India Visit -Few Reflections

[vinodks]

Whatzup Guys,

I am back from India after 28 days long dreamlike vacation. For time being lets postpone the interesting stories that I thought I should tell, well… hmmm on second thought, did I have to?… anyway, coming to the point, several months back a couple of us had started a discussion about organizing a meeting and village visit in Dec 05 in India where couple of abroad-abiding too could attend and start some kind of group meaning to contribute towards community. That finally culminated into Jat Jagriti meeting which, unfortunately, me and some other fellows couldn’t attend because of last minute change in itinerary. I am happy to know that 24th gathering was huge success with lots of new volunteers joining in. Though I read posts but couldn’t add because internet was slow in India. I am also sorry for not being able to meet all friends whom we had planned to meet personally, however some appointments did materialize e.g. meeting with Navin bhai was wonderful.
So I planned to do some work in the way I could with constraints of time and work force. Since we all work in same direction this could be called Jat Jagriti event #2 though I didn’t get time (and neither had wish to) to make noise in Jatland:-)).

I visited couple of schools and purpose of trips was two-fold.
1) To discuss with teacher and students the kind of issues that we had been talking about in Jatland for long and kind of assess the ground situation, to interaction with children and to see if any ad-hoc solution is available to any current problem.
2) The excuse for breaking the ice and making students comfortable was a 1 hr presentation in Hindi about scientific discoveries done in ancient India along with a video on laptop. Video, and so the talk, is a BBC documentary called “What the Ancients Did for US –(India)”. The purpose was also to enthuse children by tickling with curious little minds through informative discussion. The talk contained material easily comprehensible for kids: i.e. Indian mathematics (number system, zero etc.), advances in Indus civilization, advances in sculpture and cloth industry, metallurgy (like steel in “loh-stambh”), medicines and yoga, innovative instruments like clocks (water-clock and later Jantar-mantar), advanced ideas like perpetual motion machines, chess, rockets (first used by Tipu Sultan against British) and the language -Sanskrit. Children were very receptive and eager to understand things. I managed to visit following three schools.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/ancients/.)

Govt. Sen Sec School, Nandgaon (Bhiwani)

This is very old and famous school (3 km from my village Sarangpur) in the region where children from 5-6 nearby villages come to study and it has good staff till XII class (science too). Apart from aforementioned talk career options for XI-XII students were discussed. I was surprised by the lack of awareness about competition exams and hence the lack of motivation in studies. After general talk about quality in education and problems faced in rural area, it was decided to add engineering competition books in library for XII science students and put more emphasis on entrance exams rather than BSc in local colleges. Students and teachers were given contacts of NAJC in case any deserving student stands out. They really liked to hear about rather lesser known scientific achievements of ancient India. (First two pictures)

Govt. High School, Sarangpur (Bhiwani)

My alma-mater. Apart from few informal visits, the formal visit consisted of day-long discussions about need and possibilities of improvement in education. The quality has gone down since “my days” i.e. around early nineties. It was sad to see conditions in rural schools in general. We try to catch on to exact reasons through discussions and thinking but concrete answers escape us because reason for degradation in quality is complicated mixture of several inter-related factors. One reason is popularity of private school because they manage to produce better results in board exams. E.g. Private schools start teaching VIII books in VII and X books in IX, so that more people pass board exams but it’s at expense of quality in overall education. They put much less emphasis on other aspects of education like sport and cultural development and make student mug in extra time for more marks. Part of blame goes to parents and teachers too though the principal in the particular school was very nice and eager to help. She even offered a girl, the only student who had got scholarship in X board in the school, to stay with her family in Bhiwani so that she can go to good school. But girl’s family didn’t want that. Anyway we had motivational discussions with students with presentation. (Third pic)

Sukhram Memorial Public School, Kalirawan (Hisar)

