being noMADic

The bumpy ride on a VRL sleeper taking the upper berth came to a thankful end, when I reached Dandeli at around 8 in the morning. After quite a good breakfast at Hotel Santosh, on the Link Road near the Dandeli Bus Stop, boarded the 10 ’o clock Karwar bus to get down at Kumbaravada. The intermediate stop was supposed to be at Kiruvathi and I missed getting down at this place. I was coming here for the second time and the place looked familiar, but was not convincing enough to get out from the bus and start walking inside the jungle. I thought it would be better to take a reference. I could easily afford a detour rather than ending up nowhere inside the Forest. Well 3 kms inside from kiruvathi, Deriya is a small settlement inside the Kumbaravada Wildlife Sanctuary, part of the Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve. Getting down at Kumbaravada, I walked down for 3 kms to reach kiruvathi and further 3 kms more to reach Deriya. It took me an hour completely and I did not rest anywhere. As expected, I was warmly welcomed into the house by Hambeera Ganaba Derekar, the now head of the lone family of Ganaba Derekar that has occupied this place. It was a bit shocking to know that Ganaba Derekar has 14 children. One big family for sure.

The House of Hambeera Ganaba Derekar

It was 12:30 in the noon when I reached the destination. The man Hambeera Ganaba Derekar, apparently has two wives. And I don’t want to get into the details of his family politics, but the one wife he is living with now, is a gem of a person. I call her aayii (spell: aa-ee) like her children. She reminds me of my ajji (Grandmother). I always missed her, but lately I have started seeing her in a lot of kind and generous people around. I would not define this to be life, where you try to find what you have lost in what you have and try to settle, but you cannot deny the fact of living that way. Speaking only Konkani and not being able to understand Kannada, we have such a great rapport where I don’t know Konkani one bit. And we still manage to discuss issues. The best part, like my ajji, she cooked akki rotti for me today because I like it. When she said this in Konkani, I told myself that I should no longer be missing ajji.

The lady to the left : aayii

I was totally humbled to meet these people back again after a year. Yogesh, the second son in the family, more a family man is a person carrying a heart with the depth of an ocean. He looks after the agriculture here and helps with all the family chores. His knowledge and awareness is all through experience. Although he is not educated through books, his worldly conscience is easily on par when put on comparison. Well how cordial he is, is only to be experienced and felt. It was a bit sticky now; my body and I needed to freshen up. After a brilliant bath outside in the open, you become fresh and energetic like never before.  Followed by an awesome lunch you only search for a cozy place to sleep. And it was not hard at all. Two and a half hours of total bliss it was cuddling up like a baby. When you are supposed to be on a vacation, the least importance you give is to the clock on the wall. Nevertheless I had to look up to it, to understand whether I could go alone inside the jungle or should I have company. When it gets late and dark, you need to have field experts with you, not even a heart of steel will help you when something from inside the forest attacks you. Well, why all this fuss?

I was speaking to Jayanand, the elder most son in the family on the same issue. He is the only person to have completed a Bachelor’s Degree (in commerce) in the village and is a gold medalist too. He remarked that all his efforts to build Community toilets went in vain, due to the inherent corruption prevailing in the system. With the Grameen Nirmaalya Yojana coming in to effect, it was understood that the effectiveness levels of this programme is in reality Zero. There have been no toilets built at all, even with the sanction of funds. He is only sad to see all the financial accounts being settled at both the Panchayat Samiti and at the beneficiary end (both Below Poverty Line and Above Poverty Line), but with no toilets being built.  Anyway, I did walk down alone, with the chill increasing steeply, I could not stay put for long.

Speaking more with Jayanand, lot of other things came to light. He is a man with first-hand information. Working for the Wild Life Conservation Society under the able leadership of Mr Ullas Karanth, he is into lot of activities on the societal development front as well. Mobilizing teachers for a group of 47 students who had failed in their 10^th Standard exams, he was able to convince and bring back 5 students from labour back to school and help them pass their exam on the supplementary attempt. Now they are into Industrial Training Diplomas and into Pre-University college and are faring well. Starting a Self Help group ‘Sanjeevini’ within Deriya along with two others, they are able to provide a Doctor on the call with all the medical facilities with an ambulance to all the settlements inside the Kumbaravada Wildlife Sanctuary. He is working with the Grameen Morcha Limited, Pune to solar grid ‘Virel’ one of the villages inside the Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve forest.

