July 17, Sunday's Program - Asst. Collector's visit

My blunders:
Generally, on every Sunday I visit the village at 11 am, sharp, and have a session with volunteers where in I talk, discuss and teach things to keep them motivated. Motivation is like fire, unless you keep supplying fuel it dies down. Hence this Sunday session was also very essential as it would serve as fuel and keep them motivated, like the burning fire, for the entire upcoming week. But, this Sunday I had to cancel the 11 am session because of some personal work and postpone the session with volunteers to 3 pm. This was my first blunder.
I started from my residence in time to reach the village by 3 pm but after covering considerable distance I remembered that I did not pick up Projector from residence. This was a second blunder and surely this was going to spoil the session with the volunteers.
During last Sunday's program Sunanda, my colleague at work who attended the last Sunday's program, suggested me to keep the projector with myself and hence it was with me. The projector belonged to her. I had to rush back, collect and proceed again. By the time I reached it was around 4 pm. Not many volunteers were present by that time. Hence no session. :( I asked them to start listing down the names of the illiterates who were to be given gifts in the evening program.
Mr.Srinivas Babu's proposal:
Meanwhile, Mr.Srinivas Babu, Supervisor from Adult Education, called me and proposed a plan. His plan was to show the Asst. Collector some learning centers and then will make her attend the program. I was against showing learning centers as on Sundays there won't be any centers because the illiterates assemble at Gram Panchayat's office for the evening program. I told him I had already communicated to her that learning centers were seen only on week days and on Sunday the villagers assemble for the program. I also indicated to him that it would look fake if we show centers on that day only for the sake of showing. Moreover the program would also be disturbed with the new addition, as I was planning for many interesting things. I could sense his unhappiness with my decision. Later, I called him and gave my consent to go ahead, so that he was not upset.
The arrangements:
Sarpanch came, asked for the requirements, instructed people to make arrangements for the evening program and left. Since the focus mainly was on the illiterates learning something, I requested the people to arrange the tables for the chief guests to a side. This would ensure that the illiterates would face the wall to which projector was to be focused and from the side table the guests could also watch the computer projections.
Asst. Collector's arrival and visiting of learning centers:
The Asst. Collector, Mrs.Pamela Satpathy, IAS, arrived along with Srinivas Babu, who picked her up en route. She was a very young and graceful lady. She enthusiastically visited the learning centers and upon seeing her the illiterates were eagerly handing over their slates and books to her so that she could see what they had written. The Collector appeared happy to check their writings. She tried to read their writings with difficulty and most of the time was successful in identifying the Telugu words. Some wrote their own names or their village's name, some even wrote the Collector's name, amusing her.
The commotion:
Later, we reached the gram panchayat's office where our regular Sunday programs were conducted. We asked her and Sarpanch to occupy the chairs behind the table and I started displaying some learning based video's. While the illiterates were watching it keenly we heard somebody shouting. He was a man and was drunk. He was shouting for a while and none were ready to go and stop him. He was raising a big ruckus and Sarpanch had to get up and try to stop him. But the man was not heeding and was further raising the voice. Sarpanch tried to push him away, but the man fell down. Then came a few people shouting on Sarpanch. Now there were two gangs jostling, shouting and there was a commotion. There were other male ward members who could have got up before Sarpanch but they were just watching the drunkard as if he was providing some comic entertainment.
Smart and bold girls:
The Volunteer girls asked me if they could go and stop them. I was really amused as there were men who could have stopped this nonsense in the beginning itself and here were a bunch of girls who wanted to try and stop the melee. The girls then advised me to stop the video so that they could start singing the song. I had asked one of the girls earlier to prepare to sing a song which she was singing one day, when I visited a learning center, for entertaining the illiterates while they were learning. The girl sang it very well, with the help of couple of girls as chorus. The song stopped and the commotion was also dying down. But one gentleman was shouting unnecessarily. Collector madam remarked that this guy is too fearless and she appeared little upset. But, she maintained her composure through out.
The Speeches:
Later Mr.Srinivas Babu addressed first and surprised everybody by taking just one Ward member's name when there were many ward members. He then handed the mike to me. As promised to the illiterates during my last Sunday's program, I had shown them one of the questioning pattern on screen explained how simple it was to answer. Then told them that we were left with just 33 days to go for exam. Also announced, as promised, that this time all the people who had attended the learning centers for all the 6 days in the week would be given a gift.