My brother and I rode to Kalirawan on 01/16/05. We manage to reach just 5 min before the school closed and were received by Harphool Singhji (R. Aryaji’s contact, manager of development work). Class V was made to stay to listen to my chattering which I had to cut short although kids were very eager; that was followed by general chat with principal and others. It was more like a friendly visit with less planning and I was amazed to see the scale of Aryaji’s contribution and vision. It currently has classes up to 5th class and will be upgraded to XII once construction completes. The whole environment and set-up was quite different from regular schools. Children were very disciplined and education is virtually free. School property consists of about 30 acres which might be used for education center or institute in future. 8 resident quarters for teachers from far away and a guest house was under construction (the last pic). There are several such projects undertaken by NAJC which can be seen on the website. http://www.ajata.org/
(Last 2 pics)

[vinodks]

Remaining 2 pics of NAJC Kalirawan school

[vinodks]

I was able to organize a 3 day long volleyball gala in Sarangpur starting on 01/11/06 wherein 20 teams from 15 neighboring villages participated. It was planned rather in hurry but support and enthusiasm of local youths made everything work out fine. The purpose was to disseminate positive feelings among youths and to get an opportunity to observe and get first-hand experience about general condition prevailing among youths through informal interaction that 3 days of socializing and games playing provided. Flyers were distributed and track-suits for each players in the winning team and normal sport wear for runners-up were announced which, along with other expenses, (4000Rs) I was able to manage. Initial plan of including races didn’t work out because the schedule became very hectic due to massive participation. Sarangpur team was winner, followed by Shayamkalan team. The event was first of its kind in village and boys were eager to carry on similar games in future. It was decided to level the playground and buy sport goods which some generous relatives agreed to help with.

And
Antiquity and history fascinates me a lot. My desire to visit sarv-khap library in Budhana village and see the antic records couldn’t materialize. Unfortunately none of the Jat history book is available in shops and only two are available thru e-shopping. Thanks a lot to Raviji and Dudeeji for providing personal contacts through which I gathered following rare gems. E.g. B.S. Dahiya’s books are available from author’s relatives, if anybody is interested in purchasing, it might be possible for them to send them by VPP (though I don’t know how it works for outside country).

Jats –the Ancient Rulers by B. S. Dahiya
Aryan Tribes and the Rigveda by B. S. Dahiya
History of Jats by Dilip Singh Ahlawat
Jat Itihaas by Nathan Singh
From France to Kargil by Dhrampal Singh Dudee
Haryanavi Lok Sangit by Dhrampal Singh Dudee
Annals and Antiquity of Rajasthan (2 vols) by James Tod
Aryavarat by Swami V. Saraswati
NCERT history text books, class VI-X. Why?? Ha ha… galti dundne ke liye:-)

[vinodks]

Remaining pics.. winner team

[vinodks]

Its necessary to have group of people physically present in India, with trust on each other and their thoughts at same frequency level, to contribute towards community. Along the process of trials and mistakes one goes through a learning curve and then social work begin to look more like a profession and its being called “the selfless service” would be not totally devoid of hypocracy but then selfishness is the greatest virtue… even the just-mentioned simplistic thought is not completely true… ok lets leave it:-))…

People residing abroad like me have limited ways to contribute and there is room for creation of more avenues through which individual’s energy could be invested in proportion to one’s willingness. The conventional modes of social service have only as much effectiveness in bringing about changes. The most effective means of changes are through politics, administration and big organizations with business-cum-service motivations. First two aren’t direclty under our control and we don’t see immergence of third phenomenon too in rural area in near future. Still the efforts carried out by small groups like ours (many others which are not known in Jatland) certainly help in many ways. We all have good intentions but that’s not important, effectiveness of good-will depends on other practical factors like professionalism, innovative models etc.

Actually many people are thinking parallely towards social upliftment and a huge chunk of such efforts are not known to us. To give an quick example: Baba Yogi Neta-nath Trust in village Lohani (5 km from my place, on Bhiwani-Loharu road) is contructing a big hospital with 150 bed facility where poor people from the region could have access to cheap medical care. Such big projects are rare (except may be NAJC projects) and people who are working for it are so simple that they don’t even have email ids. I thought to myself shouldn’t they advertize their work and bring it in lime-light? But that’s not their goal. And it’s just one example, lots of work is underway in through projects undertaken by various trusts, orgns etc. Some individuals who do well financially, lets say NRIs, usually start a trust in the name of respected elder in the family and contribute towards society. These kinds of efforts DO really make a difference whose scale might seem little but indirect positive effects spread deeper and wider.

