Monday, Dec 5th: The Chennai Surprise

Getting an auto rickshaw to the railway station after 9 PM is always a challenge in Bangalore. Fortunately, as we were searching for one, a BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) bus headed that way stopped for us even though we were in between bus stops. Somehow I wasnt really surprised that he stopped again between bus stops for another 3 (or was it 5) minutes to draw cash from an ATM !! But it was a pleasant surprise to see one of the passengers call up the BMTC complaint line and immediately lodge a complaint that more than 50 people in the bus were kept waiting for the driver to draw cash in an ATM. The incident highlighted the problems of modern banking in India - not enough ATMs ... but I guess thats true even in the US, there never is an ATM nearby when one wants it real bad !

We arrived in Chennai at 5 AM, and discovered that prepaid auto isnt really prepaid here, the prepaid window writes down the cost of the ride to the destination, but the cash is given to the driver - leaving open the chances for the autowalla to make some quick money. Waking up Dhanunjay and a few others who were sleeping in the office we were ready for a long wait before the AID Chennai folks came in at 10.

Initially, the plan had been for Sudha, Madhulika, Kamayani (formerly with AID Milwaukee), Chandrika (formerly with AID Austin), and myself to join the Chennai team on a survey on health indicators amongst some communities in Vembakkam near Chennai. But the recent spate of rain and cyclones in Chennai had once again thrust the Chennai team towards relief work, and that was going to be the main agenda of the day.

As the 'stock taking and planning for the day' meeting started, Sudha and I were on opposite sides of the circle ensuring that everyone was entertained by our dozing! The situation in the affected areas was pretty grim. Reports of efforts undertaken over the previous day and an assessment of requirements and plans for the day were discussed. The limited amount of food and material collected (and bought) was distributed to the various areas on the basis of this discussion. Different members of the group were being assigned to teams headed to different places, and an inexplicable feeling within kept me in the background, and not volunteering to join any. Sudha joined a group headed for Saidapet. After the teams started to disperse, my late attempt to join the team going to get more bread was botched by my weight – I was too heavy for the only two wheeler around !

I hung around the AID Chennai office, shadowing Balaji around. After a few hours, it was decided that after lunch I would join the team going to Kallukuttai, a slum near Velachery, located in a low lying area that has been flooded every time there has been heavy rains. Given my Tamil skills, I was only too glad when I was asked to be the photographer. I was accompanying Vanaja, Mangai and another volunteer, and the 45 minute ride to Kallukuttai was another round of dozing off! Once we reached Kallukuttai, sleep was far from my mind. The area was still under water.

As we entered the water logged road leading to the slum, a catamaran was leaving with supplies of bread and rice. We were asked to wait for another one that was coming back. It was a non - surfaced catamaran that we climbed into - the shaped logs of wood were held in place by cross beams, but didnt have a surface that would keep the water out. So by the time all of us had climbed in, the water had risen to our seat level ! The only relief was to know that the water was the run off from a nearby lake and didn't have any contributions from the city sewage system ... well, that doesn't by any means imply that the water was clean ! I was clicking away on the digital camera that Balaji had given me – the scene I was witnessing was something we see in TV reports and news flashes. The only difference here was that this scene had persisted ... and repeated itself every time Chennai is hit by above 10 mm (?) of rain during a single day.

The three or so sacks of rice brought in the catamaran carrying supplies was bought by a few community members from the marooned areas for setting up a community kitchen there. The mandate of the group I had accompanied was mainly to distribute the bread. But there were way too many recipients than the group of people distributing food could control. A few attempts were made to get the food supplies across the waiting crowd to a marooned high ground before starting distribution. As the restlessness and the entropy within the crowd increased, the team decided to distribute part of the bread here and carry the rest across. Before the catamaran with supplies was brought close to the crowd for distribution, a few sacks were filled with bread and carted away to be kept aside as a reserve. The distribution started quite peacefully – a human conveyor chain was formed to get loaves of bread that were handed out, rather than getting the catamaran close to the crowd. But the situation slowly deteriorated out of control – there were too many people seeking food and too few with an appreciation of the need for order and distribution. As about half of the loaves of bread were distributed, the agitation grew and the local volunteers distributing the material steered the catamaran further away. We were advised to get back to the road and not hang around, and after a little deliberation, we climbed into the other catamaran and headed back ...

