forests. He used to be the head of the
village. He was a drunkard once but had realized the serious effects of alcohol
in his life soon. He had drawn strict guidelines in the village banning alcohol
thus making it a dry village in literal sense but it was the happiest village
around. He had set an example in the village by cultivating various farming
practices which generated sufficient income to manage the household of 15 in a
joint family. Be it a vegetable or a fruit or anything he never depended on
buying it from town but cultivated right in his land and in front of his house.
He taught people about the life that it is not only about entertainment from
TVs, Internet, alcohol that makes a person happy but the satisfaction of living
good does the best. Yes he had inspired me as well!!!!!
It was another day on my Calendar and 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 I said "Hey Kavita how have you been? Long time!!!”. Kavita understood my excitement and told "Hey Aradhya! Good morning dear. Hey did you guys forget my appointment with Ashok today?". I wondered and looked at Ashok’s (My manager) appointment calendar 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 someone. 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 quickly 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.
It was another day on my Calendar and 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 I said "Hey Kavita how have you been? Long time!!!”. Kavita understood my excitement and told "Hey Aradhya! Good morning dear. Hey did you guys forget my appointment with Ashok today?". I wondered and looked at Ashok’s (My manager) appointment calendar 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 someone. 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 quickly 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 was
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 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, It’s 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. Nobody
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 course the
motor vehicle was bought by the dairy development committee 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 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 child in our village heads to school every day without miss and few of them have passed 12th 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 yellow 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 a 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 become 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.
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 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 child in our village heads to school every day without miss and few of them have passed 12th 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 yellow 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 a 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 become 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.
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