There is lot to say but let me finish after some more comments on particular issues like, lets say the sports event. Well, it’s becoming fashion in rural areas these days to organize sport competitions in villages. I could see posters for events almost every weekend during my stay. People organize by sponsering around 1000Rs and rest of the money is collected through entry fees and you get a decent recreational event-cum-entertainment. Of course, there are both sides to it; on one hand you have people coming together to talk and play in positive spirit and sport gets encouraged. But a fact lesser known to people who are reading this post siting far away and believing whatever is written in Jatland, is that these events don’t really add much in quality in sport and become more of an entertainment than sincere development. For example, most of them play cricket (which is such a waste of time) and players are mostly unemployed youth who indulge themselves in competition for trife aims of winning over another village without any higher goals of actually succeeding in that sport from professional point of view. Of course there are genuine players too and they should be encourgaed. As I said, it’s certainly good things to carry on these “social” events.

Oh yeah, I wanted to comment on transportation too. Transportation is getting so bad in rural Haryana that every new day more and more private vehicals (sumo, qualis, jeeps) get down on road without permission. They run ahead of govt. buses and pick up passengers and buses run empty resulting in dimished govt revenue. So govt has to cut buses on many routes which now are totally dependent on private vehicals. The worst thing about this system is there is NO time schedule for them. They start only when vehical is totally full with atleast 10 more passengers hanging on back and sides which result in more frequent accidents. I raised the point of collecting panchayat of 4 villages on our route and put an appeal to start govt buses again in codition that public will have unanimonious resolution not to sit in private vehical. But it’s hard to make people understand its importance so it was given up.

I discussed Right of Information with my advocate friend; unfortunately panchayat system doesn’t come under this right. Sarpanch is not obliged to submit bills to govt autorities however there are ways to get the account if one takes it to the court something which is very uncomfortable to do with your relative in village. The sarpanch in my village had gotten around 20 lakh Rs during Chautala’s govt. (from central govt. BJP, not from Chautala govt.) and money is not at all visible in the work done (there was some definitive work done though). It was hard for me to make way through intricacies of good relations and silly ideas of development.
Rest later…

Ok fun time…
While going to India I got a cheap ticket from the worst airlines ever, Aeroflot(AerofloP), and they mishandled my baggage, which I got after 4 days full of tension… never travel by Aeroflot… anyway, was happy to get them… then cold was getting colder, green fields with yellow mustard flowers in spectecular scenes were so soothing… Had a nice HAIR-CUT…Ate baajre ki roti, bathwe ka saag, gajar, muli, sakargand, mungfali… ate slept ate and slept... met old friends, new friends, just friends, and a-little-more-than-just-friends… Yeah, one day I thought what is most unusual thing to do and instantly packed for 3 day tour in Rajasthan… visited Bharatpur and Jaipur… it gives strange sensation to be among old dilapilated hawelis, forts, palaces and imagine how it must felt like to be “there” and “then”… Time is such a magical phenomenon... anyway, traveled and slept in 3rd class boggy by night and toured by day… Last time it was surprising to see street vendors carrying cell-phone… this time I saw sheep-herders carrying cells and telling home where exactly herd is grazing… so the rest happened… You can view some cute pics below… pic in next post is Maharaja Surajmal’s palace in Bharatpur… 3rd one is cutest pic…

Jab wapis aaya to dosto ne poocha
“Kya be, shaadi-wadi hooi kya?”
I said: “Arre yaar, is baar to bus baal-baal bach gaya”
They: “Tu bach gaya ya wo bach gayee?”:-))

Enjoy!
Vinod

[vinodks]

Remaining pic.. Bharatpur palace

[devdahiya]

You are a bloody silent killer. Great job done bhai...infact i had noticed that fire and desire in you long back. Wonderful stuff indeed! I am more than confident that people like you will do a grand service to our community. Please accept my heartiest congratulations and A big Shabashi on doing a big service in silent modd. You stay blessed and have a long fruitful life is my prayer to God. Keep up the spirits ! Thanks for the complete update. Good luck dear.