One of the area coordinators started discussing how things went and what needed to be done. An earlier discussion on the need for sarees and bedsheets was re-iterated and it was a bit of a surprise that I was now being asked to talk to Balaji and try and convince him on the need for these ... I was actually thinking how futile such an effort would be, given that the entire community was living in at least knee deep water ! The need of the community might have been better clothing and warmer beds, but it would be a hard sell for anyone to project this as the need of the hour ...

We returned to the office by evening, tired field groups were trickling back into the office. I had a quick bath and had changed out of the soggy clothes before Sudha turned up. As planned we headed out for a quick bite before heading over to Chandra's house for the night.

A trickle in the flood

December 5th, 2005 (contd.)

Once all the day's plans were made, Balaji began assigning us 'outsiders' to different teams. Other than Chandrika, none of us speak Tamil. In her case, she had accompanied some volunteers to Koturpuram the previous day where they had found many more people than they could possibly help. Chandrika had taken photographs but beyond that, could not do much. With a tiny bit of worry about what exactly I was getting into, I accompanied Gnanaprakasam, Sumati and Suresh to Saidapet. Sumati and I took about 150 packets of buns with us in an auto while Gnanam and Suresh were on a motorcycle.

In Saidapet, almost an hour of confusion followed. We waited at one gate without a mobile while the guys waited at another gate. We went through a teacher's training college where a temporary camp was set up, but could not find anyone from the group there. Finally, we met up with Suresh and Gnanam and went into a community near the relief camp. Here, people had moved back into their homes a day after the waters had receded. Recovery activities within each house were in full force – mats and household items were being laid out to dry, kerosene stoves and other appliances were being repaired and clothes were being washed. Almost all of the women were hard at work.

We met a few local people whom Gnanam had met earlier – from here on, I could only understand part of the discussion because of my limited knowledge of Tamil. But the upshot seemed to be that a few members of the community would take up the job of distributing buns and that one packet would be provided per household. A number of us had turned up, and there was no work for us at the present. Most of us chose to follow the people who were distributing the buns. It was interesting to see the reaction of families who were receiving the buns. Some were completely disinterested, mechanically receiving them. Others, with children, asked for more than one packet. One lady, on hearing the one packet-per-household rule, returned the packet and an argument ensued. Children eagerly came to the distributors and in some cases, the packets were opened and individual buns were handed out.

One of the group members went to get lunch and we sat down to eat on the street itself – later in the afternoon, a medical camp would be set up and we would have to help out with that. Meanwhile, I had been noticing a young woman washing her clothes a few yards away from where we sat. She ignored her toddler daughter who was making a fuss nearby (and who was eventually taken up by a neighbor) and methodically scrubbed and rinsed clothes, undergarments, bedsheets and more. She was representative of the women in this neighborhood – everywhere they were hard at work. I felt that our buns were of little use here. What would have really helped this woman was a full meal so that she would not have to cook or go hungry. And that was beyond our capacity...

After lunch, we moved to a parallel street where two tables had been lined up for the medical camp. Now started another long waiting period. The doctors were supposed to arrive at 2:30 pm, but that time passed without them in sight. Luckily for me, Smitha joined the group and talked to me about her work in Sulagiri and the activities in AID Bangalore. Finally, at 4:30 pm the doctors arrived. After a short discussion, it was decided that two doctors would stay here and one doctor would be escorted to Koturpuram to run a medical camp there. I chose to join them.