All these discussions seemed to give me some directions in life. Although my focus in life is not wildlife conservation, I feel more at home involving myself in such discussions. I was enjoying the time and the solitude. The warmth in the treatment surely did curb the December Chill. It is quite unbearable in the night now. I was amazed to see a camp fire inside the house and people chatting, eating and sleeping around it. What better way to enjoy a camp fire? As I took my torch up to find a suitable place for release before I went to sleep I could only reflect on my first day here with lot of fodder for thought and memories for future.

The second day was not so eventful. Just that I was able to give time to myself completely after a long time. Getting back to learning stuff from the books and literature proved a bit tough. Although I could manage to sit for nearly four hours continuously for one god damn thing. Away from the nuisance of the social media websites and telephone, it was quite absorbing. When you are into sales and marketing, you will surely second my concerns. And being away from all this, you will surely find yourself. Atleast you will find the disturbance inside. You know you want to get rid of it, and you know you have got the right time to do it.

One thing I was enjoying was the brilliant sleep after lunch. You then wake up at around 6 in the evening to freshen up and enjoy that hot cup of tea. The weather is just waiting for the sun to set. And in no time the mufflers, pull overs, sweaters and the woolen caps are out of the wardrobe. Even after wearing all these you get that light shiver going down your body. That’s when you feel the purpose of coming to this place all the way from Bangalore is quite served. Well, the day ended chatting with the head of the family, Hambeera Ganaba Derakar. He can never be taken off from the Beedi from his hands. The fire keeps on going off and he keeps on lighting it back again. That is his favourite pass time apart from playing around with his grandkids and watching T.V with the Beedi still in his hand.

it sure was tough to replace the beedi with the newspaper: Hambeera Ganaba Derekar

I decided to go to Dandeli the next day, for an Internet connection. It is nearly one and a half hour journey by road, one way. I just couldn’t be away from the worldly conscience. Although I was not cribbing about it, I was happy to get back for a short period of time with a new thought process in place. It was like a check of viability. I guess the ultimate test will be when I get back to Bangalore I thought. Anyway, after the little stint at Dandeli I headed back to Deriya at around 5:00 in the evening in a jeep. Jamming up 15 people inside it, the driver negotiated the curves of the Dandeli – Karwar route pretty well. I was sitting with one leg outside the jeep. With the chill breeze picking up it was an awesome drive. The beaten road did offer very little help nevertheless I was happy that I could enjoy it.

Coming back it was dark and I had to walk the three kilometer stretch from Kiruvati to Deriya alone. It was and still is a big dream to trek the Western ghats in the night. Well this was no way close to it, but still gave some Goosebumps while I was walking back. 

being noMADic!

Coming back I wanted to have a time completely for myself. Some solitude I was seeking. With the chill breeze blowing across, I took a mat, plugged the MP3, wore a woolen cap and looking at the countless no of stars slept peacefully outside. Strangely so I was able to control the chill by breathing in and out slowly. After half an hour or so, Sujatha aunty (Jayanand’s better half) came up and started chatting with me. This I would say was the best chat off late. She reminded of my all energetic Chikkamma ‘Vijaya’ back in Bangalore. I call her by her name out of immense love and respect for the lady, viji. Well I shall from now on refer Sujatha aunty as DC (Deriya chikamma). DC joined along my stride of enjoying the solitude. She was just like a bomb waiting to explode. She got a brilliant opportunity now. She thought I was in a kind of depression, to take a mat outside and sleep in the extremely chill weather. But she is an extremely smart lady and she quickly did ascertain my state of mind and accompanied me immediately.

All this while for me Deriya was a bunch of happy people. I had to understand from the outset what the real issues in the place were. Well I was here to get hands on exposure to such issues. Leave apart solving them, it is required to know completely what issues people here go through and what do they feel about it. The amazing humility these people have will surely mask their problems out of your safe space in the community. They will ensure you are not exposed to those, unless you are someone accountable to solve those or someone very close. Well I am not yet accountable to solve such issues in the community. But thankfully so I am able to be close enough with the family and the village. It was a revelation to me. DC became very close quickly.

