Autumn

                     To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring. – George Santayana

 

“AUTUMN”

Years ago, a tiny blue seed was sown by seeking hands, in white soil. Slowly, with all its inner thirst to bring out its might, a tender sapling peeks out. Then the leaves appear. Amidst those who are unaware of its presence, it quickly grows in to a tree. Watered by the passing clouds, it flourishes under an everlasting sunshine. Fortunate to have seen rainfall and spring, now befalls autumn. No flowers, no fruits, just few hanging leaves. But the white soil is not white anymore! Around the place it has grown lie numerous colorful fallen leaves. The roots are still digging deeper preparing for the lot many seasons to come.

sneha

 For those who have not already guessed, the tree represents ivil. Rest of the analogies; fallen leaves, passing clouds, sunshine etc., are left to the free mind of the reader. Thank you.

 

Bird’s Eye View

On the last weekend, I went to the Natham, the village where ivil, a community IIT, which has a relationship with that village for helping its growth. Sneha, Manisha and Hemanth accompanied me thankfully, so I could depart IIT toward the village with great expectation. After 2 hours, we arrived at the village. My first image of the village was an ‘ox’ plowing the huge field. A little while, I felt like I was in the past in the 1970s. It was because of oxen that walked majestically in the middle of the road as if they were the owners of every road of the village. It also another reason of the feeling that the game that every kid of village played which is surprisingly similar to Korean traditional game. Houses made by banana leaves and calm but active atmosphere of the village kept my eyes upon to the village. Frankly speaking, village Natham was much less developed than I anticipated. I went to some part of the village on afternoon time with Sneha and Hemanth. While we took the Natham tour, I yelled ‘wow’ again and again without pausing for breath. Friends taught me that I shouldn’t yell loudly in case the natives of the village feel bad. I was very sorry for villagers just after I heard that. I gave my word to keep paying attention to my attitude. We also went to the area separated from the main village. The place looked more poor and energyless. Though these days Indian law prohibits discrimination between different casts, they still lived apart from each other except kids who had no prejudice yet. I thought that maybe slower pace of change compared to urban city was one of the reasons of continuing old custom. Lastly, we went to lake and snake temple nearby the village with kids. There was nothing special, but it was so romantic and peaceful. On the way back to IIT, Sneha told me that she wanted the village Natham to become a place which had equal-opportunity to everybody like any urban city, such as education that anybody can get when they want. Additionally, she don’t want the village to become an urban city like Chennai. I think other ivil members’ thought would be similar to Sneha’s opinion. Because you want the village to be self-sustainable:) To achieve our goal, in my opinion, the most important thing is raise their profit up to sustainable level. In that way, young people in the village won’t depart their hometown. In case of Korea (that is my country:), there are no more youth left in rural area. There’re no more kid, of course there’s no more future. And this situation is now leading to disaster. Main reason is because of too much concentration in an urban city, especially because of job. Fortunately, in Natham, lots of families who have various generations live. What we have to do is make their rural life sustainable so we can keep them from leaving to city. I don’t know the state of india, but maybe we can lobby to government to guarantee the reasonable rice price by any movement like campaign, persuade and help villagers to farm more profitable plants such as organic plants, find a way of direct transaction which reduces costs of selling by making some internet homepage they can connect to consumers in the village in person and etc. At the same time, it is important to stabilize their economic life as well as to make effort for awareness of people about humanities – right for women, kids and lower casts. Without this, unbalanced development would make the community sad. We also can take efforts for them in many ways. We can provide appropriate education especially for the weak or make some events to mingle with each other in village and understanding each other. Since I’m a foreigner, I don’t know well about India and I’m really afraid of numerous possible mistakes I would have made in this post. Please forgive me if I misunderstood something:) I just wrote my raw impression and thoughts of the first visit to the village. Thank you for reading my poor poor story and especially thanks to Revathy & Laavanya who introduced to me this precious community, Sneha & Manisa & Hemanth who accompanied me to the village and lastly the Natham’s kids who must have suffered from playing with me all day long:) Bye!

