My Rustic Journal

Azolla? What's that? the question reverberated in my mind for quite some time before I actively started searching for answers. The government, as per the latest provisions under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), had included construction of ' Azolla ' tanks along with cow sheds in villages. The search for answers led me to Google and then, some videos and blogs posted across the web. The Wikipedia suggested that Azolla ( sc. name Azolla caroliniana ), is a type of fern with very small leaves that is mostly found floating over still water bodies - lakes & ponds. Its nitrogen fixation properties make it useful as a bio fertilizer and fodder for animals. So that's where everything connected. Azolla tanks were to be constructed along with cow sheds to provide for additional fodder for the milch animals. That cleared some air about what we were trying to do. Further exploration on the internet brought me across some videos (mostly from South India)...

Its been almost two years since I became a fellow and was posted in one of these so called backward districts - Surajpur. Time and again I have been asked questions like what am I here for what is the agenda that I'll pursue here. Some have probably gone far ahead and labelled me as the crazy guy to leave home to spend time a 1000 miles away. But there is something about the job that we do as fellows that makes waking up every morning and slogging it out very addictive. May be its the power that we derive out of our knowledge. This isn't a generalization, but most of the mid level and lower level staff in the government have low educational qualifications and haven't had anyone to guide them or teach them efficient ways of doing everyday work. Teaching new tricks for analyzing data on excel or using cloud computing for syncing files or even basic techniques in any software makes the staff look at you in awe and the more interested youngsters are always eager to learn the...

18th August 2012: All bags were packed and I was suddenly traveling to a district whose name i had only heard a couple of days back - the Surajpur district in North Chattisgarh! After our two day state orientation in Raipur, we were asked to report to our districts by 21st August (Monday being a holiday for Eid). But, having no place to stay in Raipur, we decided to leave for our districts on Saturday itself.With the other five in our group having departed to their districts in South Chattisgarh by busses, i took my train to Surajpur with great uncertainty of what i was about to discover. The train route to Surajpur is mesmerising - and no less so than the Rayagada - Koraput Route or even the Konkan route sans the tunnels. Bright green paddy fields with dark green trees dotting the landscape meet the eyes for as far as they can wander. And you immediately fall in love with the place that invites you to its fold with such a view early in the morning. I landed in Surajpur on  ...

Its been a month since a new journey, called the Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellowship Scheme began in TISS, Mumbai and time is one thing that I have completely lost track of since then! You probably start forgetting the concept of time itself if you have a fixed schedule from 9 AM to 8 PM across 7 days of the week. The training began on 10th July, 2012 when 44 curious minds got together to understand what challenges lie ahead of them in bringing 'development' to the 78 Left Wing Extremist (LWE) districts across central India. The first few lectures were completely about development theories and paradigms that really made me think if there was anything going right about the Indian state. Given a chance, I think, a lot of professors in TISS would take up arms themselves to throw out the State and bring in a Revolution. Thankfully, things calmed down over the next few weeks which were more about different government schemes functioning in IAP districts, Research Met...