Thursday, July 18, 2013

SCHKL GROOBER

This post is about a man who changed 20th century. If this guy was not born, the entire history would have been different. I am sure that you all know him. His name is Schkl Groober, popularly known as Adolf Hitler.
what comes to your mind when you hear about him?? A mad man who killed millions of people?? A man who destroyed the entire world??? Yes ,it is right to some extent. But it is also noted that he had many positives.



First of all, just think why we hate Hitler? Answer is quite simple.I would say that our school chapters have played an important role in it. From childhood itself, we are injecting into the mind of child that Hitler was a bad man. No wonder, when the child grows he/she will hate him. But who killed more people? Hitler in Germany or America in Hiroshima and Nagazaki? But did our school texts which says many things about cruelty of Hitler , raised any voice against America ?

When Hitler came to power,condition of Germany was worse. Everything was destroyed in First world war. Industries were down, agricultural land had lost fertitily because bombings,the value of mark( German currency ) was decreasing every minute.Germans were starving to death.No nations gave any help to them.They were like untouchables to other nations. Naturally it lighted a fire in the mind of Germans and it is this fire that helped them to become world power again. From the bad condition Germany became world's number one country by 1938.Well, we can tell that it is just military strength, but one thing is true that Germans,were happy with him. I do accept that he was cruel to Jews, but it is not enough to cover the strength that he made for German economy.Germans under the leadership of Hitler gained more power , both Physically and mentally. They acquired the power in 10-15 years that Indians are still trying to get even after sixtysix years.


Was Hitler alone responsible for Second World War?? We learned like it was Hitler's plan.But when we take it on a broad angle, we can see that it was actually a revenge of a brave man to those who destroyed his nation on first world war.If a country attacks India and destroy,do we stay calm and quiet? so why we blame Hitler alone???

In the end, we can say that Hitler fallen down on 2nd world war.Americans are saying it proudly. But just take a map and look size of Germany, Italy and Japan.These 3 small nations fought against rest of world for 6 years.Just imagine that situation.If we say Germany , Italy and Japan were military power what about rest of the world? In the end, eventhough Big five nations won the fight, they have nothing to get proud of. They had to use even atom bomb to finish the war, i really feel pity on that. Just imagine -America using their entire army power to destroy 300 small islands.Even if we put all those islands together, it doesn't have size of kerala !!!


Now think about a situation- Hitler won 2nd world war. Then what might hav happened??? The same texts, that say hitler is bad, will contain heroism of hitler, he would have been the best man in the world,who fought against the colonialism of America and Britain.Hitler would have been a hero who saved the entire world. He would have been the man who helped Subhash Chandra Bose to get freedom for India.


Hitler may have done many things wrong,but he was the man who changed the story of a complete century,his ideologies may be wrong, but he was hardworking and courageous and a NO FEAR man,such leaders are very rare in todays world.He shown it even at the time of his death. Whatever we say,we have to accept one fact -Hitler was a great leader.


P.S :
I wrote this article in malayalam when I was in +2. Later it was published in college magazine.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

A journey to Badoli(Gujrat) - last part

  part 1

  Part 2



Day 3 : 


We got up around 5 am. In last two days we talked to many people , but we never got any chance to talk to two major castes. Brahmins and Harijans. So this time, we decided to do something different and that had really helped us to get a different picture on the other side of village. By 6 am , we went toSwami Narayan Mandir and Jai MataJi temple, near the cooperative society. And this time , god came infront of us as Hasmukh Giri, the priest in that temple. When we told him that we came to see the village and to know about the life of people here, he took us to the house of harijans . He gave us information about a persion called IndraSingh Rathore , who is helping the villagers to sharing his knowledge. 