In Koturpuram, a government camp had been set up in a school – as before, this area was covered with drying clothes. Ravishankar met us at the entrance and escorted us to an area in the center of the school. Here, a table and chair was set up for the doctor and a couple of benches for dispensing medicines. The group got to work, opening boxes and setting out medicines while people lined up. As the doctor examined, Grace dressed wounds and some of the others handed out medicines based on the doctor's prescription. At first, just a few people were in line, but as word spread of the doctor's arrival, more began trickling in. A few had flood and water-related problems such as diarrhea, but there were other day-to-day problems. A few boys came in with play-related injuries.

Another doctor was being expected and finally arrived at about 6 pm. All this while, I hadn't been able to help in any way – expected, but frustrating. So when some full-timers left, I joined them. It seems that quite a few AID Tamilnadu full-timers live in Arakkonam, at least 2 hours away by bus and train. Thankfully, I did not have to travel all that far... after returning to the AID Chennai office, Dwiji and I headed to Chandra's house nearby for dosas and a good night's sleep.

A bird's eye view on a foggy morning

Sunday Dec 4^th:

Our morning in Timbaktu started early. Much to the surprise of Shailesh, who had volunteered to be our guide for the early morning hike, Anitha and I woke up on the sound of the alarm and as we were stepping out, a sleepy Sudha surprised us at the door saying she would join us if we waited for a few minutes !! We hiked up to the saddle point to the north west of Timbaktu and Sudha decided to stay on there, while Shailesh, Anitha and I went ahead to climb up the tall peak further north of the saddle. Though the trek up to the peak was good fun, once there, it wasn't much fun. The fog was still quite thick and we couldn't see much of the view that we had heard comments about from the folks at the collective. Just as Sudha was about to give up on us and turn back we reached the saddle point and all of us headed back, all primed for a much needed breakfast !

After a relaxed breakfast and a hurried bath we headed out to meet with Dinesh, Subba, and Babloo in the remaining couple of hours at the collective. Sudha was able to join in a conversation between Uzramma and Subba in the mess hall while I sought out Babloo to talk to him about our ideas for the next few years. It was a short conversation, he felt that the conversation would be better held in a wider group, especially so because he himself didn't have to make the switch from a mainstream job to that of the collective. We joined the group in the mess hall and the next hour was spent discussing perspectives and approaches that one comes with when stepping into the alternative or developmental arena. More on this in a later post ...

We headed back to the collector's hut to pack up our bags and headed to the Chintavanam office with Dinesh. Overlooking a demo plot, the Chintavanam office is located just a kilometer out of C.K. Palli village and is a spacious and airy building constructed with the purpose of serving as the main office of the collective. We sat there to chat with Dinesh about the organic farming efforts the collective has undertaken. The collective works with farmers from the neighbouring villages moving them towards organic agriculture. Produce from organic farmer's of neighboring villages are collected and marketed by the collective, and Ashis is responsible for these marketing efforts.

We headed back to the collective had a quick lunch and started back for Bangalore. Madhu also came along – the three of us would be leaving for Chennai by the night train. We reached home base after 4 and a half hours, with the last 60 kms requiring 2 hours!

An education at Timbaktu

Saturday, December 3rd:

We woke up early Saturday morning to head to the Timbaktu collective 165 km away. Travelling with Dwiji and me were his parents and sister Anitha. The collective is in Anantapur dt., AP very close to Chennekothapalli. We had heard of this group through various circles and incidentally Ashis, Madhulika's (formerly from AID Austin) husband is working there. Madhu herself is spending some time there after her return from the US and was to join us on our way back. We met up with her in Chennekothapalli and headed to Timbaktu, off the main road (National Highway-7).

