* progress [As translated from Bengali]: It is a struggle, the issue of contending with protests and protestors is quite critical to make progress and build a successful and prosperous nation! Title is an inspiration from a website dedicated to communist idealogies.
It was not a team outing exercise! It was neither a team building exercise as it was made out to be. It was a karmic trip, at least for me! I recently moved to this new company where they had planned for an outing – of a group of “thought” leaders of the organization. Well, it was my first time in the “thought” leadership club and I was excited.
We as a group were one of the most domesticated bunch; We came from a school of thought where good clear water always come bottled, safe air, meant curtains down and A/C on; fire could only be generated via a gas stove. We sincerely believed that all the elements, just like any other service could be availed on paying a prescribed fee. Cognizant of this background, our boss, who had already been to this place, wanted to ensure that he set the expectations. He forewarned us not to expect “5 star” facilities. Given that it was a briefing session, it was really brief without much scope for questions and clarification and much was left to our imagination and so did we!
The outing was to a place called Honnemaradu, which was about 9 miles from the breath taking Jog falls, which is the highest waterfall in India. A couple who had bought 4-8 acres of land in that area was running a facility that facilitated an adventurous outing with special focus on conservation especially for the corporate. Usually anything entrepreneurial, especially of social entrepreneurship nature is viewed through a magnifying glass in this part of the world. I am not an exception to this.
We got off our bus, with our newly purchased adventure tour kit, the backpack and set off to the “resort”. The approach was quite messy and we were taking every step of our way cautiously so that we don’t dirty our clothes and sneakers… suddenly the troupe stopped. I could see a lady walking out of a bush in the wilderness, with an unusual attire [round neck t-shirt, a khakhi Patiala pyjama], bespectacled, with an air of confidence around herself and addressing us fluently in English and the local language. She looked like a member of the typical Medha Patkar clan.
She had a small orientation session planned for us all to sensitize us to the surroundings, rules of engagement with nature and finally the facilities at our disposal. The day started at 08:00 AM with a quick briefing session [Famously/infamously referred to as ‘Circle’ by our team], sumptuous but austere breakfast. Couple of interesting activities i.e. swimming in 50 ft water with life jackets and then some trekking was lined up for the day. Lunch was arranged in between these sessions. It was basic lunch with 1 sambhar, 1 popadum and 1 curry and pickle, but we were famished to such an extent that we went running to form the queue to get the food [This practice would continue till the end of the trip]. This was the same lot which, as a ritual, complained to the food committee back at our office to change the caterer because he doesn’t give that extra popadum or ice cream. After the lunch we headed for a small trek. During the trek we stories we heard and the sights I saw shook me up and provided me with a new perspective about Green Peace, Baba Amte, Medha Patkar, Menaka Gandhi and their agitations – basically protests and protestors!
Honnemaradu – was a village which was situated 300 meters from our room where we were put up. It was once a habitat for diverse flora and fauna along with human settlement was now submerged and eliminated from the map of India. Now, there is no village by the name Honnemaradu, just that these couple had named their resort to revive the memories of people in the surrounding areas. A dam was built in the 1950’s to cater to the electricity requirements of the state of Karnataka and this village fell in the purview of its catchment area. In that water source there were big tree trunks, branches and tips still standing, but lifeless. It would have made great photo op for P.C.Sriram [Top Cameraman in Indian movie world] or Mani Ratnam [India's Spielberg], and we trained our cameras as well.
Later on, during the day we realized that the place had a sad personal story attached to it… That night at camp fire, we listened to an elderly person reliving his childhood memories. He had a story to tell especially about a ceremony attached to the dead in his village. Whenever someone died in Honnemaradu, the villagers used to plant a tree and put the ashes as the fertilizer. Sometimes it would be too much for the plant to take and wouldn’t grow, so they used to plant another tree and shower some of the ashes to it. This way he said the village had grown the adjoining forest. The villagers had named each tree in that forest after the name of the person whose ashes was used to grow it. I went to sleep with a heavy heart.
But for the tiring day, I would not have slept peacefully that night! Again, no mattress, no mosquito coils, no windows or doors to the room and some parts of the roof opened up to the starry night! We were fuming from within but put an undaunted face so that others could also pull themselves along!
In my Dream – there was a court scene and random thoughts crossed my mind: That old man was able to communicate with me, so I was moved by the story and was willing to take a re-look at my opinion on Medha Patkar clan. (Sorry, I am not taking a personal dig at anyone) But, the same project had cut off the communication channel for the elephants from Maharashtra through to Kerala [States in India]. Hence, for centuries those elephants which have been moving all along the Western Ghats freely, cannot cross the dam and hence have been cut off from each other for ever.
How can we help in such situations, when it is only our friends from the animal kingdom who get affected and there is no old man to tell us a moving story? WHO will help us realize the significance of such human interventions and especially WHEN? Will it be too late? Or what if someone forgets / does not take this as a full time job unlike Medha Patkar? What will happen to the humanity?
