Impressions of Geeta Sai Krishna---14 CSY

 

Day1:

  My journey started with interaction with villagers of Ullavapalla regarding usage of chemical fertilizers, where there is a strong belief that the agriculture is impossible without chemical fertilizers. This strong belief led to the discussion with Brigadier sir on why this chemical fertilizers are introduced on first hand, from the discussion I came to know that due to the greed to get more money these fertilizers are introduced, but this led to the dependency on chemical fertilizers now rather than addition to the existing income, this was evident from the words of the villagers. And most of the farmers are unaware of the scientific fact that only 30% of the applied fertilizer is taken by the plants, the method that they are adopting now is based on the usage by one or the other farmer in his field (usually head of village/well known farmer).

  The example of zero input cost farming led to the discussion of producing the organic fertilizers on large scale since it is proven to be the productive way of doing agriculture, I understood  that organic farming methods varies from field to field, standardization of organic farming may not give the results it will give in individual practice in each filed. But still I am ambiguous of this idea since the fertilizers that we are providing now are standardized to every field. This discussion led to a conclusion that Nature provides customized solutions, Technology provides standardized solutions.

Story of the schools(VMM.Prasad sir,CDR Organization) shared by Brigadier sir reminded me of the learnings from those schools that “community development would be highly productive if the community is involved completely and is given the ownership of the development”. Interaction with farmers this day, their reaction after they see the technological innovations, Brigadier sir’s effort to inculcate the thought that those farmers(farmers of this village) can also come up with innovations is a learning experience on the way to speak with target audience. When solar sprayer is operated by one of the farmers, his reaction to the experience, the way he shared it among the others stood as an example of way to market those products that require replacement of existing products.

Day 2:
Today started with Salt cultivation, this was a great learning. Usage of hot coal to seal the packets of salt has shown usage of natural resources to get the work done rather than depending on electrical machinery, since electricity is not a constant supply in this village. Laxman’s (salt cultivator) explanation on the salt cultivation has introduced me to the salt cultivation for the first time. The way he is aware of the risk of salt cultivation throughout the year, doing the paddy cultivation in those periods where salt cultivation would be risky (non-profitable) stood as an example for the risk management. Interestingly the profit that farmer takes from 1kg of salt is 50 paise, when product reaches market it should cost Rs 10-11 max when double the profits(taken by farmer) are given to the people in the supply chain, whereas the market price now is Rs 16-18. Profits driven by the delivery end are far higher than the producer, reason for this is yet to be found. The way Brigadier sir encouraged Laxman (salt cultivator) to take the lead for the change in his village has shown me how leaders encourage others to take leadership.

  Discussion on eliminating usage of plastic in villages with co-yatris revealed various perspectives in solving a problem. In the village followed by, where water is surplus and surplus water is thrown away into sea shows the mismanagement of water resources in the upper regions from where it is travelling from .The story of asu machine, which is shared on the way, is always inspiring and the way of articulation of any story by Brigadier sir is a learning on how structured delivery grabs the target audience attention.

Day 3:
Today started with open air defecation which I felt is horrible due to the prevailing conditions; there should be change in the mindset of people in this regard. Followed by this, interaction with students of the child ashram is a great learning experience about the practice of agriculture. Children who explained me about paddy cultivation amazed me about their knowledge about all those things for which I got the reason after reaching their home (ashram).

  Followed by this is visit to the ashram which I feel is the best part of my whole yatra. Sarath sir a man of commitment, compassion towards needy, Rashtrapathi award winner, he took the road that has ever been taken in the world. He is an employee of railways; he used to serve those people who got injured in the rail accidents, natural calamities during his free time from his early young age. Completing his graduation, post graduation from the Osmania University, he took job as clerk in the Indian railways to get sufficient time to serve society.

   Child ashram which is currently operated at Gollapallem village (near Nellore) is a temple of knowledge. We usually see some kids who are left on the railway platform, who usually make their living by cleaning the floor in trains, some of them by involving in gambling, some by theft from the passengers and who will eventually develop into those personalities who may commit murder even for 100rs when grown up, to make living. All these happen due to the negligence of society towards them. Being an employee in railways Sarath sir took the responsibility of these kids and started teaching 4-5 students in a small hut, started caring them (providing food, other necessities) .The result of this is on one night kids tied Sarath sir to the cot and lit fire to the hut and ran away. Next day society, neighbors started suggesting him to leave that idea of caring them. But Sarath sir because of his commitment again started with couple of kids from same background and he started facing those challenges again and again. There was a student of ashram who ran away 13 times from the ashram and sir got him back by chasing him 13 times. Then on one day sir realized rather than guiding them or trying to keep them on discipline, which is not working, he decided to become servant for them. He let students to take all the decisions and work on the decisions taken by them collectively. It started giving results. Even the building which they are living now is build by the kids themselves. They feel ownership on the infrastructure, they daily cook food for themselves, they clean their surroundings, they cultivate different crops in the land beside school, they attend school in the home after completing all these works. One of the incidents quoted by Sharath sir, a student once questioned by District collector which standard he is studying, child replied that he is 1st standard in Telugu - 5th standard in Mathematics. That answer confused officials and Sharath sir clarified them as “he used to do gambling previously and very good at math, hence he is in 5th standard in math”. Students here receive knowledge about life apart from the knowledge from books. These kids would have been a negative energy to the society if they are left in a way they are, but now they are in the positions of spreading positive energy to society. They are into Indian Police service, one of them is Sub-Inspector, few of them are engineers, many of them are in respectable positions in the society now, and the children in ashram now are aiming for the responsible roles of society. This is possible because of the compassionate leader Sarath who faced the challenges and who never stepped back despite many failures in the process and learnt from the failures, evolved with model out of the failures. He dedicated his life for this cause.

       Amazed by his commitment when we asked what made him cross that barrier without stepping back in initial days where he failed number of times & was discouraged by the people around, he says “if tomorrow's survival is a problem(in this case feeding child with no funds) I will make this land(place which is now cultivated as botanical garden) an agriculture land and will plant it with one of the plants, make money out of it(fund to feed).He adds to this by saying “when we observe bird sitting on the branch of the tree we feel it is taking rest on the branch of the tree, but it is taking rest on belief in strength of its own wings. If the branch of the tree breaks for some reason it won’t fall down with branch but takes wings support and still survives”. He says we should have belief in the cause and the things we do, that belief will help us to come out of difficult times.

      To a question how he manages conflict with different students at same place living like a family, he says there are three different ways of leadership autocratic, mobocratic, democratic. He will be autocratic in those times where he feels everyone should obey those rules. For example there is line infront of the girls’ hostel which no man should ever cross, including him. He will be mobocratic in those issues where his decision is not required (curry to be cooked for the day).He will be democratic in those issues which require participation of everyone including him. He says one should not take everything into mind; one should keep energies into only those issues which definitely require his attention. This is a great learning experience in all the three days of my yatra.

Discussions with co-yatris on various topics are again a great learning experience. This wonderful journey ended with listening to the impressions of yatra from the co-yatris.