First we went to Indrasingh Rathore’s house . He is an NIFT alumnus. But he stays in the village and teaches  handicraft to Harijans and tribals there. They make statues of coconut fibre. So far around 321 people have got training in handicraft and he is teaching more people.Last month he had exported ‘200 coconut fibre kiwis ’ to New Zealand.He had shown us ‘how to make a bird in 6 minutes’. If we had never seen him, it would have been a big mistake from our side. (I am planning to write a separate post on Indrasingh Rathore and his works in village later).
A masterpiece of Indrasingh Rathore
Shailesh with Indrasingh Rathore and Hasmukh Giri


From there , we went to Harijan Colonies there. One thing we noticed in this village is both brahmins and harijans are living together.We met a person called Suthriya Punjiram Haribhai. He has an NGO named  Akhila Bharathiya Anthim Vikas Samithi.It works for helping a family to perform cremation of body (if they need financial help)  and help  the widows among Harijans. From him we got the ‘harijan’ version of development in Gujrat. As I had heard before, the politics in Gujrat is splited on caste basis with upper caste/patel supporting one party and the Harijans supporting another . One caste praising the government for all the developments while the second caste is struggling to live. They are feeling that they were ignored by government.
A person working on weaving machine - Weaving was their main source of income till 1991


Most of the Harijans were engaged in weaving job till 1991. LPG had really changed their life. When India changed its financial policy to the so called phenomenon LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation) , people who had some professional skill managed to improve their lifestyle ,while the second group, who were struggling were totally thrown out of the equation. In 1991, around 250 families of Harijans were engaged in weaving and similar jobs where as now there are only 2 families doing the same. Others were forced to go for jobs like brick manufacturing and other daily labour jobs as they were not able to get earnings from weaving. We have also seen a small handweave industry which was forced to shut because of the negligence of both central and state government.


After talking to him, we went to the private hospital in the village as that is the only place left in our list to visit. But , on our way,  we met a person called Rajeev Kumar. Infact he was waiting to meet the two strangers who came to see his village. He too had a story to tell.The Harijans were having a co operative weaving industry called Sri. Mahathma Gandhi Gujrat Seva Mandal. It was working fine for the first few years. But later, when control of textile Industry was moved from State Government to Central Government, they lost all the subsidies and other support.For the last ten years he was trying to contact the officials to get approval of various papers. But central government office is saying that they have not received the paper from state government and state government is saying that they have given it at the time of transfer of control from state to central. They somehow managed to work it till 2010, but finally closed its functioning as they were not getting any help. We didn't not know why he came to us and told the story. He might have thought that we might be some journalists and so we might post it on newspaper.Anyway we could say one thing. He represents the frustration of the unemployed mass of India. I really wish government will take some action and make the industry work again. 

After listening to Rajeev's story, we  went  to hospital.   We met the doctor there and talked to him about various diseases in the village , major health issues faced by children etc. He explained everything to us.(Without taking consultation charge!!!) 

Thus, by 2 pm, our trip got finished , collecting almost all the data about the village. By this time , we had became so famous that people whom we didn’t even know came to us and started to ask did we like their village. When we were about to leave, Shailesh told that he wanted to stand in next panchayat election as everyone will vote for him.


As we felt everyone is over, we went back to our rooms and took rest. In the evening, when the vetinary doctor came, he gave us details about number of cows and buffaloes as of last census and other details like how they are treated by co operatives etc. At night the same process repeated. We went to the same place where we used to sit and talked to all for hours. We had started to feel sad, as we had to leave on next morning.

Day 4 : 


 We woke up around 4 am and got ready. We had decided to start our return journey by 7 am.We had told  Sanjay, Sid (Siddharth),Amit  and Santhosh to reach Idar City. We had planned to visit Ambaji temple also before going back to campus. Ambaji is a famous temple in Gujrat, just like Thirupathi in Andhra Pradesh. Everyone in the village had told us to visit the temple and told that the godess there is very powerful. Everyone reached Idar by 8 am. And we had planned to go to Ambaji in GSRTC Bus (Gujrat State Road transport Corporation Bus).But Amit told he didn’t like to come, due to some personal reasons.But we had decided to visit temple as we never get a chance like this again. Personally I was very happy that I got a chance to visit one of the famous temples in Gujrat within a week after reaching Gujrat.Ambaji temple is at Gujrat Rajasthan Border. It is a big temple with Amba ji (Durga Devi- I am not sure about the goddess , but I think so ) After going to temple, we got a bus from Ambaji to Anand. we came back to campus by 9 pm.  



