Memories of Hamirsar Kutch- 10 years after Earthquake

Its been 10 years since I worked in earthquake response.

Suddenly I have got my old dusty file "Hamirsar" and found interesting cutting of news paper I have saved.

how did we solve "dhamrashla" dam problem

this is one of the most exciting experience of my life :) as I explained we were building a dam in dhamrashla and the dam had bund according to counters so the bund has to pass thru the filed of one of the farmer called "kana poncha" .. very stubborn guy !!!

usually we dont pay reimbursement to farmer for the land being covered under bund [not a big one but may be 100 mt x 3 mt patch of land] but we expect the farmer to sign MoU that the land still remains under his ownership but allowing us to build the bund and he will not get any monitory benefit for that.

I know this is really difficult challenge and matter of fact if we dont lay that bund across his farm we cannot complete the dam construction and to the extent that we cannot build a "gorge' [central portion of river] and let the water go waste... oops!!! the water was costlier then gold in that water scare area!!! and the whole village was benefiting from that dam :) but we can't move because one farmer is not willing to give his land to let us lay a bund.. :)

we tried our level best to negotiate.. the village leaders.. older and respectable people .. all tried.. the guy was having an argument that the approach to his farm will close.. and his neighbour was as usual his brother and they were having not good terms so.. he was hesitant to pass thru his brother's farm..

what a dead lock!!!

we tried all possible options.. no movement :(!!! completely dead project..

finally Mr. Anil shah who was CEO then.. called upon a meeting with minister of Irrigation Mr. Karamsibhai Makwana.. convinced him to intervene the case..

finally one day I got a call from Mr. Vora incharge PC] to get down to Mr. Karamshibhia's house [which was 3 km from dhandhalpur and just opposite to dhamrashala village].. I took my bike.. went to his place.. Mr. Vorabhai was too there.. Mr. Karamshibhia.. a very simple village man and yet with a great support from his community a good political leader and in the position of minister.. was sitting there.. he welcomed me.. offered me a cup of tea,, we talked.. he said lets go !!

I was ready.. Mr. Vorabhai was too.. but i was surprised that there was no car!! no car with red light on top... no private big car.. [this is 1993!!! the minister are still simple living and high thinking personalities!!].

so i stood up.. he asked me how have you come? I was in a bit low voice said.. i have a bike [rajdoot].. he said OK i will ride that :) and i was like what ????? ohhhhh!! wow!! completely surprised...

so I drove him to the village where in village we had other AKRSP team members.. waiting for us.. Mr. Karamshibhai went to one of the village's respected "god's messenger"["bhuva"] and took a place.. he asked some one to call kana poncha..

the farmer took time to come.. he came with discreet entry.. stood silent.. as Karamshibhai is a big personality.. and once he call some one .. its kind of a BIG BIG thing...

Karamshibhai explained him what AKRSP is doing, what are the benefits to whole village etc..

the guy explained his problem.. karamshibhai.. asked "god's messanger' to find god's will.. he does.. he said GOD too in favor of big dam.,.. Karamshibhai asked "kana poncha" to sign the MoU... he did agree but requested karamshibhai to come to see his farm first..

we all went on site.. walked far to his farm.. we explained about bund position etc..

finally karamshibhia talked to farmer how he will be benefited and how can he approach his farm... and promised him to support if he face any problem...

the guy agreed!!! he signed the MoU/ NoC... ......

that was the day of history in AKRSP -sayla...

what an achievement... we solved 3 years old problem.

Bravo Karamshibhai!!

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Babloo in the cabinet!!

I am recollecting old memories so not sure about dates!! but it was in feb/mar 1994..

Babloo ; the younger son of Mr. Vorabhai and Roshan bhabhi!! very naughty as usual of any young child of his age, he was approximately 5 yrs of age that time...

I usually work until late evenings in my office.. it was around 6:30.. Vorabhai was on a field trip, Roshanbhabhi came rushed  to my office with a worried face.. and desperately.asking me "Manishbhai did you see babloo? I said no!!! She explained that for past 30-45 min he is out of sight!!

she further added that she tried to look for him around her a house block, area around quarter, devjibhai and shivram's quarter... almost all possible places... he is no where!!!

I started worrying as well... and told bhabhi that let me go to the highway at 'chandu bhai's pan shop" or "maraj's restaurant" !! of course I was not sure that babloo could reach up to those spots.. but since he is not in campus, I thought to give a me try.....

I walked up to highway [20-30 meter from our campus!!] tried to look around.. look for babloo in those two spots.. asked chandubhai and maraj..... No success... so now this is a crisis...

I rushed back .... updated Roshanbhabhi.. she was now really panicking.... I went inside the office again,.. suddenly I heard tapping/ knocking sound ...I tried to look around!! the sound was coming from a bit far from my "engineering room"... and I found that it is coming from Rajeshbhai's office... I rushed there...

and surprisingly.... babloo came out from Rajeshbhai's table cabinet.. :)

what a feeling.. what will you say to an innocent kid?!!!! I smiled at him , hold his hand and took him out to Roshanbhabhi.. (his mother)  !!! what an experience!!

