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I was coming from Bangalore to
participate in the 3rd CSY. On
the First day, It was very kind
of Brigadier Ganesham sir for
picking me up from the Kacheguda
railway station. We introduced
ourselves and started the
journey. I realized that our
college (BITS-PILANI) students
have already participated in
some activities with honeybeeap.
Ganesham sir explained how his
experiences with the students
were and he also mentioned about
his experiences with our Vice
Chancellor and his suggestions
of including a course on
agriculture as a part of the
student curriculum at all the
campuses.
The program stated with the
‘unlearning session’ after
having lunch around 2 pm. While
walking we noticed bore well
with a rubber tire attached to
it to reduce the metal
degradation up on continuous
usage. Though the idea is
simple, I really fascinated me
when I realized the implications
of it.
Encounter with Chennaiah in
Chowtpalli:
We met Chennaiah and asked about
the happenings in the village.
He said that the village doesn’t
have proper electrification
since a long time and no
authority was concerned to help
them out. When asked about
grazing of cattle, he told that
the cost of feeding is higher
than their yield and they don’t
get proper grass to feed the
cattle too. There are very few
households that have cattle and
the milk they get is sold in
Achampet and they don’t give
milk to their children.
Earlier, when people get any
diseases they used to prepare
native medicines using motor and
pestel. Now when he visits the
doctor, the doctor doesn’t
identify the problem by checking
the pulse, instead he asks the
patient what his problem is and
then gives the medicine, which
any compounder can do these
days. He also narrated about the
challenges he faced when he went
to a private hospital for the
delivery of his daughter. He
noted that the doctors were so
negligent and not knowledgeable
enough to predict the delivery
date. He quoted from his
experience that animal(incl.
humans) deliveries happen only
in the early morning or in the
late evening but not in the
midday. He said that the
mother(cow) doesn’t eject the
calf until evening even though
the legs are half way down the
uterus.
He also mentioned how the
attitude(alpam) of the current
generation changed. It seems
that the interactions among the
villages got declined. People
get separated from their parents
and start working on their own
(agriculture or
self-employment).
Good thing is that lot of girls
are going to the schools until
their 12th standard. And few men
try to study till their degree,
but due to lack of jobs, most of
them are frustrated and they
don’t come back to village and
they say to their parents that
they didn’t look after them
properly. But the parents feel
in a different way, they want
them to study and have a life
which they couldn’t have.
Channaiah said that he is
unhappy about the liqor usage in
the village and people who have
disposable income go for liquor
as there is somebody to provide
it.
There should be some form of
governance to keep in check of
these practices in villages like
Chowtapalli.
Then we moved to another place
where we met a 110 yrs old man
and his family of three
generations. He told Ragi
sangati and full grained food is
the secret of his strength and
now a days people are so
addicted to rice because of its
ready availability.
Government should encourage the
production of the traditional
grains in large quantities and
provide these at subsidized to
the poor people.
Then we travelled in the night
with out turning the lights with
us. It was one of a kind
experience to walk under the
lights of only stars (nomoon).
We finally reached a girls
school and shared our
experiences of the day.
On the next day, I happened to
see all the girls waking very
early in the morning and doing
exercises. They promptly helped
us out to get water form the
tanks on the roof of the
building. When I enquired, they
said that they wake up early in
the morning around 4.30 and meet
for doing exercise. Then they
bath and go for studying for
about an hour. They offer
prayers before they eat, a habit
which most of us don’t have.
Then we asked the students about
their goals and aspirations for
the village. I was astonished,
when they wrote such wonderful
ideas. Good to be part of such
program , which I was not a part
of in my school days. Thanks to
Ganesham sir.
Then we started to Ambagiri.
Ganesham sir explained to the
villagers about the motive
behind the program. He explained
the motive behind NIF and how it
is benefitting the villagers all
around the country. I was
astonished to see how
effectively Ganesham sir
influences people with his
speech and gets the information
from them.
Then we went to Anantavaram.
There we met a school principal,
who explained the problems faced
by villages and how villagers
are reluctant to send their
children to the schools. I was
impressed about this enthusiasm
to teach and the his willingness
to do anything for the
personality development of all
his children.
Here I happened to see a
construction of a building
foundation, which apparently can
withstand even a TSUNAMI.
Then we stared our journey to
Lingala. There we interacted
with the students. It gave me a
fresh perspective to the life,
knowing about the aspirations of
the students. I was impressed
with the way we presented the
students about NIF and some
innovative ideas used by some
citizens across the county. It
was good to feel that we could
create and develop a program to
encourage scientific thinking
among the students. Here I felt
some of them need a career
guidance in knowing the
opportunities after their 12th.
Over all it is a very gratifying
experience to me personally.
Key Take Aways and Suggestions:
1. Government should introduced
more policies to rural people.
Now a days we see govt
introducing more policies with
priority in the cities where as
most of the population lives in
villages. As a result of which
we see migration of labourers
from rural to urban areas.
2. Government should provide the
machinery needed by the farmers
at a subsidized prices which
helps them in improving their
productivity and also have a
margin for themselves when they
sell the goods in the market.
3. Need to get more
participation from the
agricultural graduates and
motivate them to engage in rural
areas. Colleges should make it
compulsory for the agri
graduates to indulge in this
kind of work.
4. Villagers should be made
aware of the effect on the
agriculture when they migrate to
the towns.
5. Doctors also should make it a
point to organize free medical
camps in the villages and
understand their problem. This
can be beneficial to the
students as well, if they
dedicate some time in the final
year for rural service.
6. The villagers are verymuch
dependent on dugwells, ponds,
and bore wells. The government
should inspect the places more
often and see to it that they
get the damaged pumps repaired.
7. Government should provide
organic manure at subsidized
prices. Or organize camps in
educating the farmers to create
a compost pit/ vermicultute if
the villagers are unaware of
these.
I also learnt a lot of valuable
information in the walks between
the villages both from the
fellow yatris and Ganesham sir.
One of them to note is the
difference between Donation and
Volunteerism.
Towards the end of the programs,
the interactions that happened
in the bus on the way to hyd are
memorable. It gave me a deep
understanding about myself and
the other yatris.
Regards,
Veera
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