Feeling from the villagers heart..........

During my field work for 9 days in the village near Kanpur, I came across lots of assiduous feelings , that gave me the experience of the lifetime. Above all the sharing with my team intensified those moments exponentially.

There is always one incident that flashes across my mind, leaving me into speculation that there is a lot to explore and learn from then villagers, getting acquainted to their lifestyle to understand their menace at root level, putting ourselves in their shoes and guide them with their own active support to cherish their vision of Changing Bharat. 

Staying with the villagers for one whole day was a part of our program, to get to know them more intrusively. The family in which I stayed have one lady, their 2 sons, studying in the private school, one cousin who was married and based out of Noida, and working in a cloth factory. The couple has an year old child. The head of the family was a tractor driver in the city nearby, and was earning a meager salary of 2000 bucks monthly. They live in Kachcha house, and there was no electricity. Their only source of income was from the head of the family. 

When I told them that I want to stay in their house for today, they heartily welcomed me. I was expecting a retaliation from them, as I was a stranger to them, and was worried how would I be convincing them for my stay. This is the way we urban people look upon any stranger in the city and we call ourselves educated. Imagine anytime in the city you found yourself helpless and you go and knock the door and ask for a stay, you will not even get a glass of water. But the situation was other way round in villages. You go and ask for a glass of water, they welcome you with a glass of milk, and we called them illiterate. We forgot that they are far more morally educated than us and still have old values intact "Athithi Devo Bhav". 


My stay with the family was a memorable one, not as a outsider, but I lived there as their family member. I made the kid took bath properly, informed them about the hygiene they should follow up, they served me delicious hot lunch, with chapatis on Chulha, and believe me they were delicious. Later on, I asked the elder kid to write the numbers form 1-100 , they wrote it correctly, but when I asked them to read out they backed out. I discovered they just copy paste like us in their exams and get passed. even the younger kid, Kanhaiya, he wrote from 1-30 but he can just copy and could not understand it significance. What i found more ecstatic that they had the desire to learn, I taught Kanhaiya, from 11-20, and he felt elated and learnt everything in another 10 minutes, even he further persuaded me to teach from 21-30. I did that and he learnt that. He even learnt to write his name later on. He kept on asking I kept on telling. 

Kanhaiya : Right in front

That gave me the conclusion that little bit attention and motivation can lead these from nowhere to the higher platform, and I promised to myself, I would be committed to my work in this very village to bring out the change in kids with the kind of enthusiasm they posses. There were kids in the villages, whom I interacted who dreamed about becoming an IAS officer one day. And boy, you question them about general knowledge and he was bang on with his answer. I would be disheartened if he doesn't become an IAS officer someday. There were kids who don't want to become engineers or doctors, but lawyer, police and teachers. They want to serve their family better. 


This one day stay attached me so much with my family, that the head of the family asked me to stay forever and work in the village. I promised them I would be back with my team soon in coming months, I don't want to shatter their hopes they had developed with our efforts in villages. There were new dreams and vision in their eyes of coming up to the mark with the urban development.

I really want to go back and spent my time their to serve my contribution leading to their better tomorrow.

P.S. The school name of Kanhaiya is "Hrithik Roshan" because he is a die hard fan of him. :)

Krishna : Engineer "Sahab"

While on my field visit to villages , although I had a lots of memoirs to share across, but the one I am sharing is close to my heart, because it was my last day of the visit for around sixty minutes and the kind of attachment, bonding it had created , made myself promise to the kids there to visit them again in the month of September. The youngest kid I met there , Krishna , I will always remember him.

The moment I was entering their village, and he came running to me with open arms to hold him high on my shoulders, with innocent cute smiling face and made me think, whether it was happiness that I gave him being present there or it was him who made me smile?

I kept on asking his name for around 5-10 minutes but he didn't speak. His brother Saumya told me that we call him Engineer "Sahab". Every one among the population of 200 odd villagers gave them this title. I was wondering what made him receive this nickname? I got my answer in next 30 minutes I spent with him and I believed they gave him the apt title.

Me with Engineer Sahab ( Krishna)

Lots of technicalities being discussed with Him.

 















There was a Banyan tree in the village where we had gathered, and every other young kid there was trying to conquer the heights of this giant tree. He suddenly requested me , opening his lips for the first time, saying , "I want to climb this tree , please Bhaiya?" . Since he was around 3 years of age, I told him when you will grow  old enough like your brother, you can also climb the tree. Quite logical answer I must say in that times.

But the reaction and counter defense he presented to me , made me apologize for the statement I made to him. His exact words goes like this.

"Acha , Bhaiya aap to bade ho , aap chadke dikhao!!" (Awestruck)

( Oh, You are old enough than my brother, why don't you climb the tree!!)

And he kept smiling even more.

truly and aptly he is Engineer Sahab of his village.  I just complemented him with smile and he suddenly was enjoying his time with all of us present there.

I believe the villages in India has lots of potential to revolutionize the modern India, if they are lead by the future leaders of India. i.e. the kids of villages, who if given proper direction and platform to excel.

GM Flashback - 1

"Connecting India to Bharata " - its time to unveil the deepest meaning earthed in this line that incorporates vastness, varieties, diversities that had been our culture since ancient times - the villages. Our strength to success lies in the villages and the common vision to connect the modern Indian with ancient Bharata had brought the like minded people on the common platform to take this initiative forward. 40 Change agents , 3 villages , 5 major basic problems and 10 days to develop the bond among us and with the villagers and work together.

This is the perfect stage where as said by our leader Prakhar Bhartiya - 

"Everyone among us is like a plain canvas here, we are here to paint our experiences and add color to their lives."

For me the first day of the 9-days long event kicked off in the train on its way to Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Among 40 change agents who were selected for the journey, most of them had already reached Kanpur, and I was sad as I was not able to be the part of the first day program. I was wondering how would I be reacting  to the situation there, whether I would be able to connect with each of them despite being late and other weird thoughts were pondering. But to my surprise when I reached there, there was a different perspective of the people all around, I got a welcoming note by all moreover I met for the first time with Mr. Iyer Ji , who  were so kind to help me with my luggage and showing me the room and guiding us finally to the dinner. Thank a lot Iyer Ji , for making me feel comfortable on the very first day. 

Later I came to know I missed a lot with to be explored, especially a life mapping session that connects each one of us so intensely bonded. It was all about revealing your life since childhood, school days, college days and thereafter, the ups and down, the pros and cons and sorrows and happiness. The best thing about this session was everybody shared everything one had gone through the life and what in the ends lands them here at Gramya Manthan , every one comes out with his or her life with no lies that developed the sense of trust, understanding and respect towards each other.

By the time I was back with dinner we had a session with the honorable orthopedic doctor and surgeon who was working in villages since many years to impart their services. The session with him was so encouraging and light heartening that it dissolved all my tiredness into fumes. After having such a wonderful evening, I was excited, anxious and curious about the upcoming next day which for sure going to be even more blissful, entertaining, sharing and above all lots to learn with each one of the change agents present  in the vicinity. 

And believe me there was lots of excitement under the belt in coming days.