Village1 - Off 30 kms from Bangalore
Saturday, 15th of Sept 2007. A day which Dhaval, Pritam and myself blocked for a journey to the unknown- The rural part of Karnataka. The day was preceded by rains, but we were determined to start with our first field trip to rural India. Dhaval decided to drive us through this first journey. We all gathered at 7:30 AM infront of Shopper Stop, Banerghatta Road to head towards kanakpura main road off Bangalore.
Multiple questions and thoughts crossed as our car cut across the city roads and traffic. What is the life in village like? How will we manage without knowing language?
We were finally moving away from city crowd and big mansions. We hoped that the influence of city life will be visible in the vicinity of 100 kms around bangalore atleast. But we were only to be proven wrong by our first right turn off 30 kms from bangalore. We were now in a small village with about 100 houses. Houses square in shape, similar in structure, with women cleaning utensils and children running on streets[ Pardon my prejudice, but men seemed to be doing nothing, but for sitting and ordering] . People looked unperturbed by cars as probably they saw many going by that way, however a stopped car did gather a lot of crowd. May be the questions," Do these people have anything to do with us too? They often pass by, but never bother to stop. Do they have anything to take from us? "
We stopped the car next to a small school. Moved out of car to interact with people around. As expected no one knew hindi or english. But as they say, "language has never been a barrier in communication. Communication happens with feelings and eyes. If they are right, you will put across your message." One kid guided us to a tall man sitting infront of a big house. To our relief, he knew hindi. We explained our purpose of visiting village to him. We expressed our desire to know more about village, its scenic beauty, its potential to be a host to weekend travellers and willingness of villagers to accept such travellers. As usual, there was an air of doubts and questions, which we tried to clarify by explaining our purpose and intent. While we were talking it out to the tall man, kids had already built the trust and started jumping around us. Their innocent eyes looking at our cameras and videos with an awe. Pritam started shooting videos and befriending with kids. I smiled and moved ahead to ask their name. The reaction to smile was spontaneous, but understanding my question regarding their name was difficult. Somehow we started introducing each other.
The tall man, who seemed to be some accepted authority in village asked some kids to take us around village. We headed to some narrow muddy gullies. Kids were jumping and dancing out of excitement and thrill of being captured in camera. We moved ahead.. Some shy women-smiling from the corner of their angans, some old women- looking out of anxiety at us, the herd of kids -getting larger with every passing home. We saw goats, buffaloes, cows. Dhaval managed to speak some broken Telugu and hence tried to communicate with two kid leaders[ Yep, leadership skills are out at every level, some people do stand apart:)]. They thought we had gone to take them to bangalore, we told that we had come to their village to open doors for people to travel their village, meet those people and experience their life. Some pictures, some writing and some school going kids opened a course of conversation which had no common language, but lots of innocence and acceptance. I was touched by their simplicity and ability to take life heads on. They are satisfied and happy. City fascinates them because poverty in village can not hold them. And i knew that they were right. There was nothing hi tech in their life. Bangalore's prosperity and fame got nothing evidently changed beyond the city limits.
Another way of looking at it was, that they still preserve the culture, innocence and trust that Bangalore had lost in mad run. We wanted to enable village economy, we wanted to let more and more people visit villages as tourists and we saw that there is still a lot of Indian future growing under the shadow of ignorance and no education.
We were taken by kids to a clean, small house. A lady prepared sweet sugared coffee for all of us. We sat in a room while the kids around jumped and played. The village was open and generous. Smiles here and smiles there. The intelligent girl from village who could read english came to the house. I tried explaining some things to her, but could just figure out that she is a very good singer. I came out of the house and was attracted by a beautiful rangoli infront of an angan. A pretty girl came out of the house and welcomed me in. The house was clean and well kept. It had a TV and cable connection. She smiled and i smiled, i knew there isnt more we could have expressed given that words were a limitation. I tried to tell her that i loved the art that lay at her doorstep. I knew that i wanted to tell her that you are the powers to keep these kids happy with whatever little you have, but words were a limitation. She put her hand on my head and let me go. Choolha is still a fate for women in villages. India enables big automation, but gas cylinder is still a far seen luxury. Despite all these non existent marks of necessities for a life today, there was a smile, a power and innocence. There were dreams, but satisfaction was bigger. And i saw the future of India dancing on streets, unaware of GDP, growth and economy.
We moved out of those muddy gullies to talk to the tall man. We asked him if he will be willing to host travellers on weekends. We wanted people to visit villages, befriend with them and hence open a source of income to villagers. This will also help them build awareness of outside world and their rights to get educated. The tall man looked happy. He assured that he will plan and co ordinate with us.
We headed towards our cars with hope and sheer joy of being loved. Kids followed us to the car. We bid them good bye and moved on for our search for Village#2........................
Outcome:
-Village has immense scope for promoting education
-Mechanized farming can help unleash a lot of potential from this land
-Rural Homestay could be a good option to generate ready income and build village network
-More people visit villages, more it features on maps, better gets its voting visibility and hence roads and infrastructure :)
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