IMPRESSIONS - Shiva

The Road From Where Cities Are Fed

In the silent town of Adilabad, when I first met Ravindra Sharma, a certain epiphany struck me. 21 years of my life and never have I had such an intrigue to know more and more about where it all started.  Guruji’s wisdom and his point of view of seeing a village was extraordinary. When Akhila first told me about Palle Srujana, I was not quite sure of what will be what once I take this journey but my meeting with Ravindra Sharma Guruji solidified her words and made me take a trip which at the end of 4 days I would be calling a trip of my lifetime.

Travelling and being with strangers is no new to me but having been able to travel with strangers who vibe at a similar frequency as I, gave me immense pleasure. On 16th when I started my journey, I had some pending work which I was typing away on my mobile phone while I and the group which was travelling with me are waiting for the bus to Tadvai at Hanumakonda Bus station. This particular individual, named Mahesh was really interested in the way I was typing into my mobile phone rather than the content I was typing on. He came to me and asked me where and to where I was going. My name, His name a few pleasantries later he expressed his sorrow over the fact that he cannot type or use a mobile device like I do now.

Little by little he started off his tale on how he was good at school. Mahesh had a single notebook which he used to protect when there was rain in his route to school. He was used to be made to sit in a corner as he went to school dripping wet from rain but was happy because he saved his notebook. In 5th standard, his teacher noticed that along with being good at studies, he was really good at drawing things too. She suggested that he become a doctor. Mahesh had a terrible blow when his father’s new pesticide didn’t work on the farm and the pests didn’t die. His father drank the pesticide and it worked. He died leaving Mahesh the sole bread earner. Studies didn’t fill Mahesh’s stomach which led him to join a quick ITI course but then again, the little education didn’t get him any job. Mahesh tried his luck in Hyderabad by loaning a sum of Rupees 10,000 but his luck didn’t find its mark as he failed to find a good job or a healthy life in Hyderabad. He came back to his village and tried to work as a contract mechanic for the government but lost his job soon because the government decided to pull the plug on the project he was working on. “ Anna I realised that working under someone will give you not the sense of freedom and confidence as working alone,” he said to me. Mahesh now decided to work under mechanics of different bike sheds, learn the work and soon open a bike shed of his own and start helping people who are clueless and helpless like him. Having narrated this, the bus to Tadvai has come and also the time for our goodbye to him.

Talking to Mahesh led me to a thought of how sometimes entrepreneurial spirit comes off out of bare necessity. Our Grassroots innovators who find the solutions for the thickest of their problems won’t just solve theirs but end up helping thousands of their sorts. I could imagine Mahesh growing steadily in his business and helping people like him. This experience even further fuelled my intrigue to begin my Yatra. When we reached the Tadvai forest huts by midnight, we could see a few lads in their 20’s playing badminton(Drunk) and apart from that all we could see was the forest. My first judgement about them was taken aback when they volunteered to help us by dropping us at the forest huts when we merely asked for directions. Later the next day when Brigadier Sir was speaking about villager’s hospitality, all I could think of those persons who dropped us by the huts even in their inebriated state.  If in the city and you ask for directions to something the other person is standing next to, you can expect an appalling glance but nothing else from them. This sudden act of warm hospitality appealed to me a lot.

When the Yatra began and we started walking, I could see the green and lush fields of where our food is being made. Slow and steady, one grain at a time. I could smell the brilliance of rice being grown in those scenic paddy fields. But the same was too poignant when I met an old villager (whose name I don’t quite remember) said that they sell each and every grain they grow and eat Rationed rice for their meals. How do we as a country can grow when Farmers who grow OUR food cannot eat the food they grow? He sells the paddy at a rate of Rs10 to the dealer and I remember buying rice at the shop the day before(for cooking dinner for our group ) at Rs 50 per kg. such a difference(pull off the processing charges).

Can’t we feed the makers of our food with food which has the same quality as ours? If we get a no for an answer, the entire point of that big call for development is nothing but blatantly useless trumpet sounds.

During the course of our Yatra, I’ve encountered many villagers who were more than happy to help us in however small of our requirements were without asking any backing questions like the sorts which may encounter back in the city. Be it the amma who gave me a tea leaves filter or be it the couple who cooked us our dinner and lunch in village Kondai. They are unapologetically happy to help us.

When I and Afzal helped Raj anna cook the dinner on the first day, fetching the materials and cutting the vegetables, there was an unprecedented joy that I was helping feed someone was a joy like no other. Looking at the sky with a gazillion stars in it was a sight never to forget which adds to the fact that never in my life have I seen a firefly but on this trip I did. The silent night walk brings you close to nature in a unwritable or unexplainable way. I could hear the frogs and crickets screaming out welcomes all through the night to us and they joined with the stars and the fireflies in guiding us subtly where to walk and where not to.

On the second day I helped Eeshwar anna conduct Ignite to the school kids I saw how good these kids were with nature and they could name a lot of plants and trees than I could ever. But again, there was a lot of poignancy in this. After the Yatra resumed, I had to constantly travel to and fro to the Kondai school for food, tea, luggage and other such stuff. During these three trips, I saw four issues of interest.

1) The School:   The faculty in the school is more than what is required to handle the kids and none of them seemed to be working in any manner. The kids were left to the mercy of the sun. The teachers along with certain village heads waiting for the lunch to be made and eat free of cost. Also, this food was served by a kid of the school itself. All the teachers did was 'sit and gossip'. I used to read about such schools but seeing one in live was disturbing.

