Coorg : A Land of Surprises (Part II)

                                                      Part I 

A meet with the Eternal: The golden temple

After a short lunch we headed towards the famous Tibetan Golden Temple. Our driver told us that this area was inhabited by the refugee Tibetans. They are quite hard working and have built the entire infrastructure there by themselves. Near the temple there were hostels for the monks (most of them were young). There are four temples there, two of them very big, built in Tibetan style.  On the central temple there is an arc on the top with golden roofing. I could not understand the religious significance of anything there but the place itself gave the feel of divinity. There was a strict silence inspite of a big crowd there. Only the sound of the drums and the hymns sung by the priests were in the air. As it was a prayer time, entry was not allowed inside. We went inside one of the temples where prayers were not being organised. As I entered the gate, I found in front of me three magnificent statues (idols). The centre one was of Lord Buddha-60 feet in height made of copper plated with gold. The very first look of the Buddha gave me a kind of shock. I felt if I was losing all my energy into that statue or I was gaining something. Whatever it was I don’t know but I was standing dumb and staring continuously at the centre statue with an expressionless face. Since my childhood I have visited so many temples but I have never found such a peace anywhere. I wanted to stay there and just stare at that statue. I fear if I visit that place few more times I might change my religion.

Nature’s Dhama: Nisarga Dhama

Nisarga Dhama is a protected forest area on the banks of Kaveri, with the river surrounding it from all sides. We crossed the hanging bridge leading in there. From the bridge one can see the fish in the clear waters. All kinds of trees (bamboo, sandalwood, teak) and shrubs are there. There was a deer park also. The deer were standing right near the protection cage waiting for the tourists to feed them. After walking for some time we went down near the river. The river was flowing in between the rocks with trees hanging in the water from both sides. It gave a feel of the mangrove forests. The place is full of greenery and natural beauty. We went a bit deep in the forest when I received a call from our driver asking us to come back. While returning back to Madikeri , driver asked me-“Are you married”. I said “No”. He continued “Then do come on a honeymoon trip here when you get married, I would love to give a ride again”. Interesting driver… Nice marketing skills J

A window to paradise: The Raja Seat

It was around 6 in the evening when we reached the park. Madikeri had just witnessed heavy rainfall for about an hour. It was cold and winds were blowing. I was dumbstruck on seeing the picturesque view of the valley and the hills from that place. After few moments I uttered few words- “What the fuck!!”, seriously that was a scene of paradise. The clouds were still floating with the winds, covering the hills, making them invisible at times. One can see the mist rising from the plants, forests and other places in the valley. In front of our eyes was an unending sea of greenery. The clouds were passing from the place where we were standing, with mist touching our faces. Wow standing in the clouds… an amazing experience. Thanks to the special timing of the rain.

Just outside the park there was a toy train. We took a little ride in it. While returning back to bus stand another interesting thing happened. I tried to initiate a conversation in Hindi with a group of kids to get directions. They were poorly dressed, with dirty clothes. After I finished my sentence, one of them replied-“Can you speak in English please” . Oh that was unexpected (on seeing them it felt as if they even don’t go to school). For the first time in all these months here someone has asked me to speak in English. I asked them again (in English) and they replied fluently. I was impressed… Completely. All the way back I was smiling because of those boys. Wish them a great future ahead.

That’s it.. my memorable trip to Coorg.

Coorg : A Land of Surprises (Part I)

It was 5.30 AM and the sudden brakes of the bus opened my eyes. I looked out through the window- Whoa I was in a different world altogether!!  The sky painted with city lights has changed into an arena covered with floating clouds, clouds disappearing the hills ready to wet the red soil. The tall buildings have been converted into the Nariyal trees alongside the road and the streak of stores and shops has been converted into the never ending coffee plantations, and the climber plants of pepper and clove. Coorg it was..!!! Truly called as the Scotland of India..or Kashmir of South.. or the Misty Hills.

Getting off at the bus stand we enquired about the tour packages available with the agencies. But finally we hired a cab on our own. That went to be relatively inexpensive.The travel agencies literally loot you. The driver was an awesome cheerful man, having a strong command on Hindi. We headed directly towards the Abbey falls.