Ari

 

My first visit to Natham village

Hello Readers,

I feel honoured to share my experience with you through this post.It has been few years since i involved myself in such service activity. I was eagerly looking forward to participate in this initiative of knowledge sharing with the needy.

Natham represented the core essence of a village. I recalled Gandhiji’s quote , “India lives in its villages”,when i landed there.It was still a pleasant morning.Myself and couple of young service minded enthusiasts walked towards the village bathing in the hot sun enjoying the cool breeze from nearby paddy fields at the same time.Pink lotus flowers welcomed us from the lake’s surface,they are the daffodils of Natham village indeed.

I interacted with rural students for the first time in my life. I told myself they lack only access to resources and nothing else. It was a good experience to discuss with them on the programming language concepts. They reflected lots of determination and enthusiasm.

I came back after the session, carrying lots of pleasant memories, the way they expressed their sincere gratitude for helping them out.

Thank you readers for your patience. Comments and criticisms most welcome:-). I hope to improve my future posts through that.

Thanks,

Swarnalakshmi, Student, DOMS, IIT Madras.

 

Flutter…

The dust settled as the wheels of the car rolled to a halt. The rays of the early
morning sun graced us and enveloped the entire surroundings in a haze of orange. The paddy fields stretched to eternity and the dew on the leaves reflected the tenderness of the dawn and the whole field sparkled in multitudinous colours. The scent of the blossoms tingled our memories of the old times until they erupted into nostalgia of an unspent childhood in this serene environment. The day in the village had begun quite early. The
rising sun symbolized the swelling spirits of the people who had now begun to come out of their small huts of mud and thatch.
I felt a tug at the back and looked around to see a young girl dressed in brilliant shades of black and yellow. I guessed she must be around ten years old. She looked at me with expectant eyes that could melt even the toughest of hearts.
“What’s your name dear?” , I asked her in Tamil. A tender smile crossed her lips.
“Rupini”, she replied coyly, her eyes half closed and now totally leaning on to my left. Her sweet voice filled my heart with glee as she involuntarily assumed the role of a younger sibling I never had.
“What does your father do? Is he a farmer too?” I asked.
“He is dead. I have never seen him but for the pictures I have of him.” she replied.
The words hit me like a massive wave that hits the shores of the ocean. Her face hadn’t changed one little bit. She was smiling the same way but beneath this cheerful exterior there was a tinge of disappointment, an emotion of a childhood devoid of fatherly care and guidance.
She pulled me now towards a serpentine row of huts which seemed to
progressively die down into the lake at the farther end. We walked on the muddy road bound by huts on both sides until we came up to one which was similar to the rest if you didn’t notice carefully. This one was beautifully adorned by drawings on the outer walls, coloured by the yellow of the turmeric paste and the shades of crimson of the vermillion.
It didn’t take me much time to realize who had given life to the various animals that lay sketched on the wall. She beckoned me inside and I entered. I was greeted by her mother. Her face seemed to reflect the hardships she had endured over the years to bring up her daughter all by herself.
It took my eyes a couple of minutes to adjust to the dim interior. I was seated on a beautifully woven mat of jute. Around me in this little place, things were surprisingly well maintained.
“What do you do for a living?” I asked the mother.
“I work at a construction site nearby”, she replied.
“Would you be willing to learn to stitch if the other women of the village are
willing too?” I asked her.
“I am ready to do anything for my daughter.” she replied with steely
determination.
“Anna!” , Rupini called out affectionately, “would you like to read my poems?”
She brought a small book bordered by beautiful flowy lines that had each of the letters of her name written in the petals of a flower she had drawn. As she read the poems out aloud for me, I was lost in thought as I had been exposed to a completely new world and life, one that I wouldn’t have ever thought of in the comfort of my house in the city. I was drawn back to reality by her sweet voice and the excellent poems she had written.
“I must leave now”, I said, heading towards the door. I thanked her mother for her hospitality and came out ducking carefully under the low doorway.
“When will you come back again?” , she asked innocently.
“Very soon, dear… very soon.” , I promised.
As I stepped on to the street, I was met by a tide of exuberant kids who had
gleaming smiles and excited faces, all equally enthusiastic on my presence there. As I was drowned in the crowd of the sweet kids, a realization dawned on me. It shone like brilliance in my mind giving me a glimpse of the Herculean task that lay ahead of me.
There was not one but many such Rupinis, in this motley group of kids, the world was yet to witness. An insignificant quanta of time in our mundane lives could transform their lives and their dreams. The only thing missing was the care and attention and a platform for them to propel themselves towards a better future. I knew this was not a task I alone could carry on. My mind called out to the dormant world to respond.
As the noise around me grew louder, I just smiled to hold back the drop of tear which stood sparkling at the corner of my eye.