The lifestyle of a woman in a village deep inside a forest was put out in all distress. Yet she was hopeful. The sad state of her mother being paralyzed and her father bed ridden and with her being 20 kilometers away and her only brother working in the forests of Bandipur Tiger Reserve being able to do little to help them, nearly brought tears in her eyes. I could sense it. Even if she was in a position to give time to her parents, nothing much could have been done as the nearest hospital to attend to such health problems is a four hour drive to Dharwad and will amount to a cost of nearly Thirty thousand rupees, which is beyond affordable limits of these people. So it is taken for granted that suffering is a part of life and that nothing can be done about it. Yet, she is hopeful.

She dreamt of the lifestyle in a city where there are jobs. She referred to the desk jobs that most of us are into and cribbing about it daily. Here, she has to either cook or go into the agricultural fields for work. Well, she went into a cribbing mode here. Her concern was more on the men in the villages where they do nothing apart from agriculture. She had to invariably move on to commenting on the food they eat, after spending the maximum portion of her life inside the kitchen. Remarking on the physical efforts the men put in the fields, she said it is understandable the level of hunger in them. That explains why rice is consumed more than anything else here. The difference in castes was also discussed. She placed me on the top of the pyramid, as I carried the Brahmin tag. The difference in the treatment given to Harijan’s (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) and the luxury offered to Brahmins’ were clearly accepted by DC. She feels it is the right way of life and termed it Dharma, as portrayed so by the head of the families as well. I felt happy at the fact that she was quite liberal about all these and never did insist all these things in her life. Nothing against any belief or any caste, even though I am a part of the Brahmin fraternity, I personally am trying to be more liberal. So, I was not in a position to comprehend to whatever DC said at this point. But it sure was some exposure. 

DC is also a teacher at the government school here, Anganavadi as we call it. During weekdays she serves her responsibility as a teacher to the kids and then goes to the field during weekends. Of course the kitchen is where she lives coming back home. Well, one thing that was new for me in this whole discussion was the love for animals especially the cow. Once when she was on a teacher training programme conducted by the Child Welfare and Development committee, she had to leave her kids, her family and the cows behind. She had to report at Dharwad. Sadly, she came back to hear a shocking news that two of her favourite cows had been eaten away by a leopard. I could sense it clearly what she went through then, as I had to pay more heed with a keener ear to listen to her voice which suddenly went feeble speaking about it. Without my knowledge I rose and sat. I surely became sympathetic, when she said that no one was able to convince her on food and sleep for nearly two to three days. We did share a moment of silence without any announcement and formalities. I would say this is the first ever honest respect in silence I have ever given with a wish for a soul to rest in peace. The chill breeze blowing across and the sight of the moving stars nearly wetted my eyes. As the scene got a bit emotional, my DC cut the sequence half way and hurried into the kitchen to check the status for dinner. So ended the third day, with lot of questions in my head, more so at a personal level. I don’t want to carry a prejudice on my current way of life, with just this little exposure. But one thing is very clear, that there is hope and equally so there are problems. And it needs to be solved, more so on the moral front.

Deriya, always has something in store, however the fourth day started on a lazy note as usual. And suddenly a big loud cry from the woman in the house next to Hambeera’ s woke us all up completely. Guess what’s the reason for her agony. Her cow went missing. Well DC was devastated for sure. Not just her, the whole village assembled in front of the house. Some ran to the cow shed to check on any signs that might lead us to some clues to find out where the cow has gone. The fear crept in. And not so long into the search, we found the sharp hair of the leopard clinging on to the wood that made up the cowshed. Ravishankar, the third son of Hambeera Ganaba Derekar (active part of WCS) was quick in identifying it and the pug marks of the leopard and marks of the cow being pulled out of the shed. There was a clear entry point and an exit point where the whole scene of the cow being pulled off into the woods was immediately picturized. Pictures were taken to submit and report the incident to the Range Forest Office of the Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve. Just a day before, the Forest Department was done with its Tiger census using the GPS facility and found the pug marks of the leopard in the Kumbaravada Range; now there was more evidence. The cow shed is like 20 steps away from where I was staying. And it surely sent chillers down my body. 

Evidence!

Left: Exit Point. Right: Entry Point.

After finishing all the work for the day, DC came up to me again and shared the sad news of the cow being eaten away by the leopard. All I could do at that point was remain silent. I just couldn’t respond back. And strangely so, I too felt sad. Then I knew I had become a part of them. Deriya suddenly began to put up a different face. The whole experience was different. It was not new anymore for me. I had got used to the place and the people here. I slowly walked outside again. Sat alone on the verandah plugging the MP3 onto my ears. The day was supposed to end at the fields where a camp fire was planned; but because of the leopard scare, it got postponed.