The Peaceful Falls: Abbey Falls

In the morning silence one can easily hear the peaceful noise of the falls from the road itself. The way to the falls passes through the jungle with coffee plants all around. The trees there were so dense that even in the full sun, the sunlight will plead to touch the ground. The sweet chirping of birds was a nature’s welcome to us.  The very first look of the falls relieves you from all the tiredness. The white water falling from the rocks, collecting at the base, making a stream and then disappearing in the thick forest. The morning weather added to the beauty of the falls, with dark clouds still hovering up in the sky and the mist giving a soft bath to the leaves as the wind slowly played with the falling water (and my emotions ;) ). We tried to climb up the hill on a trail carved out in between the shrubs. After going a bit up I remembered the fearful warnings written in English and Kannada on the boards, and changed our decision and came back.

The Bliss of Kaveri: Dobare

Next we went to the Raja’s tomb. I have no interest in describing that but the view of surrounding hills was pleasant. We clicked some funny pictures there with the stone elephant and other architecture. We then went to the Dobare’s elephant camp. This elephant thing is seriously nothing but an elephant shit. They take 100 Rs to bathe an elephant,50 Rs to feed dried grass to the elephant ,100 Rs for a 100 metre elephant ride..and people were doing all this. Anyways the nature there is another pie to eyes. 

The Kaveri unshackles itself from a narrow stream and extends with all its effort on both sides to show its affection to the land. The water crawls slowly on the black stones. One needs to cross the river with the boat to reach the elephant camp. But you can do it otherwise by walking on the stones lying on the river (risky but fun). My fellow friend insisted on doing rafting there so we changed our dresses and went with one of the groups. The water being so slow, the rafting felt like boating. After going downstream for 1 km we jumped in the river and swam. Swimming in the cold waters of Kaveri with rain drops falling from above- an experience which you can never forget. The other group with us and our guide everyone was fantastic. Without even knowing each other we played in the water, swam to the other shore, competed and made fun of other groups. While returning back, we would have rowed for less than a hundred metre, when I asked the guide “What is the depth of river here?” He replied-“Right now more than 30 feet” . The very next moment he pushed me into the water. I was shocked to the fullest, after a few seconds when I balanced myself, I found him smiling and saying “swim swim..its fun” . Later three other members joined me. We returned back swimming. I drank the water twice. It was bitter because of the diesel engine boats running on the water(Pollution man pollution L ).

                               Link to the Part II

  

A village in deep South

I have this wish of visiting villages of all parts of India since my childhood. I have been to villages of UP, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. Last week I got the opportunity to visit one of the villages in deep south. It was a company trip(field visit) to a village named Naagar in Trichy,Tamil Nadu. One of the best things about company sponsored trips is you can afford all types of luxuries even while going to a village. The purpose of the visit was to study the soil conditions, the cultivation methods used, the kind of technology they are open to and yes to check the feasibility and acceptability of our machines. Although the company expected me to make the visit as an engineering student but I found the sociologist inside me more active (I guess that’s what happens after taking four sociology courses).

As soon as our car entered the village, my eyes started wandering here and there to find something unique or different from the villages of north.  On the first sight everything looked very familiar except the coconut trees. We straight away went to one of the fields where a group of five farmers was taking rest under a mango tree. Yes there are mango trees here also (that’s quite obvious but I was a bit surprised). At that place there were mango and coconut trees side by side, creating an awesome view. We were accompanied by a group who were running a model farmer helpline facility sponsored jointly by IIT Madras and Government of Tamil Nadu. They inspected the fields and talked to the people. We also interviewed some of them.  The people there were so open in accepting technology that sometimes I even doubt myself. They used harvesters, powered rice transplanters and advanced machines for most of the cultivation processes. One of the farmers had bought a rice transplanter worth 6 lakhs(price after subsidy by government). I imagine that if at this moment I was a farmer with all the education I have, I would have never invested this much for a rice transplanter (and like me most of the people in my village).

After an hour or so, the head of the other group introduced us to the farmers. Although he was talking in Tamil but I was still was able to grab something which surprised me. He started by pointing towards us –“ These are the students of IIT Kanpur and are working on a project to give a new design to the present rice transplanter. IIT Kanpur is one of the great IIT’s like the one we have in Chennai.” And I could definitely note a change in their behaviour after he made this statement. But this led to a embarrassing situation because he gave all the importance to us and ignored our guide who was the chief person for this project. But one thing I understood – the IIT name sells, everywhere and before everyone from industrialists to farmers.