Rag

p.s. originally for http://www.go-nxg.com/?p=4620

 

My first trip to Natham

Though this was not my first trip to a village, but I had a child-like
eagerness to go to Natham. I hail from Delhi and my grandfather
belonged to a village near Meerut. So I have seen fair bit village
life and attended a few family functions also.

But I was still very anxious to go to Natham; in order to experience
village of a land far far way from my homeland. And to be honest, I
was pleasantly surprised to see how much progressive this village real
was compared to my expectations.

I saw big farm machineries, schools buildings, saw many bikes (even
saw one Maruti 800) and brick-cemented houses with electricity supply.
As I mentioned this was much more than my expectations.

I had a notion in my mind that any help provided by the IIT students
will be accepted by open arms by the villagers. I quickly realized
this was not true. IIT students will have to come up with more
innovative ways to give help or to use better words, empower them.

If you have heard of “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”, it states that
every human being has a set of needs.
In order of priority, they are (going from lowest priority to
highest):
1. Physiological needs
2. Safety needs
3. Love/Belonging needs
4. Esteem needs
5. Self-actualization needs

So, if I were to apply this model on people of Natham, then most of
them (not all) had already achieved the first two i.e. Physiological
and Safety needs.

Thus I-Vil has to come up with special programs to empower people of
Natham and their future generations. And IKC is a significant step in
that direction. Here, I must congratulate all the existing and past
members of I-Vil for putting in such a great effort.

When I said most of and not all the people of Natham were doing well,
I meant the ill-effects of caste system on the Indian society. I do
not necessarily believe that caste system itself is bad thing, but in
this day and age discrimination on the basis of it, certainly is.
Leaving aside everything, the fact that some people were ostracized
from the society, was very painful to see.

I think this trip was a very good idea and was a complete success.
Nothing can be better than your own first hand experience. All and all
it was very enjoyable trip with a lot of learning in it.

Now I have a better understanding of the wants and desires of
villagers and therefore, may be in a better position to come up with
ideas to help them.

–
Arjun

 

As Clear as it Gets

What makes me write this post is the utter need (or desire) of clarity in the actions we take. Thanks to last school team meeting, in which the need was expressed – i think the first time, it always existed though.

Earlier, we did have certain explicit things or sort of a vision to talk about.Which was – “going to urban schools is different from going to a rural school, we go there to sensitize them towards the society, towards the rural India – the issues, problems etc, to make the students (the bright open minds) feel, think and then take positive steps towards the betterment of society”. Sounds acceptable, and clear enough. But there exist acceptable questions too – do we show them a certain path? if yes.. what can that be? if no – why not? Our thoughts for the event or session we have with them – where do they begin and end? Whole objective of “them doing something in their lives” – what (if at all we do) and how much we can tell about that “something” to them.. as in this is what you should do. This shakes my mind and throws it towards the bigger and more fundamental question of what exactly should happen to make the situation better for the society which is very clearly and obscenely bad. We need not have answer for that, today – but there is a need of and no harm in thinking and finding out the answer.If we get the “exact” answer – then certainly i think we should be telling each and everybody (even the school students) that this is the path one should take for the betterment.