One of the major efforts of the collective has been the preservation and regeneration of the local scrub forest. When they first bought the land, about 32 acres of it, it was completely bare. Now, 15 years later, it is covered with trees, shrubs and grasses. They have also protected surrounding areas from forest fires. Overgrazing is not allowed on Timbaktu land and the need to control grazing has been accepted by local communities managing their forests in the area. Of course, not everyone is happy with this – the next day, we overheard an altercation between a goatherd and a member of the collective over goats straying into areas they shouldn't be going into.

We were shown to our accomodations and found that the house we were staying in was built by a Collector who supported Timbaktu and had recently passed away. The neighboring house was built by Uzramma of Dastkar fame, who was also visiting this weekend with her son. Dastkar is a weavers' collective based in Andhra Pradesh which has done amazing work in regenerating incomes for weavers, introducing (or re-introducing) handloom textiles and natural dyeing techniques throughout the country and sensitizing the government and institutions about the problems faced by the weaving communities. Thousands of weavers have been mobilized and now have a powerful voice.

Back to Timbaktu... we headed out to lunch in the collective's kitchen and then decided to visit their demo plot. The collective has started working on agricultural issues a few years ago. Prior to that, they were procuring traditional grains such as ragi, sama and korra and using them to make biscuits, laddoos and other products. These grains were traditionally grown in an organic manner and continue to be grown thus. As time passed, the value of promoting organic techniques for other crops and approaches such as mixed cropping led the collective to begin agricultural interventions. This part of Anantapur dt. is dominated by groundnut production. But though this crop is planted along with pulses (toor), its continuous cultivation has led to lower yields and quality. Like in the cotton growing belt, there have been suicides here and depression, migration etc.

Further, with its commitment to organic products, the collective was finding it harder and harder to procure enough grain for its products. So, gradually, discussions were organized with local farmers and information about sustainable agriculture shared. The demo plot, 'Itavanam' is a valuable tool in this intervention.

The plot was about a kilometer and a half away, so the 'younger lot' walked there with Shailesh, a volunteer at the collective involved in gardening. Shailesh also talked about his involvement in putting out forest fires – the land around Timbuktu is reserve forest, but no Forest Department officials are present in the area. So, when forest fires erupt, the collective members rush out to put it out by beating the fires with palm leaves. Shailesh's job has been to cart up water for the thirsty fire-beaters – a sweat-inducing one in itself! Temperatures in the summer can go up to 45°C and they have to be particularly vigilant at such times.

'Itavanam' is flanked on one side by neem trees and by a variety of fruit trees on the other. Different pulses have been sown alternatively with ragi, castor and varied beans. Groundnuts have also been planted in some rows. The approach of the agricultural group has been to work on pest management first and then on reducing fertilizer inputs. Neem is invaluable in the former and we also noticed some insect traps throughout the plot. As Madhu explained (she has been doing a survey in one village about this) the biggest attraction of organic farming has been the reduced cost of inputs. The yield has not necessarily improved, but as long as it remains the same, farmers will be receptive to the approach.

Dwiji's mother grew up in a village (in Kolar dt.) and used a lot of these plants in her childhood. So she talked a lot about how different types of leaves are edible and in what stage, how certain pea or bean pods could be used etc. We sampled all kinds of grains, fruits and groundnuts – after all, how can a farm trip be complete without grazing?!

Timbaktu operates a number of schools – one in Timbaktu itself (a residential school) and day schools in Chennekothapalli and 3 other villages. We had to decide which school to visit and picked the residential one. We reached the school just as it was closing and the children rushed to meet us. A lot of attention was focussed on Dwiji and his hair, with one kid making up a story about how he is Dhoni's annayya! (for those uninterested in cricket, Dhoni is one of the new stars on the team and sports long, gold-highlighted hair) We talked briefly with one of the teachers and were told that this was the kids' gardening time. They all tend to gardens which supply most of the school's vegetable needs. Also, these kids are all from agricultural families, so this is a useful life skill for them. They get used to mixed planting and organic farming, so get 'trained young'. The kids were extremely enthusiastic, especially dragging Dwiji's mother to see yet another plant or tree. They had beans, tomatoes, sitaphal, brinjal, papaya... the list goes on. With the onset of heavy rain, we finally were able to say our goodbyes!

