India Shining: Myth or Reality
A lot has been said about the rising and shining India. The electronic and the print media show and print some numbers called sensex and inflation rate every day and we in cities bulge with pride after glancing at the numbers which most of us do not understand. We discuss and celebrate those numbers as success stories with our families in drawing halls, with colleagues on coffee tables, with friends (with a glasses of alcoholic drinks ("perhaps")) without knowing what they really mean. And it does give us a feeling of being an intellectual. And yeah....we also talk about how we should make the villages rise and share the glory of cities. PERIOD. It all ends there with a dinner, a coffee, and a beer. But after seeing this part of India, the projected success appears HOLLOW and gives me a feeling of hallucination. It irritates me to see the non-existant infrastructure required for a civilised life. The English robbed this country for almost 200 years and left. The remains are being settled by the petty politicians. And they are having a free hand in fooling the people with literacy rate so low and the SO CALLED middle class intellectuals busy in debates on coffee tables and unenthusiastic to vote.
I do not know. I might be wrong. But the root cause of all this is EDUCATION. So it is important that we give the same quality education in remotest village as is accessible to city. So atleast at present the "Shining India" motto appears a myth to me.
The First Acquaintances
Let me introduce you to some people I got introduced to during my stay at the guest house.
Rajanna: He was my cook for a month during my stay in the guest house. He is from Palsi - a small village on the border of Maharashtra and Andhra. He can speak marathi. So gives me a good feeling. Rajanna is around 45 and is a hard working man. He really makes good food
Mubashir: My driver. He is 22 year old and cool guy. Speaks Hyderabadi hindi along with telugu. He taught me that in Hyderabadi hindi bus is pronounced as "Busaan" and road as "Roadaan". In fact I have realised that many words in Hyderabadi hindi end with that "aan".
Kishore: He is a local bloke trying to make his career in local politics.
Rukmesh is accountant and Mahendra is office clerk. Chinnaya, Narayan, Sayanna are the attenders in the school.
The School
The school is sorrounded by the Sahyadri mountain range and dense forest. It becomes really beautiful when it rains. After the rains many birds come on the school ground in search of insects. I have identified - Indian Robin, Wagtail, Red Wattled Lapwing, Drongos, Bee-eaters. Few days ago I have also seen Indian Roller. There is a poultry farm of King-Fishers - Literally. The school is sorrounded by rice and corn fields.