In reality, any task (like eradication of poverty, increasing literacy rate, improving agriculture productivity etc) is a cumulative result of series of events and actions. Out of which , we might have exact answers for a “few”. For example – all the above at least need a realization of importance of basic education. So, making people realize it and providing basic education is universally a “part” of the full solution to the problem. But we may not be clear with the full process.

Now, coming back to the school students. What can we actually tell them? Following possibilities exist:

• Show them one of the directions.
• Project all the possible directions.
• Show them a clear PICTURE of the issues and problems around us, with all the good and bad of it.
• Do not say anything – just sensitize them and let them think.

I am for the third one. But do we have a clear picture? I think to a certain extent, we have and with a little of brainstorming, we all can be very clear. Let me draw whatever bits and random pieces i have:

• there is a need to think openly – we should realize the inappropriateness of accepting the existing beliefs and manners of actions (and behavior) in the society as it is.
• corruption should be removed – how can that happen? by having good government – that will happen when good people involve themselves in politics (contesting as well as voting)
• there exists a notion(globally) that politics is bad but apparently there are good people who want to enter into politics – they dont.. we know y.. because invariably it becomes a life threat – to enter into politics and do good things – it happens again because of the bad system, bad government – its a cycle – and if the number of good people entering into the system keeps increasing – it will all go in the long run.If all the input is pure there is negligible probability of the outputs going bad. Its ok not to be a part of the system technically… but in reality we are all part of it, as public. What should be done (which is not very difficult) by public – active participation in election, critical review of the work the government does, realizing that the bad government is also “our” responsibility, we created it.
• Totally out of the system, there are people who work for the betterment. Some try to stop the bad things done by the system (social activists, protests, demands etc), some try to do good things what the system is not able to do (or is not doing). IViL as a group fits in for the Later One ! But ya.. individually we all might be for anything else ..
• Education should not mean – imparting knowledge, but it should play a key role in creating values in all of us – which actually defines our character – which is THE criteria for judging one’s “goodness”. (do not know how appropriate it is to talk about in a school, still.. )
• As an individual, one contributes “very significantly” to the society by just being himself./herself and doing smallest of the things. The contribution for the betterment is implicit in all the professions (if we do it right). Therefore, socially there is a need for all the professions – as they all make a society and also let it grow.
• We should realize the fact that, in India we all are going through a major phase shift. We, the young generation today, is way away from our parents and grand parents in terms of “thinking”, “knowledge”,”behavior” ,”values” etc. Most of the ideological clashes today, happen due to this shift. The gap between the traditional and non-traditional beliefs. As there exists a significant number of people from both sides – the issue grows to an intolerable level. 20 years down the line, automatically this issue will die down as one number will dominate.
• Following the herd should stop – doing what has been happening and what others have been doing !! And it is enormous. Not doing anything is also because of the same notion that – because NOBODY DOES
• What remains as the whole objective of humanity – is the elimination of suffering . Poverty, in India, is “the” most important element of suffering.
• Whatever we have been doing so far in something like IViL, was a little but positive step in elimination of suffering (of one kind or the other).
• Education along with the kind of environment it is provided in , gives us a platform to have a bigger picture, to think and to analyze. Therefore, it remains one of the most important thing to be considered for the so called betterment.
• There is a very high need for growth in Rural India (economical) – and there are different ways to achieve (education being one of the part of one of the process to achieve it). Some have been put on paper for implementation, some are yet to be discovered. We can contribute directly in both. Again IViL fits in somewhere there.

If i keep on writing, it will keep going on and on.. and the reader will increasingly start getting confused (even me)

The later half of this mail is nothing new to us, we all have realized it. But if we are convinced and confident about it – i.e. Yes ! that is what it is.. speaking this to the students or anybody for that matter, will only remove their confusions, prejudices, fears etc. That is what is required for them to be able to take a good decision.