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Jani had a dog bite

This look funny but infect it was serious incident happened ... my memories are blurred about dates and time but it was around Nov'93...

I already introduced Jani.. a very interesting person ; a civil engineer... working with AKRSP for long as PA. based in dhandhal pur and looking after "sokhda village irrigation tank" construction.

one of my favourite chap in AKRSP.

So I was suppose to visit Dhandhalpur.. [I was based there but went to Sayla for a meeting].. i just got down from bus...

I saw a big crowed ... i sense some unusual things.... many kids and elderly men-women were gathered... i walked towards them... suddenly in middle of crowed i found Mr. Jani.. with torn pent... and left leg was bleeding...

I was shocked!! rush to him..............the crowed gave me passage

.... jani gave me smile and continued smoking his "bidi" [local Cigaret] he was bit calm!! and explained me that one of the black street dog didnt like him much... this morning when he was passing by this naughty dog he started chasing Jani .. Jani started conversation but didnt worked well and dog decided to dent him!!

I started panicking , he was still calm... i said was he "mad dog" ? do you need doc? do you need any help? he said no worries.. I will go to sayla soon [by bus]... the crowed started scattering and finally he got the vehicle to travel to sayla!! :)

Learning PRA- what an experience?

AKRSP is one of the fantastic grass root organisation who puts community in the centre of everything they do.. starting from planning process.

one of the great tools is PRA [Participatory Rural Appraisal] ... I still have to learn this social approach to the technical development.

Mr. Anilbhai Shah [CEO of AKRSPI] was considered to be "guru" of PRA.. so he arranged a 3 day training program for all the staff to learn PRA.. one day in "sayla" [pre-PRA] one day in field [doing PRA] and one day for compilation of data/finding and presentation to the villagers...

As i was cluster incharge of "dhandhalpur" i was given responsibilities to select village for PRA in consultation with Rekha [CO].. Rekha recently started going to new village called "gundiawada" just opposite to dhamrashla village.. 6 km from "dhandhalpur".. so we chose that village..

Rekha informed villagers about PRA exercise date /time/ purpose etc.

the day came.. Anilbhai was fantastic in conducting sessions.. especially "dos and donts".. he was really amaizing speaker/ orator and facilitator.. i was really charged up.. infect all the participants were excited to implement what they learned on day 1.

next day early morning we reached to "gundiawada"... all [rather most of the villagers] came in meeting , we explained the purpose of PRA [to collect the information and get over view of the village] .. then we divided the villagers in various group...

I was with Natural Resource Management Group... we started mapping resources... after that we started mapping village mainly the streets , location of communities within it and broad mile stones....

one of the lady came forward and questioned "why are you mapping the houses ?".. one of the group leader explained in simple yet articulate way "this is to know who is living where in village, so it is easy for us to find you and come to you"....

we kept on doing exercise ... wealth mapping, seasonal calendar etc.. then came the lunch time,

we had to travel 5-6 km to for lunch so we promised villagers to come back in 1 hr time..

we have had nice lunch.. we talked alot on the info we collected.. it was fantastic.... we were excited to do some more exercise and infect transect walk..

we came back to village...and the moment we entered it look like a dead village.. most of the movement were ceased up... we were surprised !! we walked up to common place were we decided to meet... no one turned up... Rekha went around trying to find ppl.. she came back with pale yellow face...

she said we cant do PRA any more in this village.. lets go back..

we were almost shouted "why?"!!!!! and the story was stunning!!

The lady [from one of the strong community called "darbar"] who asked the question why we are mapping!!! she took the charge after we left the village and issued a strict warning to the villagers not to provide any information to us.. she said we are collecting info and mapping the houses means we are thieves and we will rob them all.....

all villages believed her and stayed away from the exercise..

Rekha and our group tried to convey the message that we are development worker not thieves or robbers... but no one listened to us!!!

we came back with heavy heart...

what an experience!!!

i was thinking on following:

1. AKRSP is working in the area for past 6 years..

2. AKRAP was working in the village just adjacent to "gundiawada"

3. AKRAPI was building a huge dam right next to that village..

how come they havent heard about us? how come they never show us ? [of course we pass by that village thousand time..!!]

how come they could interpret our well explained purpose of PRA?

was it necessary to do house mapping?

was it necessary to explain more sensibly?

was it a case of miss communication or a political motive?

was that lady wanted to be "hero" or "leader"?

....

well we came back with lots of fun , defeat and learning!!

Learnings:

1. we learned that it is more important that before we do PRA we need to have little bit more repot building in village.

2. WE shall be more clear in explaining purpose of PRA and various exercises especially mapping tools.

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first few days in AKRSP

second day started wit more inductions ... going around.. getting familiar with the surroundings ...

VB patel Program Assistant who was senior staff working in AKRSPI and wanted to be PO but never got selected... so more frustrated.. i was the one whom he will report.. so it was obvious that he was not so co-operative immediately.. .. he still showed me some files.. my table and some procedures....

i met another guy Ghansyam who was working on computer and use to assist PC for adm work. since i was attached to computer i got close to him very quickly..

i met another PO [VI] ; Ms. Shilpa vasavda... very intelligent, charming, out spoken, vocal and articulate lady... straight away we could mingled up ..

in evening she invited me to go with her for "Village Institution Meeting".. i agreed... we started around 7:30 in the evening.. to go to chotila and then a small village 15 km from chotila..