 Thus, by the end of the trip, we had met almost all groups of people , visited important schools,hospitals and temples in the village. We had seen the agricultural field and Goshaala, and the mineral water plant.More importantly , we got a few good friends and a few days which we always like to remember in our life…. Thus we got a chance to breath in a bit of Gujrat…

A journey to Badoli(Gujrat) - Part 2



Day 2:
As we were tired of yesterday’s journey, we decided to wake up a little late. But we had forgot one thing. We were sleeping in a room in Dooth Mandli. By 6 am, there was a big queue infront of our building, all waiting to give their milk to Society. Mahendra Bhai, a worker in cooperative society gave a class to us on how the price of milk is decided. Price of milk is decided according to the fat content in milk. In cowmilk it will vary from 4 -7 where as for buffaloes it is between 6 -10. If fat content is 10, farmers will get Rs. 45 per litre. Mahendrabhai was doing the test to check the fat content and price was decided accordingly.After watching the process for some time, we went back to our room.


By 8.30 am, we got ready and went to R H Jani Semi government Higher Secondary school in Badoli. It is the main Higher Secondary School in village. We asked them about the educational facilities about village and was very happy to know that the village is blessed with an L P school, a UP School and a Higher Secondary School and no child in village can ‘escape’ without going to school!!!The school had a strength of 1158 students including 501 girls.


From R H Jani School, we went to village dispensary and enquired about the health situation of villagers.Though there was no hospital there, the doctor said that it was not an issue for them as they have 2-3 hospitals within a distance of 10 kilometers.From there we went to police station, but to our surprise, no one was there in that building!!! I guess the crime rates in Gujrat is very less that they don’t even need police!!! After waiting their for 20 minutes , we came back,without gathering any info about crime rates there. All we could see in the police station was an auto which had one tyre missing. 
 
Government Dispensary






While coming back, we went to Primary School 1 , which is under the control of Government. All the fund was provided by government . The school had a computer lab with 8 computers, a science lab, a library and special provision for teaching disabled students.I was very happy to hear this , as people here know the value of education and was trying to provide it to all irrespective of their physical capabilities. Even in highly educated states like Kerala, we cannot see much schools with this facilities. Another surprise for us was Vishlesha Madam, who is a teacher in the school. She is the only person that I met in the village who knew English. But the sad part is , she is blind!But she was not ready to give up . She fought against her disabilities , took graduation , listened to audios and learned English and now she is working in a government School!! A Lady , that everyone should respect. Hats off .
Aravalli mountain range
From Primary School, we went to Village office. The officer was very happy to see us and he gave all the data we need !!! No, I am not kidding. This is what happened in the office. How many of us can say the same will happen in village offices in our state.According to 2001 sensus ,Badoli has a population of around 6000.(lost the data sheet he provided. So I have to approximate values. I am sorry). The village has 99% literacy rate. But from the village office only we came to know about the other half of the story. Even after the education, people are not changing their jobs. A Patel will continue agriculture, Brahmin will remain as priest and a Harijan will be a labourer. Education never helped much to improve their income.

Idar Fort
In the evening (around 4pm) we went to see Idar Fort.Idar Fort is a very small fort build on the top of a mountain in Aravalli ranges. We took an auto to go to top of mountain as ‘trekking’ was not permitted by IRMA  and we do not want to disobey rules ;). The auto driver’s name was Samir Pathan. In the journey, we got a chance to listen to Muslim version of the ‘developments’ in the villages in Gujrat.
A plant in Jain temple
Fort was a very small construction, which was not maitained for years. I felt bad impression about the government for the first time after seeing the fort. It seems no one is interested in the fort, though it could be developed into a beautiful tourist spot, as it is on the top of mountain.As of now, all we can see in the building is the ‘scripts’ of some guys who had came there before and some gossips like ‘Salman loves Aishwarya’ .I really wish government will take some action to protect this fort. There is a Hindu temple , a Jain temple and a Mosque near the fort.We entered the Jain temple first . Thus I got a chance to visit a Jain temple for the first time in my life.