I need to stop.. but do feel a need to have a discussion on this – arguments, counter arguments so that we all can be more clear (including me).

Thanks

Vikas

(comments/discussion are Mandatory )

 

Glimpses of hope…….

The panoramic view of the sprawling paddy fields…..the majestic presence of that old banyan tree….the acrid stench of cowdung in the streets…the small kovil housing the village deity-stone gods smeared in coloured kumkum powder…the houses that grow in size and form when one starts travelling away from the thatched mud houses in the harijan colony….the apprehensive eyes ,peering from the dark,intimate corners of those mud houses…the tintinnabulations of the glass bangles ,suddenly reduced to a softspoken secret……These images from Natham are closely knit with the life of an IViLian today….

We could see hordes of excited children running towards our van,ignoring the sheets of dust raised by the churning wheels of the vehicle.It was indeed their means of red carpet welcome. Soon a little girl came and clung onto my fingers,with long bred familiarity.I was seeing her for the first time.

“whats your name?”

“Maithili…”I could see rivulets of innocence in her eyes.

Oh..Maithili,the princess of Mithila….the devoted wife of Lord Rama…the embodiment of Indian’s womanly virtues…

“Akka….”suddenly she broke my string of thoughts.

“Akka,how is this dress?”

she wore a dress,which had faded green flowers in black.

“Its really nice,Maithili.”(romba nallarikku…..thanks to the little tamil I picked up)

She smiled innocently,with her gums,wide open….

We were soon joined by another enthusiastic lot….Badrinath,Balaji,Janakiraman…..

“Akka,did u watch our photographs which were taken last time?”I could see Balaji glow with pride.

May be …this pursuit of innocent smiles can explain the unfathomable chemistry between Natham and IViL.The dream of IKC ,which was once conceptualised in the minds of IVilians is soon going to become a perceptible reality.Looking foward to that great day..with anticipation and prayers……

ARDRA  MANASI

 

March Continues…

(apologies if the picture seems a repetition to some people )

The post actually is a sequel, though nothing much and new to say, to one of the past post on IKC.

It is quite a long time since the inception of the idea – the IKC. But how weightless the long less fruitfull time looks when we actually find ourselves amidst the medley of IKC tunes, the IKC month. Actually, in the world of billions of people and millions of events … this small center will serve just a small community. But considering humanity as a whole , this small step will certainly be up the ladder towards growth of the mankind, its welfare and happiness. The growth very well spans over all of us too, the creators or to be modest… the helpers of the project. It will be a landmark in all of our lives – and will create an unbreakable foundation inside us over which we all will build stories of transformation in future. Let us keep moving, slowly, overtly towards the day of the ineffable joy.

KUDOS for the IKC team..

________

Vikas

 

Three face…

IViL 2007-08: A Review…

Last year was an eventful year and it wouldn’t be a waste of time to look back and draw some conclusions and learn a bit…

What ever I write is usually biased, at least my team-mates feel so. I have tried my best to stay neutral this time! Following here is IViL in the opinion, on the major issues, of three different people – a member, a critic and an outsider.

MEMBER

Overall – IViL has by far had the best year (esp. Jan – Apr, 2008 ) after it was started. There have been exceptional contributions from its members. Be it from the older members like Satheesh or the newly joined Swathi, everyone has done their bit to take things forward. Great progress has also been made in understanding each others’ interests. Many people who have joined IViL are quite content with the way things are going on. Among the newer members I would like to mention the commendable efforts Swapnil, Mrudula, Anusha, Alok, Swathi, Latha… and the list goes on.

Projects – Innumerable projects have been discussed and a good number of them have been taken up for implementation. Few of the unfinished and deserted tasks have also been resumed. For the first time IViL in the form of the RuTAG team has got some people to take up RuTAG projects during the summer. Participation in GENESIS was also a great effort. IGNITED MINDS was also conducted in a couple of schools, this is something special for the initiator (myself). Other events of special importance include the cycle donation programme, Saarang stall (it made the highest profit ever), students visit to IIT etc. The Documentation Team also came up with some decent work. The College team has approached few colleges and have been successful in attracting few people from varied academic backgrounds.