As I was opening up the laptop slurping a brilliant morning cup of tea, Jayanand came up to me the fifth day and invited me along. He was going towards the fields I understood from him. I quickly closed the laptop and was off. Three kilometers away inside the jungle was the field. People were getting the place ready for an agricultural practice called ‘MaLni’. The process of separating the rice from the dry grass. Well, the process was to carry on till 3AM early morning the next day and again carry on for the whole day next day. I just couldn’t resist staying with them in the field. As I was gearing up to getting involved with them, Jayanand said he will be taking me to a village called Naifoda. He was working there for relocation.

Deriya surprises are always great with the amount of exposure on offer. So I thought I will go. I did not carry any second thoughts on it. The five kilometers ride on the bike inside the jungle, I should say was the best ever I had. That thick jungle I had never seen in my life. We were travelling right in the proximity of bears, leopards and Black Panthers. I was excited for sure. The crossing zones of these animals were clearly explained to me. Upon reaching Naifoda, I got the biggest surprise of my life. When Jayanand explained that this is the only village in the radius of 4-5 Kilometers inside the jungle and that this was the only house in the entire village now, I surely lost my breath for a moment. I was extremely confused and became overly conscience about the fact that I just learnt, before I entered the house. 

If you can spot the lone house and the cow shed.

The count of the village was 7 people including a small kid and 3 cows. Now, I could understand how important the cow becomes to the people here. It is an integral part of their life. Anyway, Jayanand was here on the job. He was representing and monitoring the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Relocation project. He was here to help them shift to a safer and a more accessible place, Joida. It was a brilliant initiative that I could witness. The real time exposure to a Below Poverty Line Livelihood, categorized under a scheduled tribe under the rural sector and living inside the forest was an eye opener. Their humility is still as great as it could ever be. The tea that was on offer, clearly indicated that they had no resources available at all, but still managed to offer one to their guests. I wondered what they could eat for the remaining part of the day and how would they sustain for the days to come.

It surely affected me. I was seeing a young man, wearing torn clothes, hair all messed up, putting up a hopeless face, standing close to the door and with his father with only one eye visible, wearing a short, a torn vest, with a dirty woolen cap, and seemingly so had not had proper nutrition for months, sitting in a corner. While Jayanand and I were sitting on a plastic chair. That point, that very point, when a lady from inside came out, offered us tea and went inside, the sympathy in me broke out for them. Also a clear indication from within occurred that quite helped me in deciding on the purpose of my life, going forward. It was difficult for me to comprehend. A kid then came out and started staring at me. It was might be for the first time in its life seeing a person with clean clothes. I had taken bath and put on the 250 rupees Deodorant. So much for the luxuries that we enjoy. It kept on staring. The emotions were so high from within, I couldn’t even play with it. I only avoided the sight. I had lost the strength. I had lost the courage I thought I had, to face such situations. Well it was a real eye opener. 

the Father!

Riding back, I had a long discussion with Jayanand on all my confusions. The discussions on availing the benefit from the Indira Awaas Yojana for shelter, Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Programme for water and sanitation facilities and NREGA for employment went on for quite some time. The Panchayat’s role is the most critical I understood from the replies I got from Jayanand. Anyway there has to be a person or an organization that will mobilize the benefits of these schemes reaching such beneficiaries. People here can be easily fooled. You tell them convincingly any damn thing, they are going to believe it. When they entrust upon someone, they do so completely and easily so. One can understand by seeing them how beaten up they are, that they are looking out badly for a strong support. We reached back home just when the discussions died down. 

As the sun got ready to set, started the fun part of the whole trip. Yogesh and I were on our way to the fields at around 4PM after a cup of tea. He was the man on a mission. The onus was on him to get this MaLni done and dusted for the next day. After gearing myself up with all necessary cover for the chill, I was happily away with him. I was sleeping in an agricultural field, surrounded by a thick jungle without any shelter or cover for the first time in my life. It would have been a crime if I had not jumped around in joy; well not literally. Putting myself on the job in the field, made me feel low. Pulling the grass back from the heap, I was down and out within the first ten minutes. I went back to the fire place and invariably opened my diary and started scribbling. Although people there clearly knew I was fooling around, they showed interest on my notes just to keep me satisfied. 