The school in Chennekothapalli, Prakruti Badi was first started to serve dropouts. As they began getting good results with these 'problem children', more people showed interest in sending their children to these school. Thus, gradually, day schools were expanded to other villages. The residential school was started with the idea to serve disadvantaged children – those with a single parent, extremely poor background, disinterested parents etc. When parents come to the school seeking admission for their children, they are asked to leave their names in a register. Some children are recommended by the cooperatives, villagers etc. Teachers go and investigate the child's background to see if they are suitable candidates for the residential school. Initially the education was offered free of charge, but it was found that this did not encourage parent involvement in their child's welfare. So a nominal fee was instituted. Since the school is fully funded, this goes into an individual savings account for the child. All this was explained to us by Kalyani, one of the teachers in Prakruti Badi, over tasty gongura tea prepared by her. Kalyani is the originator of many of the recipes for Timbaktu products. She is married to Dinesh, who is in charge of the agricultural program. Dinesh was to return the next day from Hyderabad, where a fair was being organized by CSA (Center for Sustainable Agriculture).

After dinner, we went to drop off Madhu in Chennekothapalli. Ashis was working late into the night with the cooperative to pack biscuits and other products for the fair in Hyderabad – he was heading there on Sunday night. The collective had recently participated in an organic fair in Bangalore. This year, they had produced 10 tonnes of products and Ashis was confident they could sell those pretty quickly. To reach the next level of marketing and sales, in his opinion, they would need organic certification. Most such certification is very expensive, working out to atleast Rs. 1000/acre. For a farmer who makes about Rs. 1500 profit/acre, this would only make sense if (s)he can make atleast double that profit. Again, Ashis thinks it can be achieved, but the links need to be established. That is the focus of his work with the collective.

We went to sleep with plans to go trekking the next day.

Biomass and critical mass

Tuesday, November 29th, 2005:

On this day, we visited the Magadi area, about 40 km north of Bangalore – in some villages here, Prasanna (AID Saathi + Full-timer with AID Bangalore) and others are involved in an agriculture intervention. Prasanna had sent out documents a couple of days ago and I was pleased to find a report about their trip last year to Mr. Renake's project in Solapur. Mr. Renake has been producing vegetables in arid Solapur (and neighboring areas) and it seems he has demonstrated the best yields in such conditions.

This particular intervention in Magadi is being supported and planned by Dr. Datye. The team working on this includes Prasanna, his sister Prafulla, Vatsala - an (early) retired IISc professor, Ravi and Mr. Ramamurthy. The goal of the intervention is to introduce sustainable approaches to growing vegetables, grains and pulses etc. while working with the local population, especially the landless poor, to generate (or regenerate!) agricultural livelihoods. One way in which this could be achieved, according to Dr. Datye, is to work with Panchayats and develop food-for-work programs initially when the land has not reached its full productive capacity. Further, once these techniques have been well understood by the villagers, the Panchayats or Zilla Parishads (district level administration) could allot government 'wastelands' to the landless so that they can develop it further. According to Mr. Renake, 10 guntas of land would provide work and partially meet the food requirements of 5 women and their families. According to this group, that is too hard to implement, especially in the early stages, so they are working with 20 guntas (half an acre) for a group of 5 women.

Our first stop was Thorepalya and Mr. Ramamurthy's land, which is one of the plots being used. Mr. Ramamurthy retired from a senior position at the National Aeronautic Labs and is a philanthropist/social worker. AHe has raised funds to build a school for children in the area. The school buildings are all in the shape of a pyramid – apparently this structure concentrates the senses and aids thinking!