Sayla to chotia is 33 km... so we took 45 min. ... we stopped on highway and picked up few more staff from chotila.. there i met Mr. Ramesh PO[e].. my counter part in chotila.

we went to village ..it was my first experience of VI meeting.. it was interesting.. shilpa was really leading meeting.. I was impressed by her.. completely astonished and charmed!! the meeting and discussion went on and on till 12:30 in the night.... it was interesting though!!

so we finished late and dropped people on the way...

we came back to sayla at around 2:00 am.... i was tooooooo hungry... shilpa proposed to eat at "maraj" [chef] restaurant .. a small dirty looking, dim and unhygienic restaurant near our bunglows.... well the food was warm and nice... not much to complaint as no option we had!! since i was too hungry every byte of food was testier then sweet!!

so i had interesting, tiring and nice day....

next day.. i started to go thru files, designs, current projects, payments etc.

in the evening Rajeshbhai came to me and talked that as per new agreements PO who joins the AKRSP has to go in village and live there for 3 months for better induction and learnings.... it is compulsory during probation !!!.. i accepted the offer and agreed to move to dhandhalpur village.. kind of 20-22 km from sayla.... i joined Mr. TT mehta.. he was renting the room in one of the widow's house.... He promised to share... the rent was 100 Rs.. and the land lady was providing Tiffin services in 100 Rs./month too..

so i had to spend 150 Rs. i was ok with location, arrangements, costing all.. but the only prob. was the room had no latrine.. so i have to walk far off and use bushes!!! bit difficult.. but i was ok...

in the same house we had other 2 staff members renting the room... Ms. Rekha aghara and Ms. Shanta patel.. Rekha was CO [Community organisor] and shanta was PA [program assistant engineering]. one of the other PA mr. Jani was also living in dhandhal pur.. a nice and funny guy!!

i had to see the day to day cluster activities, take interest in social work and take control over engineering work...

one of the big dam construction was going on under our organisation was 7 km from dhandhalpur... in village dhamrashla.. we call dame ROT [Rehabilitation of Tank]... i had motor cycle Rajdoot!! so TT, Jani and myself share Rajdoot and Rekha + shanta shares M-80 [small bike]..

i have started visiting site regularly.. started attending fortnightly meeting with Rekha ....

i liked the way of AKRSP works.. professional yet very participatory and grass root level presence. i learned alot..

yeah.. one of the good thing about my dam site was ... there are plenty of bushes ... so i started using it as latrine.. i get ready early morning.. TT was nice enough to prepare tea for both of us most of the time.. after tea we take bike and go to site at the earliest..... around 7:30 or 8:00 am

Ms. Shanta was site in-charge for Dhmrashla Percolation tank[ Earthen dam]..

Mr. Jani was incharge of Sokhda dam.. [a small storage reservoir in village Sokhda... 15 km from dhandhalpur]...

i stayed there for 3 months.... it was full of learning.. i still have to share nice experience of PRA and Gender training I attended in coming articles..

first day in AKRSP

So it was 26th .. my father wanted to come with me to help me with luggage and all.. Sayla is infect 80 km from Rajkot my place... but not many buses stop by!!! we have to choose particular bus.. .. so we reached Salya bus stand at 11:00 am..

the AKRSP campus was on highway.. out skirt of small town Salya.. nicely built campus with main office building, 6 small bunglows , 2 maid quarters... and nice guest house.. ..

i was impressed by design, location and greenery..

I went inside.... found Mr. Rajesh Kapoor and reported him.. asked his advice for next step..

he introduced me to TT Mehta.. a surveyor and requested TT to help me in writing my joining report... i followed TT .. wrote report.. handed over to Rajesh kapoor..

by then it was lunch time.. so i left my lugguge in office went with TT for lunch..

Me, my father and TT.. reached to small black dirty looking highway side "dhaba" [restaurant] . that was one of the two dhaba in entire 6-8 km of patch.. :) so happily set for food.. it was too hot!!! spicy .... :( well no way out... we had to eat.. the food was cheaper.. it was 9-10 Rs./meal

My father left me there and started his jurney back Home.

I went back.. Mr. Rajesh kapoor called one of the guy called VB; a program assistant...... to help in introduction.. i followed him.. he showed me engineering department, my table...who else in the dept. all... he showed me al files.. he was sincerely introducing me to the work.. ofcourse he was not well organised and i failed to understand the link between files.. work all.. but definately could get one good over view... i was happy... i was suppose to live with some one there as my official quarter was occupied.. the guy called Dashrath.. ... he promised me to vacant sooner.. i was ok.. i said take your time...

and i stayed with VB.... in his quarter.... it was a bachlore quarter... 3 guys were staying there.. VB, Ghansyam and chandu [surveyor].. only 2 guys were there at that time so i joined them..

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good relaxing first day.. still lots of happening ..