[fool4love]

:eek: :eek: :eek: wah vinod bhai wah.. jamaee silent killer likree aapto.. just as Dev sir said!.. things like this make a big difference in the community!! I wish u all the luck too. keep up the good work.

[singhkapoor]

Vinod, it was a job well done; indeed!!! NAJC is proud to have patrons such as you.

I wish we had more workhorses like you, who would spend more time in the Jat Land than on Jatland.

Best Wishes

[devdahiya]

Vinod, it was a job well done; indeed!!! NAJC is proud to have patrons such as you.

I wish we had more workhorses like you, who would spend more time in the Jat Land than on Jatland.

Best Wishes


Kapoor Singh bhai....Donnu jaroori sein.......Jatland bhi arr Jat land bhi. balki Jat te aapki Jat Land mei jyada hein...hadde Jatland pe te kuchh bhi konya? You must get connected to those people who are available on ground for years and will be available all through.After all Local resources are important and unless you involve people[for whom you want to do good] at that level with utmost sincerety and devotion, any thing achieved will be for a clap and nothing substantial at all. Nice to see you on line.

[navingulia]

Dear Bhai Vinod,
I wanted to mail you for long. It was a pleasure meeting you in gurgaon and i have been wanting to tell this to you ever since. I was amazed by your enthusiasm and zest and energy.
I have been badly down and out with sort of food poisoning. Just little better today.
I was just able to have a brief glimpse at the details of the events organised by you. It is so wonderful, encouraging and inspiring. Thats the wonderful part, when we all decide to do our bit where ever we can, in whatever ways we can, we should just go ahead and do it. And you single handedly organised so many activities. It is a motivation to all of us.
I am also eagerly wanting to get well and get back to work.
Best Wishes and Regards
Navin Gulia

[vinodks]

Thanks a lot, Dahiyaji, Kapoor, Kamal and Navin bhai... The discussions that has been going for past 4 months and the formation of workforce in Delhi could really make a difference... Kudos to everyone involved...
Navin bhai, sorry to hear about health, take care in eating and get well soon...

Regards
-Vinod

[shokeen123]

Dude! You superseded everyone’s wildest expectations! And here I was… wondering about this mild mannered physicist preoccupied mostly with science! But that’s not you are all about…! Now I know what you had in the depths of your heart and on the lofty agenda in New Jersey. Those of us present at the NAJC meeting can relate and attest to your dedication and commitment. Great job, indeed by an army of one! Keep it up!

Kudos and best wishes:)

By the way, Sabine and Niels et al have been inquiring about you...

[ramsarya]

Dear Vinod:
Thanks for finding the time to visit the school in Kalirawan. I feel proud to know you personally, specially finding so much of time to do your bit to help the community. I feel bad for the students that they could not enjoy a full day with you. I hope your next visit will be of a full day at least. I would like to get your views abt the school, its curriculum, activities, teachers, management etc, specially how these can be improved further. I do not think you got a chance to go and see any of my family members. If not before, will see you in the next meeting of NAJC in April/May. Again thanks.

[vinodks]

Sujataji, thanks for that wonderful appreciation. But its not just me who did this work, there were lot many local young people involved in helping around in making flyers, distributing them in villages, going to schools to organize meetings, cleaning the ground, providing staying facility and food to players from far away villages, and playing relentlessly. These people won't be able to see what we discuss here but they get more credit than me. And it wasn't to gather credit that these things are done, I posted this report here to give an example so that more young people join our efforts and contribute through whichever channel they can.

Ram Aryaji: Namaste, It was my pleasure to visit the place where such a grand effort was underway to provide quality education to rural childern. I had planned to spend much longer but we got late on bike. About the school, as far as I had interaction with staff everything was given better attention than general public schools, although a longer interaction would have needed to get into details. Principalji (sorry I forgot her name) was very concerned about quality and Harphoolji was on heels of workers and 'thekedar' to speed up the construction. In fact, he said to workers if certain part of roof is not complete before 26th Jan all the bricks will be thrown on their heads:-))... I liked the fact 'only' Kalirawan village childern were enrolled and medium was English. I am really sorry I wasn't aware of the fact that your family was present in village and neither anybody mentioned that.