2)    The Woodcutter: While waiting for the food to be made, I saw a woodcutter bathing near the water tank in the school. The woodcutter might be around 40-50 years of age but he has a chiselled out and ripped body that the youth of today can just dream of. The only difference he had with that of any other bodybuilder is a muscle called ‘’LATS’’ between his lower shoulders and back. Before I came to the Yatra I went to a debate on Darwin’s theory of evolution and I know that evolution is a process which takes millions of years but I could for sure analogize this to the evolution of the human body. With the advent of technology, all the body needs us to be is in a shape which is enough for us to sit in front of a desktop. Maybe that’s why obesity has come into the picture. We eat and the body grows around our requirement. I.e, it doesn’t need any more muscle mass just to sit in a chair whereas, for this particular villager, his meal grows muscle around his body in a way where it is used daily to cut down the sticks etc.,  The science of bodybuilding can learn a lot from the monotonously vibrant life in villages.

3)    The Tribal Farmer:
There was this farmer who came to talk to a village elder(who has come to eat the food made in the school at that time). He was narrating his woes of not getting to meet the regional collector as the Forest officials are digging trenches into their fields though they have all the proof that the land was theirs even on paper. His helpless tone moved me. When we brought the lunch to the scenic viewpoint overseeing the Jampanna Vaagu, at one point I asked Brigadier sir for a picture to be clicked with him. To this, he responded that he would click a picture if I promised that I would safeguard the jungle in front of my eyes from the clutches of a homo sapien. I was speechless for a while when the Tribal Farmer’s face resurfaced into my brain. Why can’t I try my best to pursue and help the Tribals keep their land? All I have here is the power of the pen. Might as well use it in the right direction.

4)    The issue of villager’s illegally killing and eating animals is a fast pacing yet unsolved one. Not just the wild animals but I have seen teak trees whose food supply being cut off at their trunk base that when the tree dies, it can be easily taken and sold away(This again is a claim from a villager so the source may or may not be genuine. But from the look of the tree, it sure did look genuine).

Also, I’ve talked to a couple of villagers who claim to have eaten a lot of wild animals which is a bit saddening considering the threat of wilderness extinction is concerned.

As I have earlier mentioned in this write-up, In the village of Oorrattam, I met an old labourer/farmer who grows paddy but keeps nothing for himself. He was also the one who claims to eat wild animals too. He had a great perspective to add to. He drinks IPPA SAARA which he claims is healthy provided it is drunk in a limit and ONLY by people who are over the age 30 or so. He says he started to drink it in his 30’s and starting cursing the kids who drink at a really early age today. He added the high contrast in which a village and a city lies. He said “ I can go around the jungle and its wilderness in the dead of the night. You cannot. You survive the fast-paced city life. I cannot” That’s the difference between you and me.

While the sun set gloriously, Raj anna gave me his bike to stop at regular intervals in cases of emergency and we need the bike. So I took a Yatri Vishwas with me and set off to wait at regular intervals. One such interval was near a certain Y junction where the sides were pure and unadulterated jungle and the other side was a paddy field. Here while I was talking to Vishwas, I saw a lit area not more than 10 feet from me. We tried to ignore it but intrigue got the best of us. The day long I have been listening to stories of natives going into the jungle looking for wild animals to eat. Scoops about the area being a Naxalite winged area. If I were a lone wolf I would have gladly ventured to the site to check out what the fire was about. But a sense of responsibility of the bike at hand and a co-Yatri stopped me. My curiosity got the best of me and I asked Vishwas to start and be on the bike for the worst case scenario while I put on my utility cap and walked towards the fire site. As I zeroed near the site I realised that if there were humans near the fire, I could easily be spotted due to my utility torch on my cap so I turned it off and walked few more feet further to see that entire trees were on fire. THE FOREST WAS BURNING.  I was still not quite sure of this so I got back to the bike and we waited for the group and when we all reached Narlapur I could still see the fire in a distance. Eating the forest. Nothing we could do.

The third and final day of the Yatra was as interesting as any of the previous days.  There was a small errand to be run back in the village of oorrattam so I took Raj annas bike to run the errand and while returning I saw our Yatri Ashok, walking on the road barefoot towards the school in Narlapur whereas the Yatra has resumed. Apparently, he has RAN to the temple of Medaram for a darshan. Too Raw yet impressive. Then he asked me to slow down at a certain place where he got down to fetch his footwear which he apparently left on the road as it obstructed him in his running. Such Raw passion took me by surprise. Further, into the day, He threw away his Chappals as he said he can walk in peace and pace. He was too passionate to walk that like a yogi, he didn’t want anything like chappals to obstruct his Yatra. Ashok had a good rapport with the jungle. He made art with whatever he could find in the jungle. New names of many trees. He made bracelets out of wild lotuses, decors out of leaves and plates out of leaves too and ate them too. Such a life! Vivid, Happy and ever optimistic are the adjectives to use to stay with him.

I caught up with the Yatris and the walk on the third day was a fun one. In the village of Projectnagar, we conducted an ignite in an all girls school. Kids came up with brilliant ideas and Rupa’s story of her dad’s moved everyone. Grassroots innovations deserve a totally different level of appreciation. I talked to Rupa,  got to meet to meet great innovator Mahipal Chary sir and Ramesh too. Their innovation stories are something which could help us all think out of the box. I really liked the amount of effort we are putting in to bring out these talents and a big round of applause for the same.

At the same time, I also realised the amount of work which takes into action to help bring out these innovations. Find it. Help the innovator get recognised for his/her brilliance, pitch the idea to potential investors, run from a place to another in seconds to catch up with these investors, help the innovator produce and pack the products, market them. All of the above-mentioned work is often gone under the radar for any user. I would like to clap out loud for all those heroes who make this happen and would like to come down to the Palle Srujana office soon and will see where my skills could help out in any way possible.