Shodh Yatra : In Search of Grassroot Innovation



 



Before we begin, have a look at the link -  http://www.sristi.org/cms/shodh_yatra1 

 

I hope you enjoy the read and want to experience it for yourself the next time.  

 

 

It is the first morning at Wardha. The freshness in the air energizes the soul. I smell the summer mangoes, watch cuckoo birds taking their flights, butterflies entering the room. Whooaaa !! What a start !! Here I am with fellow Yatri, Mr. Ramkrishna, Founder - http://www.ruralcall.in/index.php

 

At the place where Bapuji walked for his morning prayers. When Bapuji arrived at Wardha, the area was completely infested with snakes and wild animals. But he never killed one, instead he kept them in cages and later left them in wild. I sat in a corner, where he used to work inside the ashram. The place spoke to me. I could sense the 'naked fakir', the 'mahatma' speaking to me. A must visit - Sevagram Ashram, Wardha. 



Interacting with Sister Nirmala, constant companion of Vinobha Bhave at the Bhudan Movement. She and her colleagues covered 25,000 km on bare feet in the 1950s. She spoke of love and compassion, how it could change the world. The real India is not in cities but here in the villages that you would pass through. Touch India naked, feel its soul in its soil. We are old now. We can't walk now. But its upto you to spread the message. May god bless your journey.

Felicitating villagers for their little achievements - an idea to improve village conditions, a unique flavored pickle offered to taste, sharing knowledge of curing a particular illness through the herbal way etc.

Displaying the villagers about the existing innovation they could implement in their own fields. Here is the cycle which when pedaled, makes the piston work and brings the sprinkler in action. Cycle chalao aur paani chidko !!

This photo constantly reminds of the Vidharba region. Black soil, few wild plants here and there. People majorly grow cotton, wheat in these regions.

From the left - A sugarcane eye cutting machine which helps farmers to reduce wastage, a hand pump tweak which helps to store water, a pressure cooker whose steam you can use to create froth in coffee, a pedal pump to remove water in water-logged areas. By the way, this place is Shanti Bhavan, the world's first peace conference was held here.

Gaurav Meena with the inventor of Jabbargears. You can ride your rickshaw uphill easily with the invention.Watch him speak at   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADCgLvrjXWo

Me and Gaurav holding the Shodh Yatra banner.

The Yatra resumes after a halt at Vinobha Bhave's samadhi

The open road, scorching heat & wind, 20km walk on the first day. The interesting conversations & chats among yatris beats the fatigue out of you. I met entrepreneurs, free-lancers, brilliant engineering students, business consultants, corporate guys, farmers, professors. It is such a delight to be in their company. An interesting mix of people, belonging to every strata of society is amazing !!

Don't ask about food and sleep. You eat as if its a feast and sleep like a baby, under the open sky, wherever you get a little space. I can never forget the night sky, twinkling with million of stars, with thousands of thoughts running inside your little brain. The villagers welcomed us with great food --- rice, roti, spicy daal, baingan (brinjal), dahi-kadi etc

Here you see. Prof. Anil Gupta talking to villagers. He is so energetic, constantly keeps interacting with villagers,suddenly stops on the road, enters a school and plays with kids. What an amazing personality. He furiously takes notes when a villagers speaks of an invention, of an idea, clicks photos on his phone and instructs the team to document it immediately.

The guy you see in the pic is of  an retired Indian soldier. He kept entertaining us through his stories and antics. Back home in Bihar, he owns an orchard where he grew a variety of flower and plant. Its a must watch for every farmer he says. Here we are crossing a field, early morning. The water to irrigate the soil is sparkling in sun. 

At a village school. What impressed me was the way, the classroom helped in learning . Look at the hanging stuff --- they are lessons from their textbooks which are depicted pictorially. It makes a student learn easily and moreover it hangs over your head all the time. When I took this pic in noon, we were singing J.P.Narayan's song, which he used to motivate and energize people in large gatherings.

Again at a village, addressing a gathering, Making them understand the purpose of our visit. What is Shodh Yatra? How is traditional knowledge important? How could knowledge be shared? Identifying the small changes in the village, interacting with kids and youth of village. It is about communicating and gathering, sharing knowledge within that hiatus at a particular village. It's a challenging and demanding job to extract a lot of information in a limited period of time. But Yatris, I believe did their job really nicely !!

At a village's panchayat office, under the huge banyan tree, listening to forgotten instruments being played. Those huge brown things are made up of goat-skin and have been played since ages.

One of my favorite pics. Mr. Vijaj Rajkumar at the centre, takes a nice nap. With a MSW degree, he has worked with various NGOs, helping them assess their performance. One of his first jobs was with a group of hijras. I had a lot of interesting conversations with him. The afternoon siesta was a must. Gaurav near the roots of the giant tree, makes him look like a black bear in hunt of honey.

This old lady has hit a century in terms of her age. Here people asking ki daadi aisa kya kiya ki aap itna time, itni tandurast hai? She speaks about what she used to eat a hundred years back. I find it amusing, when with her toothless grin, she speaks of old times, no electricity, lot of cattles, lot of millet and pulses to eat.

Mandva, 2km more. I hang my wet t-shirts on that piece of stick. Rarely does one get such an opportunity to be Raj Kapoor in real life. All that I am missing is a pair of Jaapani Joote and Ruusi toppi. (I think my clothes dried in 15 minutes, it was that hot)

Unfortunately, I had to leave the yatra mid-way. One of my last pics taken. at a village meeting. I think, its a must for all of us to be part of Shodh Yatra. The yatra ended after a week, but the search within shall never end for me. I keep thinking about the experience, the people I met, the discussions that came up, the believes that got distorted, new ideas that came and plan to act on similar theme in near future.  Keep it up, Shodh Yatris !! Thank You for the tremendous time together !! Look forward to the next one !!