Regards
Vinod


Dear Vinod:
Thanks for finding the time to visit the school in Kalirawan. I feel proud to know you personally, specially finding so much of time to do your bit to help the community. I feel bad for the students that they could not enjoy a full day with you. I hope your next visit will be of a full day at least. I would like to get your views abt the school, its curriculum, activities, teachers, management etc, specially how these can be improved further. I do not think you got a chance to go and see any of my family members. If not before, will see you in the next meeting of NAJC in April/May. Again thanks.

[rkumar]

Really fascinating report Vinod.

RK^2

[priti]

What a tremendous effort Vinod. Well done! I'm pretty sure you dont need much appreciation as a person like you gets satisfaction just by doing such work and not by words of appreciation, but still...its awesome! Some of the pictures are particularly nice. Next time you better inform some other people too to share the experience (and work :))

Best wishes
Priti

[anujkadyan]

Awesome work Vinod bhai !!!

[drrajpoonia]

excellent, good work,keep doing....

[raj_rathee]

Great going and excellent update Vinod. You are THE dude !!!!!

[sjakhars]

Great work done Vinod and in great silence. Well done!
This will encourage many others who have the zeal to work for community upliftment but by some reasons can not make it happen. You shown the right path them.
Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.

[sktewatia]

i missed u too. got worried n annoyed also whr had u gone n lost just suddenly.

[vinodks]

Dear tewatiaji, thank you, this is the sweetest reply... the mention of word "miss" truly signifies the love and affection that we share on this website...

keep the spirit up
vinod


i missed u too. got worried n annoyed also whr had u gone n lost just suddenly.

[arunlovy]

Many many CONGRATES Vinod bhai.... May god give all the success and prosperity...
bye

[scsheorayan]

Dear Vinod,

Good work and hope others can follow it too.

[sansanwalamit]

Kudos, I am very much inspired by your work and hope I can make my effort in similar direction.

[vinodks]

Rae Chhore jat ke, thanks and you can get in touch with Navin or anyone from that gang, like S. Tokas who is in your neighborhood... we will be discussing few things and working on them in future... you can join the group...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JatJagriti/

I too stayed in Katwarya sarai for some time... place full of Jat landlords with 5 story houses gathering stout rents:-)))

-vinod


Kudos, I am very much inspired by your work and hope I can make my effort in similar direction.

[devdahiya]

What next Vinod....? Let not the movement die down.Keep up the goodies!

[vinodks]

Thanks for asking kakaji... Have couple of things in to-do list but hands are tied up in research... Jan jagriti guys are keeping things going, but I am not able to keep up with pace becuz I am busy till end of April... There are couple of things I cud do and there is no excuse for not doing but it takes time... given my position I indulge in 3 kinds of activities; first, educating myself about history (Jats and ancient India) but its personal thing... second, working in local Jat community like in DC/VA, haven't been able to do much:-((... third, helping other orgn in what they are doing, some plans in pipeline, lets see... Lekin, abhi mamla thanda hai. Kuchh hota hai aapko sabse pahle pata lagega:-))

-vinod


What next Vinod....? Let not the movement die down.Keep up the goodies!

[devdahiya]

Thanks for asking kakaji... Have couple of things in to-do list but hands are tied up in research... Jan jagriti guys are keeping things going, but I am not able to keep up with pace becuz I am busy till end of April... There are couple of things I cud do and there is no excuse for not doing but it takes time... given my position I indulge in 3 kinds of activities; first, educating myself about history (Jats and ancient India) but its personal thing... second, working in local Jat community like in DC/VA, haven't been able to do much:-((... third, helping other orgn in what they are doing, some plans in pipeline, lets see... Lekin, abhi mamla thanda hai. Kuchh hota hai aapko sabse pahle pata lagega:-))

-vinod



All the best Vinod...! God bless!