New Lessons

13th October, 2013

Today was a day of running around frantically, compiling data, letting your fingers dance on the keyboard and reading and rereading the report and PPT presentation of our work in the village.

SEARCH and Mendha Lekha

After reading, discussing and hearing so much about a village, you definitely want to visit it. Today, we had an opportunity to do just that. But before we went to Medha Lekha, we visited SEARCH (Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health), which was founded by Abhay and Rani Bang in 1985. Both of them have worked extensively with tribals and have ensured that they feel comfortable in modern hospitals. They created a new type of hospital, which made the tribals feel at home. They firmly believe in the principal, “Think Globally, Act Locally” and it reflects in the work they done till date. We were also given a tour of the Tribal museum, this NGO is trying to set up.

Return to Khurkheda

11th October, 2013

After bidding goodbye to everybody, we left the village at 7 in the morning. We got into a Jeep and reached Korchi at around 7: 45.While waiting for the other team to arrive, I struck up a conversation with a lady. She asked me my name and was curious to know why all of us were here. After telling her about myself, I asked her life. She told me that she and her husband worked in the District Collector’s office and they had just completed a year here. She was on her way to Nagpur to meet my parents.

Unexpected Rains; Unexpected Revelations

10th October, 2013

             

Today was a day of revelations. Throughout the day, people kept making subtle references about the Naxalism problem in the area. It was our last day of fieldwork and we decided to broach the topic openly.

Devi

9th October, 2013

Pandhrigota has two concrete constructions, toilets and a temple they built for the Gaon Devi after the mud temple was washed away by heavy rains. Today, they were going to carry the Gaon Devi, Sitla Maa, to the mandap where they had placed another idol of Sitla Devi for Navratri. The procession started and everybody started walking towards the temple, chanting and playing musical instruments.

Idyllic Villages?

8th October, 2013

Villages are often described as idyllic; but somewhere beneath the beauty lays an ugly face. I am not trying to make a generalization here, but I’ve experienced things in 2 out of 3 villages, which changed my perception of a village.

Pandhrigota: First Impressions

7th October, 2013

Motion sickness is my constant companion while travelling and today was going to be worse. Not only I was going to travel, I was going go up a mountain. So on a diet of some homeopathy medicine and a cup of tea, I started my journey for Pandhrigota.

We bid goodbye to the last signs of ‘modern civilization’ and immediately got stuck in a traffic jam. Not a regular traffic jam mind you; it was a traffic jam of cows and buffaloes.