Team – The team has moulded itself into a very effective one. The efficiency has improved enormously and the team members have found their interests and have taken the responsibility for taking the group forward. There are plans for formalising the structure within the group which would help in increasing the ‘efficiency’ of the group. The hunt for new members has always been on. Things just didn’t stop there…

CRITIC

Overall – The team hasn’t left much space here for my comments with their contirubtions. But I do have a few points to make. If the time frame is closely looked at, IViL has produced most of its work in between Jan 5 and Feb 10, 2008. I don’t think is a healthy sign. The activities should be more evenly distributed across the year. Though lots of new members have found their way into the group, few of them were also lost. The team should keep track of such members.

Projects – Though a good number of projects have been started, we don’t seem to have great confidence in our own ventures. Every meeting turned out to be a new starting point and there was a massive restructuring of our plans. Every new experience should just be made an add-on but it shouldn’t move the very foundations of our plans. This point strongly holds good in the case of GENESIS also. Nothing was at stake for the competition, I dont think it was justified to give it so much importance. The worst part was the team abandoning the idea of IKC. The cycle donation activity and the Saarang stall were good projects but they are not the ones we should be giving prime importance to them. The Documentation Team took off really well but the enthusiasm couldn’t be sustained for long. The College Team should plan their moves carefully as we ourselves are not very sure of the future activites.

Team – The team has sometimes failed to value minority opinions. The line of thought of the team shouldn’t be one sided and we should be open to all sorts of opinions. The team also suffered from lack of creativity at times… something has to done immediately to overcome this! Team members taking responsibilities is always a good sign but they should take care that they don’t make decisions for the other members. I have always gone against the structure and I will stand by my opinion. I feel it is not in the best interest of the group. So many new members are being taken in and I am not sure about how prepared we are to take them into the group.

OUTSIDER

Overall – IViL has always been a dormant group. I dont believe much change can be brought about regarding its public face. The group should be more content with their achievements and the others will follow. It is really impressive to see the progress it has made from the almost ‘dead’ stage. New people should come in and take the legacy forward. It is not only time for progress, it should also bring in change.

Projects – The list of projects is great and they also far-reaching. But being in a technical institute the group should be looking more at the technical aspects of rural problems. Saarang and cycle donation are definitely an achievement but there is always something more that is expected from us. We should live up to those expectations. GENESIS…?? How is it related to IViL? It is true that they can’t be put together but it is one more step closer to implementation of the Spirulina plan. We should have gone ahead with the IKC plan, how justified is it to believe that it is not feasible when we actually want to implement it at any cost. The other activities definitely ask for an appreciation… just keep doing them!

Team – The structure is definitely a good move and will help in the longer run. With so many people passing out of group, it becomes a responsibility of the younger members to take things forward. More and more new members should be pulled into the group and the range of activities can also be expanded.

All the best

praveen

 

Resuming work…

Things initiated… things accomplished… both far far away…

WELCOME BACK…

I keep telling and I wish most of you followed… the least thing you should be doing during in holidays is to enjoy, anything more than that is just great…

I really pity those who were deeply involved in projects and lost track of meal timings and more importantly the very fact that they were on a vacation and not many would dare to disagree that the whole of the “younger blood” of the IViL team has done something of this sort during this summer. Back in the insti, I hope you will have a better rest time during the first few days of the semester…

As for the better news – our SIR is almost done with his PhD… congrats to the big man!! Vikas is on his way back to India, he has had a great time (in every sense) in Germany…

Rainy weather, cool climate – a great beginning for the semester…

I always wish I played a role better than being a CARPER but you people just never seem to give me a chance!!

ALL THE BEST

–buddi