Day 20

8th May, 2011

A bright sunday morning. It was thought that I would be sleeping till late hours. But then I forgot that there was a visit planned by one of the trustees of MRA. So sort of a busy day. Also a Camp for 10th std kids is starting from tomorrow. So had to prepare on that too. Interacted with the trustee for some time. It was a wonderful conversation. His name is Mr Suresh Vazirani. He is the founder of a company called Transasia. The company deals with Medical instruments. Before starting the business, he was with MRA for 9 long years. And he believes that those 9 years were the actual training years for that business. He believes that honesty and transparency should be a part of the business. They help in the longer run.

The next three days are going to be funfilled. the three day camp for 10th std kids is starting from tomorrow.

-SD

Day 12

30th April, 2011

Start of the weekend. Though there is no such concept of weekend here, but being from IT industry I always wait for the weekends. I planned to see a lot of movies during this 3 months and read a lot of books too. But the schedule here is really a bit hectic. So I thought of taking this weekend off again. But could not do so.

I tested the network connectivity of the lab which I could not do yesterday. All was in mess! Tried clearing them all and by 3 I was able to complete it.

Then made a document about what had happened in Grampari in past few months. Jayashree Aunty helped a lot in that. We had to circulate it among the friends of MRA google group.

The day ended with a visit to market. It was great loitering around doing nothing there. Panchgani is a cool place :P

-SD

Day 1

I thought of keeping a track of the days spent here. So that it helps me out in the final version of my report. And in addition to that, it would help me in examining and understanding the time spent here. Though it is the 4th day, here it starts with the first day. Best of luck Saurabh :)

Day 1:

After a wonderful journey on my bullet, enjoying the meadows n the mountains, I reached yesterday on 18th around 6 pm to Panchghani. I got my room and got to know my room partner - Tamim - from Kabul. The next day, I met a lot of people. I met Dr Jayashree Rao who would be my mentor during this program. I met Mr Shah, who is professionally an architect and provides his services to MRA voluntarily. I also met Mr Jared and Mrs Sowmya.

I was introduced to what Grampari did by Jared. The morning was spent in that. Then I was introduced to some of the other interns here. I spent the evening with them having ice-cream in Panchghani. For dinner, Jared invited me to accompany him to a social visit to a village called Ambeghar. We had Mr and Mrs Poonawala from Pune and Samual from Canada accompanying us. The Road to ambeghar was amazing. I had wonderful time chatting with Jared, Sam and Poonawalas. Jared and Sam knew a lot of things about India. Now see the irony- I was sitting with 2 foreigners - one canadian and other american - who knew more than me about my country!

We were visiting Mr Prahlad Yadav, a farmer and a friend of Jared. I was amazed to hear Mr Yadav conversing in English with us. We received a warm welcome from Mr Yadav's family. It was a typical maharashtrian village and a typical village home surrounded with his farms. I learnt a few things about farming and water conservation. Jared is working in this areas since last 15 years and is a graduate of geology. Quality of the soil can be observed through the patterns of it. Soil with larger lumps has more microorganisms and hence is more fruitful. I also learnt a way to increase the underground water level (sand filling method). Then we had a wonderful dinner and returned.

What a day! a lot of new people and a lot of new experiences.

- SD