I had a short conversation with a guy who knew a bit of English. I asked him about a bell which was ringing after every hour. He told me that it’s a church bell. There was a smile on my face and I said – So there are Christians in this village. He replied ‘yes’. ‘But they are converted you know’, he said after a pause with a different expression on his face.  It was very clear that Hindus there were envious of Christians, as they were in a good economic condition.

After lunch we had another meeting with farmers. This meeting was in a temple. The temple was huge with a bull in front of the main gate. It also had a pond but it was dry. The Mandir was also using the benefits of technology. They had an electric powered system which beated the Tabla and rang the bell simultaneously during the aarti. During the discussion the head of the other group asked the farmers- Do you people have GPRS activated on your cell phones. Five people said yes they have. Then he pointed towards women and asked the same question. None but a 60 year old lady said –Yes I have GPRS activated on my phone. Everyone present there started clapping. After half an hour everyone had GPRS activated in their phones with an app downloaded, which will transfer the pictures directly to a central database. Based on the photographs of the plants which farmers will send, experts will give their suggestions to them by phone. The acceptance of technology amongst people there made me really glad and excited. And that was the major difference I found between that village and the villages I have been to in the north. Hopefully this fever of technology will soon cover entire India!!!

In the lap of Nanda Devi (Part II)

 Part I

Day 5: Start of the trekking-

In the morning next day we went to a temple in Auli and then had our breakfast at GMVN. At around 11 Am we started trekking. We were given rubber shoes to walk on snow and Laxmi got a new yellow coloured trouser. With the shoes, trousers and his party wear shirt he was looking a complete joker. We started trekking in snow and due to the strong reflection of sunlight it was impossible to see anything without sunglasses. On the way our guide told us about various dried out flowers and herbs and the beauty of the valley in summer season. He also narrated an incident where a person lost his eyesight during an expedition when his sunglass got broken and he had to spent 4 days without glasses in snow. We made our camp on a patch of land amidst snow in Gurso Bugyal. The guide used the vacant army camp nearby as the kitchen. We had lunch and took some rest. In the evening we went up the hill on snow to watch sunset. The top gave a wonderful view of the mountains with snow all around. We took many photographs there. I carved out my mother's name on the snow there. After that we slided and rolled down from the top again and again. It was one of the most awesome evenings we spent there. Cold winds started blowing as the sun set and we came back to our tents. We then enjoyed the camp fire with music from my phone, had dinner and slept after a tiring day. Our guide was awesome, we even didn’t have to wash our plates.

Day 6: Holi at 4200 metres-

We woke up at 6am, completed our daily activities and had breakfast. In the breakfast cook by mistake added red chilly sauce instead of tomato sauce in the sandwich making a rare combo. We packed the tents and left around 8am. With heavy bags it was difficult to move, as with more weight the foot sunk deeper in snow. I was in great problems because I was the one who was carrying the entire waste luggage because of the new big trekking bag, which I bought recently. But slowly we kept on moving. As we moved up the view of mountains became good. We took rest after each 20 minutes of climb on a patch of land free from snow. We made zigzag routes following the top. Finally came the steepest of the slope. I wanted to be at the top first so went ahead of the Guide himself and took a wrong direction. The snow was melting on that side and on each step I could sink upto 3 feets in snow. I even slipped four times. Thanks to my hands else I would have gone straight 200 metres below. Finally using all the four hands and legs and crawling like an animal I reached near the guide who was moving up some 25 feet left of me. After 4 hours of continuous trekking we reached the top. We observed a rare phenomenon there- a circular rainbow around the sun. We took some refreshments at the top. From the top I got to view one of the best natural sceneries covering the peaks of Nanda Devi,Trishul range,Kamet, the nearby villages Auli,Tapovan and Dhak.We met some guys from the other IITK group there. After around half an hour of sightseeing and Sravan's Photography we started descending down.

