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WEEK 1 – Days 1 to 9 – September 3rd – September
12th.
Hushhhhhh... Thus it
started! It started drizzling with the proper/formal introduction
about the programme by Madhukar, Shalabh & Yasmin. Almost the
entire ICICI Foundation & iVolunteer team was present on the day.
We received details about the structure of the programme, briefing
about the schedule & a laptop bag. I was in a team that had to
make the first presentation on “Livelihood”, prior to Crispino
Lobo's session on Livelihood. The drizzle slowly started picking up
mass & it started to rain. Lobo is a man of simplicity. He
started the journey for us by making us ask ourselves if we wanted to
take the journey or not. He made us think and we were beginning to
think. He watered our thoughts in the same way as his organisation
WOTR watered a huge part of Maharashtra & other states.
With not going into the
details & specifics about each session I would like go ahead with
the flow of the rain. We had sessions on Gender & power,
Development & development perspectives. Then we went to MAGIC
BUS, Karjat. Karjat is on the way to Mumbai & it took almost an
hour to reach the place from our VALLERINA! It was always raining in
Magic Bus! We got wet, we got hurt, & we learnt a lot, moreover
we gelled together as a team. We were made to carry barrels, climb
walls, climb insanely large ladders with increasing distances between
the steps, finish hard courses of obstacles, build catapults, place
flag masts within an area without even going anywhere near the area
and all the insane stuffs like that. On the whole we used both our
brains & brawns in those two days. Our bonds became stronger. We
came to Khandala as people with similar minds & the magic bus
made us as people with similar hearts. We had learnt that even when
there is no conflict or competition, humans tend to treat themselves
as competitors & start to fight over resources, opportunities or
results. We understood the team better & learnt many lessons on
team building, team management & importance of team. The
highlight of the whole journey, for me, was the moment when Ashesh
rejoiced my successful completion of a course in an activity called
“LOW ROPES”. I actually saw the genuineness of the happiness in
his face. He hugged me happily (For all you silly minds like Romila &
Akanksha who gets into imaginations, of Ashesh & me in a
relationship like Willie & Shivam, it was a MAN HUG. PERIOD)
After the Magic Bus, we
found ourselves more happy & SUSEGAATH. We loved each others
company and we started looking at & looking after each other as
family. Although our bonds were just 5 days old, we felt as if we had
been together for a long time now. Then it was Mr.Prayaag Joshi who
spoke about his corporate life, his disgust for the same, the school
“Imlee Mahuaa” that he passionately started in the Bastar region
of Chattisgarh & his own dilemmas in doing so. He gave a
different perspective about the “DEVELOPMENT” & “EDUCATION”.
The same day we had a session about the JAMKHED MODEL by Ravi
Arole of CRHP, who explained about the health system in India &
how the CRHP impacted on the same. After this we got a welcome relief
in the form of screening of Well done Abba! Our
understanding about the rural administrative systems was greatly
widened by Mr.Amod Khanna of TAAL. He was all energy & he shared
a lot with us. It was Namrata Tanna of iVolunteer, who came to
introduce us to skills & ethics of photography. We all got new a
Panasonic LUMIX DC Vario! The point & shoot is not a great camera
in the language of the pros BUT for a beginner like me, who direly
wanted a camera, it was a boon! This is my first photo in the camera.
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| View of the hill from my training hall. |
The
next three days were the beginning of the all interactive &
active sessions about PRA. Participatory Rural Appraisal. Srijan
Nanda made the sessions interactive & informative. He played
volley ball with us & we all enjoyed. To be frank had Srijan been
a little taller he would have been like my brother Ramkumar. He had
the same pony tail, one of the many beards that my brother sports. In
between we had the session of Mr.Utpal Isser, a banker(I hate
bankers) from ICICI bank. He strengthened my distaste for bankers. In
my views they are cold, rigid & opportunist in nature. Banks lend
money only to those who have money, educational loans to students who
excel in studies, in avenues where there are previous successes.
Anyway, he came to speak about Microfinance & issues relating to
microfinance. He did that with a bang. RESPECT. I would have liked a
more subtle way which wouldn't have threatened the poor old Shivam!
(Anyway RESPECT for you too bro., for bravely standing there like a
teddy bear!). Apart from that, we did the PRA for our (native)
villages & interestingly all the three (groups) villages were
from the south India, 2 from Thamizh Nadu & 1 from Kerala. The
group seriously lacked people with prior village exposure &
experience. By the end of the three days we were able to (sort of)
conduct PRA exercises. We all were all excited about the rural
immersion. After the briefing and the usual codes , guidelines,
rules, blah blah we all were ready to go out & see the VILLAGE. I
was literally on cloud 9, when I realised that my village was the highest in the
Karjat. It is called Mahad Bhavan. My team in the village consisted
of Ashwini, Adarsh, Romila & myself. Of which Ashwini &
Romila (Caney) stayed in the home of Kusum Thaai where as Adarsh &
I stayed in the home of Kamali Thaai. We all took a photograph before leaving to the village.
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| I am the PHOTOGRAPHER! |
September 12th was
the birthday of Ankit, my room mate, my city guy & a good friend. So at 00:00 we literally bumped into the (our) room & kidnapped him
out of his usual 2 hour long conversation with his girl. We all
assembled in Adarsh's room, which was right next to our room & we
gave the birthday boy his dose of cakes, surprises, songs &
beatings. It was one hell of a night! :-)
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| Photo within a photo is my speciality! |
SLEEEEEEEEP!