Mr. Srinivas Babu then requested the same ward member to talk. I clearly told him not to make this program formal and bore the villagers with speeches. He has his own way. The ward member, apparently belonged to a different party, is very much against Sarpanch. He spoke for a considerable time, that too the things which were not related to the subject. I could see the villagers getting bored. When the Sarpanch was asked to talk he was reluctant because of the ward member's speech content. When requested he had to speak certain things only to counter the ward member's points. Probably that was the reason he chose not to talk initially.
It was the turn of Madam Pamela, IAS. I think, she hesitated initially to talk as she was not well conversant in Telugu. But, when she spoke, she spoke with excitement, saying, "your village is very good" in Telugu. I wanted to translate her Hindi speech, as people there don't understand Hindi, but her flow was so smooth and she was talking with such enthusiasm I did not feel like interrupting. She told the people that some people create nuisance like this and we should not fear or care. She also told the people to listen to our heart and if our heart says what we want to do is right then we should definitely do it. She concluded her speech by promising that the next time she would speak in Telugu more fluently. As there was no time I decided to translate her Hindi speech and share it with all the people in the next Sunday's program.
Wrist Bands and Gifts
Mr.Srinivas Babu bought some wrist bands and wanted all to wear/tie it. The intent was that it could serve as an oath for accomplishing 100% literacy program. The idea was good. I hope he also understands that just by garlanding a cow, the cow does not yield more milk. One has to feed the cow with appropriate fodder and take care of it well. Likewise the project does not progress with bands alone, he or somebody with capabilities has to be available on ground to steer it forward. Mrs.Pamela was requested to tie the bands for a few people.
There were more than 100 gifts to be distributed to the illiterates who attended learning centers for all the 6 days of the week. Earlier I bought 25 steel plates only and wanted to have lucky draws with regularly attending illiterates and and pick 25 names only. Later, for a change decided to give gifts to all and took the help of Dr.K.V.Ramanachari for buying more plates. As the time was running out we decided to give gifts to only 5 people. Advised the volunteers to hand over the gifts personally to their respective illiterates.
We randomly picked a few names and Mrs. Pamela did the honors of handing over the gifts to the illiterates. The funny part here was certain people, whose contribution in the literacy project was almost nil, were found adjusting themselves for the photo session while Mrs.Pamela was distributing the gifts.
My worry continues:
I ended the program by saying that we all have roles and if we just perform as per our respective roles we would definitely see 100% success. But, I was 100% sure, it fell on deaf hears. I was directing this to Sakshar Bharat people, except Meenakshi, and the Ward Members, who appear whenever there was a chief guest or photo/video event. On other Sundays responsible people of the Sakshar Bharat and Ward members were hardly seen. But this day, their attendance was full. I wish their attendance would also be there on daily basis. Their attendance and keen interest is the main mantra for the project's success, as there was a lot of work to be done. I think the time has come for me to talk tough.
Every Sunday people were going back happy and probably I was the only one who was not happy. Nobody seems to be interested in facts and figures. The facts and figures were, in reality, terrible from the fast approaching examination day perspective. Two of the important objectives of my Sunday program were not met. They were to gather more than 80% of illiterates and also the village youth. The illiterates attending the program could be around 70 people out of 268. The youth is conspicuously absent in spite of inviting them. I am now wondering whether the program is successful or not, of course I would still conduct the program till August 21, the day of exam. Leaving aside the success part, the attending illiterates have to be really lauded and appreciated as many of them were coolies and have come to the program after a tiring long day of hard work, but still sat through the program which lasted till 9.30 pm or so.
Newspaper release - Surprise quotient:
The next day when some gentleman called me over phone and asked about the designation of Mrs.Pamela as the matter was being printed in newspaper, I clearly told him to select only the snap which also displays Meenakshi as she was the one who was leading the project on the ground making many sacrifices. The gentleman promised he would do it. When the paper came out Meenakshi was no where to be seen in the newspaper photo. But, that gentleman was there very much :) Ironically, the same gentleman very recently told me and Sarpanch that Meenakshi should be highlighted everywhere as she was doing wonderful job :)