The Dark Days of a Village

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Contact Me

Friday, June 27, 2008

One fine morning I got up and to my surprise I say good number of vehicle entering into the village. Since the village was in a valley, I could see the fleet of vehicles from the top of the hill. They were enquiring about me - the bank manager. They belong to Electricity Board and REC and they gave me a pleasant news of electrifying the village. When they were talking to me, heavy load vehicles too entered with the Electrical Polls. The officials desired me to specify a spot in token memory of my efforts for Electrification of the village.

They dumped a poll in front of my house too. They said that electrical wire would be drawn in due course of time.

In the meantime, perhaps, the same day, I received my transfer orders to another Village by name Kota in the same district and reliever too suddenly appeared before me.

I left the village saluting the land, with one sad feeling that I could not see one electrical bulb burning in the street and in houses, but amidst a cheerful send off when the entire village was present at the Bus Stand.

Officially I was Successful

Villagers started feeling me as one among them and started sharing their comforts and discomforts more than to an elected leader of the village. I reached the business target for 1978 too. I paid attention to the cropping pattern in the village and started physically verifying the fields while inviting the Government Officials in the related fields by organizing camps on different topics.

Yet, my eldest daughter could not go for proper education those two years and I failed in that area. My second daughter newly born could not be given proper tin food as suggested by the Doctors for the relevant age due to non availability of medical shops in the area and frequently we were forced to run to Kavali or Nellore for such purposes. Most of my salary was spent either for the village development activities or for bearing the additional cost of living.

I requested for change of placement from the area and the Management did not agree initially for my repeated pleadings perhaps with a reason that a suitable substitute could not be immediately located or may be that no other officer was willing to take up the responsibility compromising personal comforts.

Sacrificing the personal comforts was a serious matter which was thought of by each staff then and now too.

In the meantime records proved me as the only officer of a bank staying in an unelectrified village for as long as 28 months or so (physically staying in the village).

Water and all

In due course of time, after satisfying myself with the achievements like setting up a Library - a reading room, a small shop with the needy medicines, a cinema tent and such, I started concentrating on protected water supply while persuing the matter of electrification with REC. A few hundreds of letters were written and prominent one among them was a letter written to the then Prime Minister of the Country Shri Charan Singh who accepted my approach. I was invited to Delhi and It was a day most memorable in my life when I could convince the REC people for electrification of the village. An order was issued accordingly and I was quite happy that my presence in the village could yield some fruitful results though it costed me heavily.

Soon after coming back I requested the Zilla Parishad to grant Water Scheme to supply protected water to the entire village. Survey team was sent by them.

The First Light thro a Diesel Engine

Somehow I was successful when I persuaded Sri Subba Raju - one of the contractors of the village to set up one cinema tent and he bought one cinema tent with a single projector from somewhere near Chittoor and brought the tent to the Village. A trail run was done after setting up the Tent and the single projector. One small 80 watt bulb started blickering at a hight which was visible for all the villagers. That day was really a day when the people of the village was shown what a bulb was and how it gives light. A loudspeaker was set up and songs were played on it with a mike on advertisement lines as to what picture was on display. Only one show was shown by the exhibitor. Film reels of the old pictures were brought to the village through the only available transport - the public transportation bus. The picture was exhibited from 7.30 p.m onwards when all the villagers complete their routine work and get some free time. Every twenty to thirty minutes there were breaks after a reel for the change of the reel since the cinema was exhibited on a single projector. Ten minutes break was given for each reel and during that time tea, snacks etc were sold in the hall. The tent used to get filled up with smoke through cigars, cigarettes, local beedis etc and it was eye burning situation for those who were sitting in the hall. The picture was exhibited till midnight and there was only one show a day.

This was surely a land mark in the lives of the villagers and I was quite happy when villagers approached me and thanked me for initiating setting up of a cinema tent. Even today - say after 30 years or so villagers surely remember that historic day of the village

Efforts on Electrification of the village

Thursday, June 26, 2008

One Unusual Day

The rainy season started soon after my taking charge of the branch. Suddenly one day in the early hours I found bullock carts going up to the hill while crowds followed it as if it was a procession. I could not understand what it was. In the meantime Mr Raju - my office assistant came to me running and asked me to vacate the house and go along with him. The reason was that there was a Cholera Case in the village and the villagers preferred vacating the village for fear of life. I was holding the first set of safe keys and the clerk in the office was holding the other set. In the meantime the other set of keys were brought to me with an information that the staff were also leaving the village.

Myself and my wife (a pregnant lady) looked after each of our faces and we decided to stay back in the village if necessary alone and take care the property of the bank - no matter what happens. We conveyed our decision to the staff. That one day life in the village was a land mark in our lives - we were all alone in the village amidst all darkness. My wife prepared lantrine much earlier than the routine daily time.

This was the incident that inspired me to use the type writer for drafting the situation and for finding out the possible solutions.

A few days later I asked one of the villagers to open a small shop and retain the basic medicines like Anacin etc for quick use by the villagers and I assured him that I would provide required financial assistance either through the bank or personally. That was the beginning for the reformations.

Water was carried in pots to my house and a major portion of my salary was spent only for procuring water. Initially I requested the Village head to try for putting medicines in the wells to keep the water free from backteria.

I startedmeasuring the distance between the nearest electrical point to the village from the two neighboring district places. I calculated the number of electrical polls needs either side. A detailed draft was prepared and the need for providing electricity was placed before the Rural Electrification Corporation in Delhi and Hyderabad. I wrote that if electricity is provided to the village, it would help the villagers to go for lift irrigation using pumping machines, and the ladies in the village shall have free time which could be used for other income generating positions. Electrical need for pumping protected water to the houses was also stressed in the draft document submitted.

As usual there was no response from REC. In the meantime I geared up people for adult education by providing the books I possessed at that time. A small centre was initiated and gradually people preferred to enter into the so called Library. I started getting news papers from Kavali and the papers used to come to us normally the next day or so. These papers were also placed in the Library for public reading as they could not afford spending any money for News Papers.

The next point was my role responsibility as Bank Manager. I requested the villagers going round each house to open a savings bank account with as little as Rs.5 per account. The response was not encouraging and as such I offered each account holder a passport size photo if an account is opened. I was possessing a Click III camera and it used to give us 12 snaps per reel. The reels were sent for processing and for prints whcih used to come to me after ten days or so. It was a matter of surprise for the villagers to see their photos and it was a point of attraction for all the villagers to come to the bank for opening of the accounts. This photo business costed me heavily on my personal purse but it gave me good results and I could successfully reach the target of Rs.6 lakhs by the year end.

Lot of appreciation letters from the Bank management were received, but there was no occasion for the bank management to knew how the confidence was created in the minds of the public and how an interest for depositing into the bank was created. Lot of money was personally spent, and lot of energy behind the successful reaching of the target.

My wife was sent to a different place since it was delivery time. I used to take my wife for regular check up on my scooter to Tekurpet in Cuddapah District duly crossing the hill and the jungle - carrying all the risk. Dr Rosa Basani was the medical superintendant at a Mission Hospital and she treated my wife. I may have to shed tears even today when I desire to write my bad experiences while travelling on my scooter with a pregnant lady and small kid in the night times through the jungle on the hill.

My daughter Shanthi could not be given any convent education/education at that point of time.

And when my wife left for Pithapuram for delivery, my life journey started as a single individual in the entire house when lantrine etc were to be cleaned every day for night light by me. It was a strange job for me and the cuts to the fingers are still a nightmare.

Scorpians and snakes were commonly seen the house and there were good number of bites for which the villagers used to run to my house with a tribal remedy.