From Idar Fort , we can see a small building on the top of a huge rock.  It was very difficult to reach there. It was constructed by queen of Idar , when she got angry with the King! It is heard that she lived there for rest of her life as a revenge.It might have been a bad time for servants who lived at that time as it will take atleast 5-6 km walk from the top of that rock to come down to collect some water. ( We can't expect queen to come down and collect water, right? ) .



By 6.30 pm we came back to Badoli . Then we went to Raju Bhai’s home and then to mineral water plant. There is an auditorium near the plant. It is the auditorium made by Patels for their community marriage. By that time, Parimal ji also reached there and from there everything was an exact copy of day 1. This time Shailesh and me gave treat to them , same hotel, different menu. Then went to same the same shop where we sat last day. But this time we came back early. We slept around 1 am.



A snap taken on my way to Idar Fort


 
to be continued...

Click here to read last part



A journey to Badoli(Gujrat)


 It is easy plan a hundred ideas, but very difficult to implement atleast one . I dedicate this blog to Dr. Varghese Kurien, who had changed the life of thousands of people in Gujrat. He was the REAL MAN OF TWENTIETH CENTURY... 


Our journey to Sabarkantha district started on 18th june 2013.There were 14 people in our group,who were further sub divided into 7 groups and would be send to various villages in Sabarkantha. My teammate was Shailesh Kumar Tiwary from Gorakhpur. Though I had met him on last day, we never got much chance to talk or plan about the journey.We all were supposed to leave by 6 am from college ,then to reach the Sabar diary by noon.But as we all know , a college is a college and we proved that in terms of punctuality. All participants reached near vehicle by 7.15 am and our journey began. We were going in 3 vehicles, 5 each including faculty(Asmita Vyas Madam).The beginning of a great trip…



 The journey to Sabar Diary was a short, sweet one.Sidhardh from Odisa , Sanjay from Gujrat, Shailesh from Uttar Pradesh , Amit from Bihar and I, from Kerala. So a perfect mix was set in our vehicle to have a great discussion on various customs and beliefs of people in various parts of our country.We started discussions with ‘NaMo’ wave in Gujrat to Communist party in Kerala, Odisha to Malayalam,various beliefs across different states etc. We reached Sabar diary by 10 am. 



Sabar diary is one of the biggest diaries of AMUL with an average collection of 12.2 lakh litres of milk per day. On last february it had shown a record of 16.07 lakh litres. One thing that influenced me in the diary is the prayer before work. Everyone stood up and sang prayer before the work. In a nation, where culture is degrading , the Sabar Diary office stands different. I think, all co operative diaries in Gujrat starts work with prayer and this give them power to reach greater heights. The officers in the plant first took a session on how the co operative society works, how they collect milk from various units, CSR work of co operative units and so on. After this , we were taken to processing  centre where the milk collected from farmers is processed to various products like packet milk for sales,  ghee, milk powder etc. It was really amazing to see 8 huge tanks standing one after other , each having a capacity of 1 lakh litres to collect milk. It was a totally different experience for me, as I have seen only one industry in my life  - the IT Industry.
Harvesting Machine
After having lunch from Sabar diary, we started our journey to Badoli, which is a village in North Gujrat, around hundred kilometres away from Rajasthan. After dropping Santhosh and Siddharth at Narsipura ( a village in Sabarkantha district , 7 km from Badoli) and Amith and Sanjay at Godhamji, we all reached at Badoli around 5.30 pm. I think, our Madam, Asmita Vyas was very doubtful whether Shailesh and me,  will stay patiently in a village for 3 days.So, before leaving she reminded us the same thing that she said before the journey began. "You are not supposed to leave village before 21st June." Our stay was arranged in Doodh Mandli (Milk Co operative Diary) in Badoli.


