7 August and the Negative Energy flying everywhere

Goal Scorers:

In a football game some players work very hard in taking the ball up to the opposition's net (goal post), where a gentleman from their own team stands waiting for the ball. The moment the ball reaches him he just pushes the ball into the net and takes away all the credit for the goal scored.

I draw this analogy of Goal Scorer with 100% literacy project at Bakaram village. My invitation to Collector to visit the village was only to encourage the adult learners and also to make the ward members accountable. But, with the Collector and MLA's visit some people, even those who were unaware of the existence of this project in the first place, felt that the 100% literacy project's victory was just stone's throw away and have become Goal Scorers.

I was shocked to see some Club person, who I never saw till date, not only shared the dais, sitting next to Collector and MLA, but also claimed that the 100% literacy program was his baby. The biggest joke was that, after the Collector had left, he walked up to me and warned me with dire consequences if I continued working for this project :D

Surprisingly, even the officials of Sakshar Bharat appeared to have suddenly changed their stance. Apparently they were unhappy because the Collector did not praise Sakshar Bharat during his speech. An official with whom I shared all my plans before implementing them for the program decided to take control of everything. Right from meeting Dr.K.V.Ramanachari to using the short film maker as per his wish rather than for the plan for which I got him hired etc, he wanted to sit in the driver's seat and sideline me. But, the way he was taking potshots at me, frequently, were really funny. One of them was his jibe which said, 'just because a man was coming daily and playing with a baby the world was thinking that the man was the father of the baby"  :)

The literacy program of course was their baby and my intention was not to take credit from anybody. I would like to make them (villagers) smart people with good wisdom so that they would be able to think and act. The essence of my fiction was also same. I want villagers:
1. To be able to read newspapers and become learned citizens

2. To be able to make differentiation between right and wrong

3. To be able to make right decisions and choose right leaders (political etc)

Anyways his visit to Dr.Ramanachary's office for the first time (clandestinely??) was auspicious as on that same day some cultural artists arrived in Dr.Ramanachary's office and Dr.Ramanachary ordered them to visit the village and help in motivating the villagers by way of performances.

Cultural Program on August 1 - Monday:

My regular Sunday program was cancelled because of the "Bonalu" festival. But on Monday the cultural program was conducted by the artists. Meenakshi, the village coordinator told me that the program went on very well and she had tough time in organizing for the program. The coordination with the cultural artists was done by the Sakshar Bharat official. He might have been on cloud nine that in my absence a program was conducted and it was a huge hit :)

My visit to Village on August 3 - Wednesday:

I, on the other hand, was chasing Meenakshi and Jyoti to get the documents, given by Collector to the Ward Members, so that those could be sent to Collector. I could not see any positive response, as Meenakshi's phone was not working and response with Jyoti was not satisfactory. So, I visited the village on 3 August to meet them and tell them the importance of Ward Members involvement. My objective was to use these 10 Ward Members for monitoring their respective wards. This way we would have 10 more people working on the ground along with Meenakshi and Jyoti (plus Chandra Shekar and Jagan, if they were really helping). My visit was futile as they did not collect the documents. They promised, as usual, to collect soon, by Saturday and hand it over on the same day when I visit. I was at least happy because I was able to show the village with the help of Jyoti, to my father, my sister and her family who came to the village along with me. They actually came to a nearby Eng college the same day.

Cancelling my visit to village on August 6 - Saturday:

Saturday around 3 pm I get a phone call from Jyoti that ward members felt that I should come only on Sunday as Dr.Ramanachary's father expired and was being cremated. I did not understand the logic here...

I then requested her to talk to all the volunteers and let me know the time convenient for them to have a session for the next day. She promised to let me know by 10 am the next day.

My visit to village on August 7 - Sunday:

I did not get any phone call and I myself called up Jyoti at around 10.20 am as I was growing restless. Jyoti told me that I should come at 3 pm as many people would be busy in some puja on that particular day (some snake puja). I invited Mrs.Pamela, IAS, Asst. Collector to visit the village in the evening and check the progress from the Ward members and she happily agreed.

When I reached nobody was there and at around 4 pm a few volunteers, 5 in number, led by Meenakshi arrived. Waited for sometime and there was hardly any improvement in strength. My dependency on village coordinators for gathering the Volunteers and also updating of progress in the computer was failing continuously. So, the best solution was to give those responsibilities to the Volunteers. Identified sets of volunteers for these jobs and they cheerfully agreed to help.

Later the Mandal coordinator arrived, as usual for nothing. At around 5 pm Sakshar Bharat official also arrived and within a minute his favorite ward member also reached the Sakshar Bharat office. The ward member arrival immediately after the Sakshar Bharat official's arrival was anyway a regular practice. They started discussing about Sarpanch (why???) and also about various other ward members. As expected the ward member only spoke about all the negative things about Sarpanch. My head was aching with their gibberish and I went out for a few minutes.

When I came back I was really pissed off when the mandal coordinator, with a sad face, expressed that ward members were not working. I started blasting mandal coordinator and indirectly everybody. I asked if he was working in spite of his Deputy Director instructing him to visit the village on daily basis. I once again told everybody that if the project failed each of us must hold ourselves responsible. I also vented my anger by saying that the project was heading towards failure but upon seeing Meenakshi coming in I controlled myself as I did not want to discourage her.

I wanted to see some adult learners who were not cooperating, but could not as Meenakshi was busy organizing the evening program herself.  Sarpanch was not well and the other concerned person who was supposed to help was not available. Jyoti was also not present.

