VILLAGE MEMOIRS

How great it would be if God suddenly appears before you and says “Let me bring your every little wish to reality”? It was like that when I visited Konda Bheemana Pally(K.B.Pally) in Devarakonda Mandal, Telangana. I come from a town, which is neither a city nor a village, but with the negative externalities of both village and city. I got downright enthralled when I visited the first city(Chennai) to experience astonishing liveliness. I also yearned to experience village life. The village visit to K.B.Pally as part of an academic Course rendered the opportunity to live in a village for a week. When the academy, gave a detailed plan with daily schedules, I had my own checklist of dreams to be fulfilled in the village. With tons of hopes and nervousness about being a new joinee, we entered the village. The greeny farms and the lovely birds welcomed us smilingly.

When we travel to new places, it is not just about the places. It is also about the people with whom we travel. The love shown by the villagers is beyond words. The taste of the hot and spicy homemade yummy food by Sujata amma still lingers on my tongue. From the soft and fluffy idlis to the rough and tough jowari Rotis with delicious gravies, we had hefty meals for the whole week. I must heartfully thank the group members(Krthi, Jabbar and Ajay) for being an amazing family throughout the visit. Though it was just a week, the familial bond created with each one of them is unexplainable.

Further fun was in the place where we stayed for the week. Having seen the Panchayat Web series, I couldn’t stop relating to the Panchayat Office in which we stayed, with the one shown in the series. The structure was exactly the same, including the water tank nearby. We didn’t miss climbing to the top of the tank to have a panoramic view of the village. With properly planned concrete roads, piped water through mission Bhagirathi, Anganwadi, Primary Health Subcentre, Primary School, Post Office, Nursery, Village Park, Dumpyard, PDS shop etc. the village indeed was near to a model village. We checked the working of every institution and were really astounded.   

The actual surprise came when we visited the Adharsh School which was residential and primarily meant for Scheduled Tribes in the village. After testing a few students for reading and maths, we asked about their ambitions in life. We were stunned when a girl stood up and answered that she wanted to become an Agriculture Officer to support her farmer parents. Nextly, when a boy from class 8 said that his ambition in life was to protest against the sexual harassment of women, we literally got goosebumps. Their goals were not just positions, but causes. They didn’t believe in destinations but in the journeys. Young India is very much promising. Instead of inspiring them to dream bigger, we got inspired by them.

Besides visiting institutions and collecting data, I didn’t forget my little dreams. Early in the morning by 6.00 AM, we used to take a stride to experience how the village woke up. We moved to far-off streets, where the villagers did not know who we were. With the cattle grazing, cows milking, birds chirping, roosters crowing, elders yelling, the loveliness in such simple things can only be felt. My first wish got fulfilled when we rode a tractor through the cotton fields. At that moment, I felt like a millipede(Train worm) crawling amidst the cutoff fields.

Nextly, I wanted to have a bath under the pump set. We walked along into the fields to locate one while bursting Calotropis plant buds(crown flower/ erukkam poo) all along the way. Finally, when we identified a pump set, there were 3 dogs guarding the field which came to attack us. If there is one thing that I am scared of the most in the world, it is undoubtedly, the dog. While Jabbar became a warrior, throwing stones and scaring them, I sprinted away as if in an Olympics race. We panted heavily escaping the dogs. As we were almost exhausted, we decided to return back and while returning I saw a small pump set. It was so small that only my feet could take bath in it. Yet, it was a pump set and I had to fulfil that wish too. When we went near, there was an old person who directed us to another field. The person was a total stranger, and, hence, we were a little doubtful whether to trust him or not. As it was not a city, we blindly trusted him and went to the field and we were overwhelmed by the big pumps in it. We stood and took bath splashing out water on each other. When we fail to admire the little joys of life, we fail to live life in itself.

    My next wish was to run across the paddy fields. We took bike rides to reach the far-off fields, breaking through the cool evening winds. I wore white salwar and green dupatta to match the farm landscape. The experience of running inside the fields was so wonderful that I felt like jumping out. Unexpectedly, my legs slipped and I dragged Karthi also along with me. We both fell into the greeny fields which had dampened ground. My white salwar turned black and we came out like tar roads from the green fields. We couldn’t help laughing at each other by then. We went to the farm waters and cleaned ourselves. The funniest part is that I had asked Karthi to take a video of me running across the fields. Instead, she took a video of me, cleaning the mud after fall. Friends are always like that!

        

While accomplishing my little wishes, we also conducted several events to build rapport with the villagers. Friendly Volleyball matches, Rangoli competition, Speech Competition, Drawing Competition as part of the Swatch Bharat Campaign and a scintillating cultural evening. Every place has a soul. The soul of the KB Pally village lies in the vibrant women of the village who actively participated in almost all competitions. We were surprised by their talents, especially in rangoli. We also danced Bathukamma, a traditional dance along with the villagers. As Tagore tells, “Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls”, the entire village appeared like a family non-fragmented.

        

 Entertainment apart, when we were campaigning for financial literacy, we came to know about a serious problem. The villagers were reluctant to save their money in banks. When we inquired deeper, we found a potential fraud. Self Help Groups had opened bank accounts to deposit their hard-earned money. Usually, they deposit their money through Banking Correspondent(BC) and the BC had not deposited the amount in the bank. When they checked with the bank, they were not given a proper reply. The BC also became unreachable. The amount was almost 2 lakhs owing to 4 SHGs and they had been waiting for 8 months. They did not go to the Police due to unfound fears. We called the SHO(Station House Officer) to the meeting and we made the victims lodge a formal complaint against the BC. We also invited the SHO to the gram sabha meeting convened, in which he spoke about cybercrimes, traffic rules and other safety measures to be followed and he became familiar with the villagers.  

        

On the final day, when I came out waking up early in the morning, I saw a sparrow sitting on the bike mirror and chipping on it. It chipped the mirror continuously and I felt it would hurt its beak sooner. But the bird continued unmindful of anything around. When Jabbar came after half an hour, I showed him the bird and said, “I pity the bird very much as it is very much self-obsessed that it is unable to see how wide the world is. Many of us are stuck in our own lives like this bird”. Jabbar replied, “The bird is not self-obsessed, but it sees its enemy in the mirror and fights with it. Many times, we think our enemy is on the other side, but it is our own self in the mirror who is the real enemy.” After some time, Karthi saw the bird and told, “The bird sees its lover in the mirror and is kissing it without knowing it is unreal. Love is unreal too.” We were surprised to find very different interpretations of just the bird chipping. So is a life where we meet different people and different perspectives. The Village visit gave one such a different perspective on the real India. Cities may be lively, but villages are extremely lovely.