Day 35

23^rd May, 2011

We visited Abhepuri today to attend the Grampanchayat meeting and then discuss things about the present and future projects. The discussion was more about a plantation program. The objective of the Panchayat was not to plant trees, but to get the monitory grants from government. The plan was to plant about 100 saplings. For that they needed 100 pits. This was a huge task. We suggested about Shramdaan, but the villagers were more keen on getting the JCB machines to dig the pits. They did not even plan for the maintenance. So it became very clear that their objective is not plantation, but the grant. During the discussion we met a person called Sachin. He was an electrician by profession and worked in Pune. He was a person full of energy. I was astonished to learn that the whole village was under debt of 60 millions. The village was facing water scarcity program and did not have more than one crop in a year. So they were in no condition to pay it back. And Sachin even feared that the banks might keep their lands on auction in future if they were not able to pay them back.

How come the whole village was in debt! That should be the next question. There was a scheme. A scheme to get water from the dam. I really don’t understand what happened and how the villagers were convinced, but all the villagers took debts from various banks. The scheme failed. The maintenance cost went too high. Moreover, no one was ready to take ownership. And so they did not attain the breakeven and finally in debt they are of 60 millions.

Sachin had a plan in mind. He had been studying some documents and maps. He had the map of the pipes and pumps in place. He had a plan in mind of how the village can be connected with the water in the dam. But then I don’t know why, the authorities did not seem to be convinced by it. Rather probably they did not want to get convinced. What ever the case may be, but there seemed a divide between the sarpanch and sachin. We went to the places around with Sachin. He showed us the pumps and wells. Jared said that if this system works out, most of the water problems of Abhepuri might get over. Lets see whats next.

-SD

Day 9

27th April, 2011

Miracle happened today! I woke up at 6 and went for a jog! People who know me, would definitely term it as a miracle. At 7, I went for quiet time session - Something compulsory for all AP residents and which I had been avoiding for days. In this session you sort of keep quiet for some 30 odd mins and then share what ever thoughts you had during that

quiet time. It seems to help you out for the rest of the day and give directions on how to go ahead. Then we(grampari team) went to Panchputhavadi.

It is a village near Abhepuri in Satara district. We went there to discuss the plan for constructing some water shedding techniques and some water conserving tanks. Jared and Jayashree Aunty discussed on the things to be completed and decided on the time lines. I was really surprised to see that from the 20 men in the meeting, there were just 2 of them with black hair! Rest all were with grey hair. Thats roughly 10 %. Taking that as a sample, we find that there are very less young people from th

e working age in that village. I talked to a couple of people there about there family. His whole family was in Mumbai. It was only his mother and him living there in the village. He too came only because the mill he worked for was shut down. His son works in Mumbai in a shop as a sales man. I also met another person - Mr Ashok. He too worked in a mill in Navsari, Gujarat. It was shut down and hence he came back to village and started farming. Thanks to the Mill owners for shutting them down, we got some farmers back working on the land. But now seems a bigger problem. Monsoons are irregular here. Soil fertility is decreasing gradually. And young

generation of farmers is totally missing from the villages. God forbid, but what if the situation worsens! If soil fertility falls further and no farmers to work - how would we get our food! May be I should buy a farm as soon as I start earning.

While returning, we went to a temple in dhomya village and had our lunch on the bank of river Krishna.

Villages are deprived of their basic needs. How come we expect them to get modernized!