Villagers rejecting Lucky Draws - July 3.

On June 26 when lucky draws were taken and prizes were distributed by officials a few villagers displayed their anger on me. Their complaint was that only those who got last time only got the prize this time also. They were not ready to believe that the draws were genuine. I had to assure them, which I had already announced during my speech, that next time there won't be any draws and gifts would be given to all those who attend learning centers for the entire week. I took this decision after consulting Dr.K.V Ramanachari, IAS, who promised to buy gifts for all.

Now comes the new Sunday, 3 July. The irony was that Dr.Ramanachari could not arrange for the gifts, citing his own reasons, for the second consecutive week. I would be embarrassed in front of villagers. I had to do something. So, I purchased 25 steel plates. In addition I also purchased individual polythene bags, costing Rs.4 each, and placed each these plates in individual polythene bags.

This Sunday, my regular sessions with the volunteers was cancelled as the Deputy Director of Adult Education organized for retired Director of State Resource Center to train the volunteers on teaching methodology. Expected him to open the text books and give them a full length training, but it somehow turned out to be a dud. Probably there was some miscommunication. He explained how easy it was to teach by drawing a circle, breaking it into two halves and using them for writing Telugu alphabets. In one go I doubt, if people found it easy. He spoke more about SRC, certain personality traits etc. He was not to be blamed as he had to consume time to accommodate volunteers late arrivals etc. I had to go, along with other volunteers, to houses of volunteers who had not turned up, another major problem.

In the evening, in spite of my request Sarpanch wanted the weekly Sunday event with the villagers inside Gram Panchayat's office. My request was to organize outside the office as the office was too small to accommodate the gathering. The villagers and volunteers gathered inside the office. As expected the place was too small. All the volunteers had to stand outside. When I looked at Sarpanch in despair he just expressed helplessness but promised to arrange well the next time.

We ran a video downloaded from Internet, using a projector organized by my colleague Sunanda, which played Telugu alphabets with pictures (a - amma, aa - aavu, e - illu). The illiterates watched attentively as if it was a Chiranjeevi's movie :). This gave me an idea, which was in the back of my mind for a long time, that these illiterates must be given Telugu alphabets charts so that they could put it on their walls and learn on their own. I was for long planning to organize computer kiosks with these kind of videos, but not able to get the right people who could help me.

After the video I spoke to them. Inquired about the progress. Indicated that the time is fast running out. Urged them to spend more time for learning etc. While concluding I had shown them the gifts, steel plates which I had for them, and told them that as they were not interested in lucky draws, will plan for better option next time. All agreed in chorus as they were thinking that the lucky draws are being manipulated. But when Sarpanch started talking all got up and started leaving. This clearly indicated that they were unhappy even with the decision of not giving anything, which was actually theirs :)