 We thought that going down on snow would be easier. It was for sure but more adventurous and risky. We slided on the slope. At some places slope was to steep and if we had made a mistake we would have landed directly into a valley 1000m below. On this side of the mountain the stretch of snow was less as it faced the sun. Then we moved down on the rocky slope, stopped at one place had lunch and started walking again. By the time the other group had come back and we walked with them to their camp. They offered us some tea. We changed our shoes from the rubber ones to our regular sports shoes which were more comfortable. Seeing us doing this our Guide also changed his shoes. Now we were able to move faster. We passed through some villages, saw the terrace farming of wheat. The plants covered the whole hill slope and the greenery looked awesome. After around a total of 16km of trekking on this day we reached the road near Dhak village. A car was waiting for us which took us to Tapovan,a place of hot streams. We went down there for a bath. The water there was 60 to 70 degree c hot and people were easily bathing in it. With lot of courage we also put our heads in the stream of hot water.The bath removed all our tiredness.From there we came back to Joshimath, bid goodbye to our Guide and went to our room.

Day 7: The Ganga Aarti(Haridwar)-

We took a bus to Haridwar from Joshimath at 6 am. The way back is always boring and we passed the long journey sleeping and listening to music. We reached Haridwar at 4Pm,had some food and went to Har Ki Pauri. There was a huge crowd of devotees, with banks full of people bathing in Ganga. The flow of water there is great. We also took a bath in the cold waters and then went to attend the aarti which had just started. The aarti starts daily at around 6.30 pm and a crowd of more than thousand attend it. At first I saw a great discipline in the crowd. The Pandit was reciting some mantras and the people nearest to the Ghat were sitting and the people at the back were standing according to their heights so that everyone can watch the proceedings. But as soon as the main aarti started this discipline vanished all of a sudden and everyone stood up pushing each other and fighting. Pujari asked everyone to take a pledge for not polluting Ganga and all of them repeated the pledge words after him. But as soon as the aarti ended most of them put flowers and burning diyas in the holy river. And not to mention about bathing as we also did that. Sometimes faith overpowers reason and you can't do anything about it. The smoke of the aartis soon filled the air. One interesting thing I noticed about the Aarti was the way people saw it. Earlier during aartis people clapped and sung it along but now I could see people busy in recording videos and clicking pictures. Almost half of the crowd had some camera in their hands. Its really difficult to differentiate between devotees and tourists of modern India. After the aarti we roamed around in the nearby market and then went to the railway station. Fortunately the train was on time and we returned back.

Photographs by- Sravan Photography

In the lap of Nanda Devi (Part I)

 (A trip to Auli,Joshimath,Tapovan,Gorso Bugyal.Kuari Bugyal,Rishikesh,Haridwar with friends)

Day 1: The Unplanned Journey-

  We made our plan of the trip just few days before with one of the friends coming in just one day back. All four of us gave awesome and creative explanations to our families  for not coming to home on Holi vacations with one of us even not informing them about the trip. We couldn’t get a tatkal reservation so decided to travel by bus, which indeed was a bad decision. We left the campus in the evening around 7Pm, reached the bus stop and took a bus to Bareiley. We were expecting to reach Haridwar by 8Am but of course one should not predict about Indian roadways and Railways. Meeting many traffic jams, accident sites and changing bus two times we reached Haridwar at 12.30Pm next day.

Day 2: The Holy Dip (Rishikesh)-

Reaching Haridwar we had lunch and then took a bus to Rishikesh which is about 25kms from Haridwar. Buses are easily available and we reached Rishikesh in one and half hours. We decided to spent rest of the day in Rishikesh as buses to Joshimath are available only in the morning. After resting for sometime in a relatively cheaper room because of offseason benefits we left for Lakshman Jhula. On the road to main Ghat one could find many shops providing services for Adventure sports like rafting, trekking,wild safari, camping, bungy jumping  and many more.I doubt that once a religious place, Rishikesh has now become a place for adventure sports with adventure shops rising in numbers at least 4 to 5 times then the number of temples there. One more peculiar thing was that you can find more people in rafting boats and on the banks of Ganga in Shivpuri then on the Ghats of Rishikesh near temples. Finally we reached Lakshman Jhula, its a hanging bridge on Ganga, vibrating up and down when people move on it. We spent some time jumping on it, clicking photographs and discussing how resonance can bring it down in the Ganges flowing about 30 metres below. 
We reached the Ghat below after sometime with intentions of taking a bath but touching the ice cold water we almost left the thought. After much of provocations two of us jumped in the waters. It was too cold but relieving. Following us two other foreigners also jumped in. One very strange thing about the Ghats in Rishikesh was that we could only see 2 or 3 Indians there, rest of them were all foreigners.  Sometimes it felt as if we were in a British colony. Some were busy in reciting mantras and hare ram hare krishna. There was a group of 50 foreigners near by singing the tone of Shiv Shiv Shiv Shambhu with the help of Guitars and flutes. It was so sweet to ears that we sat with them. There was a girl painting the Ganges ghat in the sunset .In Rishikesh you can find many foreigners getting inclined to Vedic religion, practising Hindu rituals, reciting mantras and bhajans, some even becoming saints. We returned back with a walk of 7kms passing the Ram Jhula and temples.