 After the vehicles left to drop other participants in other villages, the first thing I did was, I checked whether we have toilets. (there was a reason behind this search as we had some wrong idea about some villages here). I was surprized to see a brand new toilet. It was so new, that they have not even fitted tap!!!!! In the mean time, Shailesh had gone to check the hotel where our food had been arranged for next 3 days. After a few minutes a person came to check the facilites for us . I had tried to explain them the facilities that we needed to stay. It was then, I realized that truth.None of the villagers knew English. It was my mistake that I thought there will be atleast someone who might know English. But to be honest that turned out to be a bliss for me, as at the end on 4th day, muje sirf hindi hi nahi gujrathi bhi aati di!!!  I just managed to tell him what all we need for stay. I must say that villagers are really efficient. Within 15 minutes we got 2 beds, 2 buckets and a tap, which was fitted in toilet!!! We got the room where the Vetnary doctor used to sit in Cooperative society. So he was not able to sit there and perform his normal duties till Friday. ( I hope, all cows and buffaloes in village will not be angry on us) . By 6.30pm , two people in the village, Raju Bhai and Kalpesh Patel came to meet the two outsiders at dooth mandli.
The real story will begin from here!!!



Raju Bhai and Kalpesh Patel in Chilly field
Kalpesh bhai had taken degree in Rural Management .He was very happy to know that we came there to study their village. Kalpesh and Raju Bhai have some agricultural land in village. I felt like they were send by god at correct time to help us. We, Shailesh and I, went to their land on their bikes. Kalpesh bhai told us that they are really lucky people as they get ground water around 140-150 feet depth. I was really surprised to hear those words , as people in kerala are always sad if we didn’t find water at a depth of 25-30 feet.If we have no water at 30 feet, it is the end of world for us!!! They took a class to us on drip irrigation, how it had helped them to reduce wastage of water and how it helped to increase profit. They had planted groundnut ,guar and chilly in their fields now, which will be replaced by wheat and bajra by the end of monsoon.As monsoon had came a little earlier their production had decreased, but still they were happy as they know this will ultimately help to increase production on next season.
Goshaala
  




After spending almost one and half hours in field, they took us to a cattle farm – Goshaala . It was a big farm with more than 15 cows ,two oxen and around 7 calves. Those who owned agriculture land had cattle farm also as they complemented each other. The plants in field after cultivation will be given to cattle as their food. So they usually do not have to spend much money for cattle food. And the cow dung was put in the field as fertilizer for next round of cultivation. So they can reduce the money they spend on purchasing chemical fertilizers. (What an idea sirji!!!). By 8.30 pm we reached back . 


Thus , by the end of first day evening , we had had an idea about the cultivation and cattle farming at Badoli.If we had not met Kalpesh bhai and Raju bhai, we can’t imagine how our days in Badoli would  be. But the story didn’t end here. By evening Kalpesh bhai’s brother, parimal Patel also came to see us. He is a teacher in government school in nearby village. They took us to Idar City , and we had a dinner party there!! While rest of my friends in other villages were worrying about food, we had Jeera Rice, Roti and Paneer butter masala!!! 

While having the dinner, they gave us an idea about the social structure of village there. Patel community are the common farmers in the village. All of them own medium to large area of land and have cattle farm also . A few years back , when there was drought , it was difficult to get profit from agriculture. Then, they had started cooperative tile factory!! All patel families have 1-2% share in factory. A total of 20 factories were made and they have a turnover of above 100 crores!!! They also own a cooperative mineral water plant which was made by all members of patel community. But people from all communities can purchase water from the plant.
After dinner , they took us to a small shop in the village where  all of them usually sit and talk till midnight. We too sat there till midnight and then we went to co operative to sleep. 

to be continued ......

click here to read part 2