Just before i gave up. With Yogesh.

Well, I had the time of my life. Cooking in the open at around 9PM and then eating the same on a Banana plantain leaf, with the chill breeze picking up was an out of the world experience. I never went back to work, rather I settled at a cozy place beside the fire that was put up to save us all from the chill and I dozed off at around 12:30 midnight. It surely was Bliss. 

one down from my bucket list!

 

Anything from inside it is totally acceptable!

Coming back to the house next day morning, I was greeted by my DC and then by Chandu. Well, all this while I had not introduced this person, Chandu, Ravishankar’s better half. Although she is the most charismatic in the house, she is always in the background. She loves life and dreams of a prosperous one. The best part is, she never cribs. The all so joyful lady that she is, makes you happy all the time you chat with her. She is young, bold and beautiful. Fits into any case perfectly well and is a great deal of help to the family. She served me food most of the time here and I can only be thankful for that for now. She addresses me as sirr-ah. And for the final time this time, when she served me lunch, she sat in a corner, looking outside the window she asked, ’Sirr-ah when are you coming back?’. The voice went feeble again. I knew this feeling. It was here that I got exposed to it. Sooner DC joined in and said that the house will be dry again in two hours’ time as I was gearing up to leave back to Bangalore. Chandu came up to me and requested to bring my friends and parents along the next time. I had to vouch for it and say yes. 

Left: Chandu.  Right: DC (Deriya Chikamma alias Sujatha Aunty)

Two hours before I left the place after the lunch, I came back to the desk and was reporting this with a lot of mixed emotions. My DC came up to me and started chatting. She began with a request to come along with my parents and friends to their Community festival in the month of February. I had to say yes and of course put the blame on my manager for he might not grant leave again in such a short notice. Continuing the conversation, I felt going back to my engineering days; where you have half an hour more left for the exam and you somehow try to revise all that you have studied in such short time. DC wanted to put out everything. So many things that was burning inside her; the flames of which were curbed by the societal dogma about a woman and her rights. She went into a cribbing mode. She boldly cornered all the men in the family for not being able to construct a toilet at the place even after getting to know how the world works. She exclaimed that left to them women, they would have done it long back. Well listening to this a thought just flashed across.

You can blame the social structure if you are a bit liberal, for curbing women from their freedom and rights. You can take a step ahead, go a bit deep and blame the women themselves for sticking to the kitchens and seeking freedom only within it, But if you can think a few more layers deep into the skin of the whole deal, you might realize that the core of the problem is at the work division that happened initially. With less work to the mind, most of the value was derived out of physical labour; be it agriculture, fishing or wood work etc for the Poor livelihoods. Naturally so, the men took up the hardship outside and the women took up the hardship inside, With the society growing large, ignorance creeps in easily and we tend to stick onto what was being followed rather than to try and understand why it is being followed. This might be a possible reason why we have failed to adapt and stick to the earlier notion of ‘Women meant only for kitchens’. People in the city might disagree on this. But I request all those who disagree to visit this place once, you will then come to agreeable terms on this. Well in this case here at Deriya, women do much more than Kitchens and invariably so, they have to do it. With the men out on the fields there is no one else to do all this. Naturally, women cannot study further past their schooling and think beyond such chores. Some women, do not finish their schooling as well and the responsibility is assumed to be taken by them to get the water from the stream nearby, wash the torn clothes, clean the house everyday, cook food and settle inside the kitchen helping their mother-in law out. If she is a woman living in a joint family, then she will surely have no time to sit for a minute. If as a society we had questioned our practices timely, we could have adapted and freed women from their assumed hardships inside now and they could have lived life on a more common platform with the men.

Coming back, look at the confidence my DC showed. Just that she could not afford to do it. Anyway I couldn’t do much other than just think and respond affirmatively to whatever she says. Just when I thought it got a bit dragging, she came up with this. ‘You are like my younger brother, I am feeling very sad that you are going back now. Please Come back again’, she said in Kannada (translated). Well, it was the best goodbye ever. Such goodbye’s makes you to come back to the place. Before I left she gave me a bag of goodies to take home. DC and Chandu came up to me putting up a smiling face, with lot of mixed emotions inside, that was clearly visible to me and bid adieu. The six days, six amazing days came to a fitting end as I headed back to my civilization of chaos being hopeful of a brilliant drama to unfold in the coming days.