Day 3: The dangerous turns-

The next day we woke up at 4 as we had to leave for Joshimath. Private buses are available from Rishikesh till 7 Am and a bus is there from Haridwar at 5.30Am. We took a bus from Rishikesh at 6Am, it was a small bus with not so comfortable seats but we had no other option. The road from Rishikesh to Joshimath is all along the banks of Ganges, providing a wonderful picturesque of mountains and the rivers. Because of the awesome scenery the 250kms distance consuming a time of 10-11 hours doesn’t seem boring at all. On the way there are many towns, some of religious importance like Dev Prayag, Nand Prayag,Rudra Prayag,Karna Prayag and cities like Srinagar and Chamoli. Prayag means confluence of tributaries of Ganga. The road however was a bit damaged and very often one could find boards saying-"आगे रास्ता संकरा है और धंस रहा है | कृपया सावधानीपूर्वक चले ". Many a times I found the tyre of the bus just passed the damaged corner of the road. A small mistake from the driver could have very easily lead to the salvation of the 50 lives onboard in the Holy Alaknanada itself. When we were just 50kms from Joshimath,a suspension of spring of one of the front tyres got broken.Now the driver was driving it at a rate of 15kms/hour and finally we reached Joshimath around 5Pm.
 
On reaching the taxi stand we met some of our seniors who reached there in the morning for vacations. We then talked to some of the people providing services of trekking and camping for a possible trekking activity. All of themrefused considering the heavy snow in the Kuari  pass region saying that it was risky and also Police won't grant permission. However one of them gave the contact details of a guide from Auli and said he may do something for you. Now the most interesting thing- After 2 days, including us 3 groups were doing trekking in Kuari Bugyal region inspite of the fearful warnings from the locals, and the best part-All the three groups were from IIT Kanpur.

Day 4: Lost in the Wild-

As per plans we had to spend next day in Auli which is about 16kms from Joshimath. Instead of taking a taxi we decided to trek through the village and the forest ,with shortcuts distance reduced to about 7 kms. We left for Auli around 7am.While passing the village we had to trek through the stair cases which became a difficult task with heavy load on my back. When the village ended we had two options either take the road to Auli or go in the forest through some more short cut routes. Locals suggested not to go in Jungle because we might get lost, but we did. It was great fun with splendid greenery and birds chirping all around. The fun turned to excitement soon when we saw the snow and then to adventure and then to terror when we realized that we have lost the track and we were just wandering here and there.
 Out of fear we put our cameras in bags and started applying all our brains to get the right directions. We had just 1 packet of biscuit and 200 ml of water left. We decided to reach the top of the snow clad hill as from there we would be able to easily see Auli and then proceed. But the hills are decisive, as we moved up we could see some other hill tops to reach. In the snow it was difficult to climb up so we left the hope and started descending right. Coming down in snow was again risky and we slipped many times. After 3 hours of wandering in forest with no food and water we finally found a one ended road which lead to the main road.

After reaching Auli we took a room, had some food and left for skiing. There is a chair lift available from GMVN hotel to the ski resort. It’s a bit costly but the experience is worth the money invested. The ski resort has an international ski slope of 1.5 kms with all the modern facilities.SAIF winter games were held this year in Auli.We were given some heavy shoes and practised walking with them without support. It took us some time to learn the balancing on snow but it was great fun later. We fell many times in the process. We forgot to bring our gloves and our hands got frozen. I also had a sweet little snow fight with a kid there. From there one can get an awesome view of Nanda devi and other peaks covered in snow. After 3 hours of skiing we were tired and decided to come back. In the evening we contacted the guide, gave him some advance money and fixed our trekking tour.