At Mr. Ramamurthy's house, we also met Ravi, one of the key members driving the project. Ravi hails from Motaganahalli, one of the villages in the area where land has been leased at a nominal price for the project. His presence and relationship with the villagers has meant that they have been actively involved in this process. Such is not the case in Mr. Ramamurthy's land – he calls for laborers when required and manages the planning etc. himself. However organic techniques, including the Madagascar or SRI technique for rice, are being employed on his land. He has also had a composting pit built and the humus generated has been used in an experimental plot. The soil in this area is predominantly red soil which has a low water-holding capacity. Addition of humus improves water-holding capacity as well as nutrient availability. In one plot, Mr. Ramamurthy has planted banana trees and in others vegetables. One plot is being used as a control plot in order to record differences in yield.

We next went to Maralagondala where Prasanna and Prafulla have bought land and are experimenting on it. This land was all under banana and ragi cultivation earlier. A caretaker, Govindappa, has been in charge of the farm and apparently he is not convinced enough about these methods to follow Prasanna's instructions. Subsequently, only one plot, in which Prasanna personally planted horse grams, has been worked on as planned. In a few other plots, mixed cropping techniques were initiated. Alternate rows of tur, jowar, marigold and other seeds had been planted in one but were not well tended. Inspite of that, they have grown well and are close to harvest. Prafulla and Prasanna had faced a number of personal issues, including their mother's illness, this past year and so could not devote as much time and energy as is needed in such an intervention. Further, because of Govindappa's lack of enthusiasm, it has not been easy to get local support. Prasanna has begun going to the farm regularly (atleast once a week) in the past few months and has also met the women in a local savings group. Hopefully, over this coming year, he can build stronger links with the community.

The last farm we visited was in Motaganahalli, Ravi's village. This was the best example of the project, also of Renake's methods. Rectangular plots had been prepared in a raised-bed style (here humus and soil is heaped on top of the ground without digging and seeds/saplings are planted directly on it – it is less labor intensive) and planted with radish. Circular heaps have bottle gourd in them and in other plots ragi is being cultivated. Vatsala and Ravi had planned to measure the height of ragi in a control plot, but it had already been harvested! Apparently, out of fear that the next day may be rainy (a reasonable one considering how wet this year has been), the women working on this land had harvested the crop the previous day. The travails of data collection!

In Renake's approach, 1.2 tonnes of biomass is required per gunta, especially in the initial stages. Since the team started work late this year, they were not able to collect as much as required, so have set up one plot with less biomass. Next year, they plan to put more land under cultivation and work with other organizations in the area. They will continue to record and analyze their results in order to come up with a feasible approach for this area.

The social aspects will also have to be concentrated on – more local people will have to be convinced about or develop an interest in the project. Prasanna has had some interactions with youth groups and women's savings groups. As he puts it, the social, economical and political conditions in this area have to be looked at to achieve some measure of success in this intervention.

Sound bytes from Magadi

Its almost been a week since we landed in Bangalore. The city has changed, but I found it more interesting that the people have changed so much more. Kannada has been on the wane for sometime now, but the ease with which auto drivers and bus conductors, vegetable and fruit stall vendors and many others start to speak in English took me by surprise. Or maybe the pony tail I sport these days is giving them the impression that I am not from these parts ...

On Tuesday, Sudha and I accompanied Prasanna, Vatsala and Prafulla to a project undertaken by the AID Bangalore chapter. While Sudha is compiling a detailed note about the visit I am have taken up the simpler task of cataloging and uploading the images and audio from our trip :-)

There are three audio files describing the two different manures that they use - green manure and vermicompost. The lead voice being that of Ravi from Motaganahalli, a village activist, mobilizer, and the local resource person for the project. Prasanna and Vatsala also chip in in the green manure snippet.

Murphy had to be vindicated - by the time we reached the most picturesque part of the project the sun had set and we had to make do with so so snaps using the small flash from a digital camera. The couple of shots of Prasanna and the one with Werner, were taken in Prasanna's house, when we visited him on Saturday.

The entire collection can be found here ...