The cultural artists, 6 people, arrived. Apparently they all came by bus. With banner and drums we went around the village inviting all for the evening program and also announcing the chief guest's name.

Oath by youth association members:

Once we were back to Sakshar Bharat office the Sakshar Bharat official called all the male youth inside the office and after our encouraging words Meenakshi made them take the oath to work for the 100% literacy program. Later, the Sakshar Bharat official was giving unsolicited advise (why???) to the youth to put their demands in front of the visiting Asst. Collector.

Mrs.Pamela's arrival and my cancelled plans:

At around 7.45 pm or so Mrs Pamela, IAS, arrived. With the Sakshar Bharat official overseeing the arrangements along with Meenakshi I had the luxury of just relaxing and watching the proceedings. This was, sadly, the first Sunday on which I did not share anything to the learners from my laptop. My plans were to show a motivational short film, education material and also explain the test pattern with some sample test paper. But villagers were accustomed to 7.30 to 9 pm schedule and hence it was not a good idea to make them sit beyond 9 pm after the cultural programs.

Ward members drama:

The program started and people started trickling in. Sarpanch also turned up along with a couple of lady ward members. But other ward members were conspicuously absent. Mrs.Pamela, IAS, was to meet each of the Ward members and check the progress sheets which were given to them by the Collector. Surprisingly none turned up. Later we were informed that they were all at a ward member's house and deliberately did not come to attend the program as they were unhappy with Sarpanch. I really felt pity for Sarpanch. Poor chap was investing so much for the literacy program which was never a part of his responsibility. Still ward members were pointing fingers at him that too for the things he was not guilty of.

Speeches:

Time was almost 9.30 and there were just a hand full of adult literates still seated. I had told the Sakshar Bharat official earlier also that we need to stick to 7.30 to 8.45 or 9 pm schedule, otherwise they would definitely leave. Anyways, we all spoke, thanks to volunteers and also a few youth association people. During my turn I reminded learners (where were they??) of examination date and requested them to work hard. Also requested youth to check with Meenakshi and team and find out the names of the people who were not cooperating and try to bring them to the learning centers. My speech was followed by Sarpanch and a few youth association representatives.

When we requested Mrs.Pamela to talk on stage earlier, she hesitated again the way she did last time. The culprit being her little knowledge in Telugu. Sakshar Bharat official jotted down a few lines on a piece of paper and she planned to read it. But on stage she first spoke in English and Hindi which I translated. She appreciated all including the cultural activists. Later the atmosphere became the festival of photos. With people thronging to have photos with Madam, she had to oblige with all. When some youth association members came to her with some association related demands she told them that if they work rigorously and make the literacy program a success, she would definitely accept/take their demands.

Dinner plans:

Initially when I told Mrs. Pamela that she Sarpanch planned for Dinner for her she requested me not to plan  as she needed to leave early. But when Sarpanch himself requested she had to give in. She left for Dream Valley in her car along with Sarpanch. Before leaving for Dinner, the Sakshar Bharat official told me that there were 6 cultural program artists and requested me to accommodate three and he would take care of the other three. I agreed for the help. When I was going towards my car the youth association members came to me rushing and requested me to bring Mrs.Pamela again on August 15. I told them if they bring all the 263 learners to learning centers in the coming week I would definitely talk to her about their request.

Inhuman touch:

By the time we had dinner and came out of the Restaurant of Dream Valley it was 11 pm. I was to drop three cultural program artists at Mehdipatnam and the Sakshar Bharat official was to take care of the other three. But, he just told them to arrange on their own and left the place shocking all of us including the Sarpanch. Just a couple of days back the same Sakshar Bharat official was calling a high profile person, with whom lot of continued help was expected, a poor man as he lost his 90 year old father and it was his duty to attend the funeral. Now, he felt these cultural people were rich as he no more needs them. Food for thought :)

All were worried about the 6 cultural troop members fitting into my car. There were a couple of people elderly, one above 60 years old. Sakshar Bharat official's subordinate at least thought for them (really??) and told them that as he was going to drop Sarpanch in the village, he would ride triple on his vehicle and drop one person outside the Dream valley road, which is half way between the main road and the village. He also advised me to drop one person at the same place so that while coming back from the village, after dropping the Sarpanch, he would pick both of them and drop at the highway road/bus stand. He left with Sarpach and another guy from the cultural troop.

I was not happy with the plan, though was better in the circumstances, and decided to carry all the 6 people in my car. With 5 people, 4 in the backseat and one in front, I started from Dream valley to the road connecting the village with the main road. Once I reached the place where another guy was standing, one boy from my car was getting down. I told him not to get down and requested the other guy on the road also to get into the car. He somehow squeezed into the back seat, 5 in all. He then told me that subordinate had advised him to stand there itself and wait for some two wheelers passing by to ask for lift. This one really shocked all of us. It was completely dark. At 11.30 pm people might be returning to village but not travel outside from village. Moreover in the darkness nobody would stop to help out of suspicion. It was a jungle kind of place. When a snake could be found, in the heart of the village that too with hundreds of people around during 100% literacy program launch, which almost bit a lady and she had to be rushed to a hospital, what was the guarantee that this dark and bushy place could be safe.

I felt that if Sakshar Bharat official left these people in the dark, then his subordinate put their life in danger.

This episode involving two educated people once again proved that education without humanity could be dangerous. I thought I should tell Meenakshi that while imparting basic education to the illiterates she should also start teaching humanity to literates.:)