Part II

Photographs by- Sravan Photography

Gift..... (a short story)

 In English script--

School ki ghanti bajte hi Rahul ghar ki taraf bhaga. Vo aaj subah pahli class ke baad se hi bahut jyada khush tha, aur ho bhi kyo na , pahli bar maths me uske 50 me 50 marks aaye the.  Uski isi khushi ki vajah se aaj class ki sari ladkiyo ko pata chal gaya ki uska aage ka daat tut gaya hai. Halanki ek nanha sa daat us jagah ko bharne ke liye nikal pada tha, par khidki to khidki hoti hai, ab vo aadhi khuli ho ya poori.  Aaj use ghar jane ki itni jaldi thi ki vo school ke gate pr milne wali apni pasandida imli ki khatti mithi goliyaa lena bhi bhool gaya. Use ghar pahuch kar maa aur daadi ko apne naye record ki khabar sunani thi bas.  Rahul ka ghar school ke pas hi tha aur vo 5 minute me ghar pahuch gaya. Uske baal uljhe hue, daudne ki vajah se chehre par pasina tha, thak jane ki vajah se use saans lene me thodi mushkil jarur ho rahi thi par uski muskan me koi kami nhi ayi thi. Uska coat uske haath me tha , tie shirt ki pocket se bahar latak rahi thi, usne roj ki tarah ek haath gate ke andar ghusaya  aur ek chalaak chor ki tarah asani se  gate khol liya. Rahul apne muumy papa aur daadi ke sath ek kiraye ke ghar me rahta tha. Vh ghar chaalis saal purana tha. Us ghar me unke sath hi ek aur kirayedar rahte the. Dono ke pas do do kamre the jinke bich me ek  patli si gallery thi. Un charo kamro ke samne ek chota sa aangan tha, jisme dopahar ke samay thodi dhoop aa jaya karti thi. Rahul jese hi andar ghusa, usne  aangan ke kone me kursiyo pr baithi apni maa Sudha aur dadi ko dekha. Vo  dono sardiyo me khali vaqt me vaha baith kr dhoop sekti thi.  In dono saas bahuvo ka pyaar puri colony ke liye misaal tha.  Sudha ka vyavhar sab k sath hi accha tha, ghar me aane jane wale mehmano se lekr , naukar chakar tak sab hi Sudha ke polite nature se impressed the.  Chahe dudh wale bhaiya ho, ya sabji wale, ya fir jamadar sabhi ko Sudha ne apna bhai bana rakha tha. Aisi padhi likhi sabhya shushil, khule vicharo wali mahila is jamane me durlabh hi thi.

Khair apni maa aur dadi ko dekh kr Rahul jor se chillaya-“Mummy I got 50 out of 50 in Maths”, aur teji se unki god me ja chhupne ke liye dauda. Jaldbaji me usne bich me rakhi hui thaali pr dhyan nhi diya aur jor se thokar mar di. Thaali me rakhi hui pital ki katori uchal kar samne ki deewar se ja ladi aur khan khan ki awaj karte hue, aangan ke duri or bani naali me pahuch gayi.  Us naali me dono bathrooms ka pani jata tha. Katori ko nali me jata dekh, Rahul bich me hi ruk gaya. Shyad use aage hone wali chijo ka andaja ho gaya tha. Sudha ne Rahul ko naali se katori uthane ka ishara kiya. Agar aur koi din hota to shayad is laparvahi ke liye pitai bhi ho jati, par aaj Rahul itne acche marks laya tha isiliye shayd Sudha ne kuch kaha nahi. Rahul chup chap apne kamre me gaya aur apna bag aur coat rakh kea a gaya. Usne katori uthayi aur sabun se dhoya. Fir Sudha ne us katori ko deewar ke upar alag rakh diya. Rahul ko sardiyo me fir se nahan pad gaya. 

Do din bit gaye, vo katori vahi diwar par rakhi rahi. Fir us din colony me safai karne wala jamadar Kamal paise lene ke liye aaya. Kamal bhi Sudha ko didi hi kehta tha. Sudha ne kamal ko mahine ke 100 rupaye aur kuch bachi hui mithai de di. Kamal paise lekar muda hi tha ki Sudha ko kuch yad aa gaya. Usne kamal ko roka aur kaha- “Are kamal maine tumhe tumhara gift to diya hi nhi. Sudha ne deewar pe rakhi katori uthai aur Kamal ko de di. Peetal ki badi si katori ko haatho me dekh kr Kamal ki aankho me chamak aa gayi, pr agle hi pal vah kuch soch ke chauk sa gaya.  Usne badi vinamrata se Sudha se kaha – “Didi ye katori naali me gir gayi thin na, tabhi aap mujhe de rahi ho…Khair ab mai isme kheer to khaunga hi aapne itne pyar se jo ye gift diya hai…”. Itna kah kr Kamal namaste kr chal diya. Sudha Kamal ke shabdo ki chot se stabdh si rah gayi.