I am not a great fan of Medha Patkar but I now understood the world / issue from her perspective! Especially, the “Narmada Bachao Aandolan” [Save Narmada river] movement. Now, I do really understand what impact a dam could cause to its environs. Especially after listening to that old man, I realize that the issues like construction of a dam, an industrial complex like Tata Nano or projects that qualify for the “Extreme Engineering” series in Discovery channel are much deeper. Such projects need critical assessment as they throw the whole ecosystem out of gear.
When I woke up next day morning, I felt fresh, my heart was light! When I felt the whiff of fresh air and smell of leaves and deep forest, I was reminded of the story the old man told us. The court scene from my dream popped up and I continued to walk around in a daze!!! I have had strong opinion against protestors and protests which are anti-industrialization. I cannot be blamed for it as I have spent more than half of my life in liberalized India and know and understand the importance of industrialization. When agriculture contributes to around 2-3 percent of India’s total GDP growth rate, why should more than 70% of our population work in that segment? Why shouldn’t they take up alternate career in industries?
With all these thoughts rummaging through my mind, I got out of the room to find some of my team ranting away about the toilets. I surveyed the toilets and certainly was annoyed as well. It was such pathetic that we had to carry water to the toilets as there were no pipes/taps inside. The lady and her husband who maintained the facility just walked up and started babbling about “conservation”! I snapped! I asked the question which everyone wanted to ask! Does conservation mean less convenience?
I have had my own thoughts about conservation, charity, praying, confessions, dieting, working hard etc. If you carefully observe we humans have a habitual urge to balance out every act of ours. When we earn a lot, we are forced into doing charity. When we party more, next day it would be followed by a church visit and typically before and after a vacation, long hours at work!!! Similarly, whenever we feel that we have used up considerable amount of resources, we get into a conservation mode! So if you really see this is more habitual than something sporadic! It is a natural instinct. Hence, when someone talks about austerity and conservation in the same lines and act as if it is only their responsibility to save the planet, I feel - Well mmmmm… Best of Luck!!
The whole day passed off peacefully as we were in water all along and had learnt to swim effectively and also to coracle. We decided to leave in the afternoon so that we could catch a glimpse of Jog falls on our way back! We had belted the afternoon lunch [same, 1 sambhar, 1 pickle, 1 curry, and rice] and gathered in a circle for de-brief! The “Odd couple” – who by the way are great people [irrespective of their intolerance to outside worlds urge to consume at any cost!] with their single minded approach to closely guard the sanctity of the ecosystem around them were definitely a great motivation and they brought out some interesting insights about our behavior and conservation, environment and things which we took for granted.
The trip came to an end in one and half days, we as a team had put up a brave face when we were subjected to an extreme transition from civilization to wilderness! We are an organization undergoing rapid transition and transformation and no other place could have provided the necessary physical duress, mental stress [with change in surroundings] and fodder for thought which made us believe that we are much more capable than what we think we are!
On our way back, in the bus, I did some introspection, and wondered if my problem was only with the protestors or the protests themselves. I agree with the agitation in principle but not with the protestors and their timing, methods and interests! I realized that, I had a problem with only the protestors. Protest is just a ramification of people’s feelings and they are capitalized by various outfits for various reasons. People were relocated and compensated but the issue does not end there. It is a matter of sentiment, feelings, and love for land / place where you belong. The subjectivity around this issue cannot be compensated. That is why most of the conflicts around the globe are related to ethnicity and uprising against an aggressor. So, protests are fine and necessary, for, anybody to critically analyze a given situation!
So, how about the protestors? The protestors usually are not the ones who are really affected by a particular incident. They are from various walks of life, with different motivations and when they protest in their own way, life gets difficult for rest of the folks around. They also, end up diluting the protest or change the context of the protest itself! Like for instance, the focus on Singur – Tata Nano project has shifted from unlawful land grabbing and dislocation of people to a bitter battle between Mamata and Buddhadeb! Amar Singh being involved only made it look like a Bollywood movie, and finally with the elder Ambani issuing a statement in support of Tatas it’s all come to a gloomy end for the poor farmers! From here on it’s only the Tata way or the high way! Either way it’s a lost battle for the farmers! During Vietnam war protests in the US, protestors used the context to build the hippie culture, smoke up grass, and promote rock band culture!
So who should have fought the battle? We humans are usually collectivist in nature and need the support and patronage of family and friends for even our personal decisions like wedding / education! We seek help and opinion from un-necessary quarters in an urge of not becoming the bad boy. That is where the failure is – when some one picks up our battles, we do not have much control over the spoils!
Stand up, speak up for yourselves, there by getting to address the original root cause, which will in turn be beneficial to the ecosystem and hence aid conservation and better life for the future!
Chaotic theory makes absolute sense!
- Ciao
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