For Hindi script please go to-  https://www.facebook.com/notes/shashank-shekhar/gifta-short-story/416910848377858

Should the tribals be left alone…???

A question which keeps on pondering  various Governments, social workers, policy makers, academicians  and yes sometimes the common people too.  The question may seem to be simple, but the answers to it are not. Infact no Government policy throughout the world has been able to satisfactorily deal with this issue. 

I was confronted with this question for the first time in my first year, while taking a course on Indian Society & Culture. Since then it regularly keeps on popping up somewhere or the other. Recently in the last month during Antaragni, one of the participant colleges presented a street play on the case of Jarawa tribe of Andman & Nicobar, posing the same question again. This however is a good indication that more and more people specially youth are connecting themselves to discussions on such critical issues.

Tribals are the small or large (sometimes) groups of people living in isolation from the main world in forests, having a distinct culture, language, life style and religion. They generally depend on the natural resources present around them, feed themselves from the forest produce and largely practice shifting cultivation type of agriculture. In India there are 689 Scheduled Tribes, having a population of 67.8 million people, consisting of 8.08 percent of India’s total population. Since the invasion of foreigners tribal people have not been in a good state. British with their Criminal Tribes Act  1871 threatened many tribal people by imposing restrictions on their activities. After independence, the Nehru government thought for the betterment of the tribes. It laid down the foundation for the policies to bring Scheduled Tribes into the mainstream of society through a multi-pronged approach for their all-round development without disturbing their distinct culture. Nehru laid down five principles known as Panchsheel for the betterment of tribals. According to him tribals should be given rights in land and forest, their administration should have minimum outside interference, their social and cultural institutions should not be disturbed and they should be left to develop themselves on their own genius. 

The Nehru’s decision to bring the tribals in the main stream (although slowly) has been a matter of considerable debate and has been criticized by many sociologists. Nehru’s prescriptions may have sought some positive results but they have been comprehensively ignored by the Central as well as the State Governments. All the rights given to them have been significantly denied specially the right of possession of land and forest. They are forced to migrate to other places for construction of dams, roads, natural parks, digging of mines and construction of large scale industries. They are provided with settlements to live in which are badly constructed and poorly organized. Now think of people who have lived with nature, wandering from here to there, collecting food are forced to live in boundaries. Although buying of lands from tribals is not allowed, but the corrupt Governments help Corporates to acquire large areas for setting up industries, disturbing the tribal way of life greatly. They have been entitled for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan but the position of schools in such areas is very bad. The primary health and medical services are also suffering. And talking about administration, there has been no such significant effort by the Government to bring them in the system. In short we can say that the Governments and the Corporates are both exploiting the tribals a lot. There are also regular cases of exploitation of tribals in tourist areas by Indian as well as foreign tourists. The police and the army are also no less involved in it. As some recent studies have shown that the tribals of India have gained least and lost most from six decades of Indian independence. Because of such an attitude from Government, many tribal communities have been misled by various missionaries and activist groups like Naxals.

We are forcing them to a lifestyle which is completely different from theirs. We show them the modern ways of living and leave them to survive by themselves. We do not provide them sufficient help and support to adjust and grow. Most of the times, these people on assimilation go into some cultural shock. There have been cases where these people because of unemployment and failures, lose their self respect and end up in activities like begging. On contact with the external world they also develop diseases to which they are not immune.

On the other hand there is one more perspective. These tribes often face famines and epidemics. This was one of the reasons to bring them in the main stream. Also most of the natural reserves of national importance like coal, iron and other minerals are present in the areas which are occupied by the tribal population. So for the growth and development of nation it is important to harness them. Also construction of roads and dams because of similar reasons is necessary. But for it, tribal people will suffer no matter how many incentives we create, because natural home is home and it takes quite a long time to adjust and assimilate. The best way is to aim for development without changing the culture, tradition and life style of tribals but its not that easy.

So the question is still there- Should the 8% population be disturbed for the benefit of rest 92% OR Should they be left alone..??