VIDAL

Bhupal on Loose

Recently, I let Bhupal loose. I said, “Look my dear, time has come for you to work by yourself. I am not going to pay you a salary any longer. There is no revenue model for COW as we thought earlier, so what all you are able to earn is yours, you don’t have to give a share to anyone, but you have to be by yourself”. He nodded bravely, but his eyes also have shown a bit of worry. I felt like a parent, who is sending his/her child to a distant land for facing life. But, I held my chin up, not showing him that I too am worried. Bhupal is special; we walked together on this way for nearly three years, constantly learning from each other.

Bhupal is an Information Provider riding “Computers on Wheels” in Ghanpur mandal in Mahbubnagar.

I don’t remember the first time I met Bhupal, I guess, he looks and behaves so common that I didn’t notice him, only when he started taking the COW equipment usage seriously and curiously he came into my notice. That shows how blind folded I was in noticing bright souls.

Bhupal is a story by himself. He was going along with Hari the then IP who launched COW in all villages and under his guidance was handling digital camera. Digital Camera was the first gadget that had consumed Bhupal’s attention then. Quickly he started to look at the laptop computer and solar equipment. He didn’t know how to ride a mobike initially; he would peddle a bicycle though. He learnt using a mobike and also took a learners license and now has a valid driving license.

Now, Bhupal ably handles equipment by himself including minor troubleshoot. He meets people (including foreigners and officials) guides them in villages, markets his abilities without help. People who meet Bhupal are generally impressed with his abilities. Amol Vilambe from Kirloskar was impressed with him so was Franziska Sinner from 800 ppm. There were several others like that.

What impresses most about him is his learn ability of new things. He is quick to grasp, quick to apply and very quick to move on. Added to this capability is his charm, he speaks less and means business. When he accompanied me to the District Collector, he pulled out his laptop opened mysql server and fired his software like a very experienced software techie. He is a charmer out and out…

Bhupal comes across really as an empowered one. He goes to the State bank of India directly and meets an AGM and asks him to outsource digital imagery services from him. He goes to the District Collectors Office and manages all line departments to get his cheque for the services he rendered. All this from a village boy who didn’t even complete his secondary school from a very remote village that didn’t even have a proper road or telephone till recently is commendable.

My role has become simple introductions to the relevant people and occasional document preparation and sometimes making a phone call to enquire about certain developments. I don’t have to say I am happy with this stage of affairs because I truly believe that using ICT, enabling rural development and building a livelihood is his call and not mine.

Bhupal came to Hyderabad the day before from the village to get his equipment repaired, and having come he met up with some prospective clients, alone all by himself. One of them is a health insurance service provider, big name, well funded section 25 company. Bhupal and I have been going around them for almost six months now. He was to be engaged for facilitating health insurance in 21 villages using ICT enabled process management. He called me up towards the evening and said that concerned HR officer told him that the company is encouraging big NGO’s to come to them to manage the portfolio than engaging barefoot ICT people like Bhupal. He might have been disappointed, but didn’t show it, because I guess he didn’t want to upset me. He surely does not know that it is just not this company but even government who has this attitude. Corporitisation of rural development has become the order of the day. His contact at the SBI with the AGM was fruitful and the empathetic AGM said he will take him along for his field trip and engage him for outsourcing banking requirements. He went back with mixed feelings saying he will try out talking to some more clients and get business for himself.

The money he earned a couple of months back was good and will see him through for some more time. He has to build a client base and earn again. He is into bigger things now and digital photography does not excite him as much as it used to earlier. He is taken by knowledge work now.

He is a persistent guy and will not give up. He tasted a sense of freedom and respect. Just about an year and half back, his father said he can not work without a salary and he came back to me and said ” I think enterprise model is better but my father says I can not work without a salary” and surrendered his equipment and left. He is not the same boy anymore. He convinced his whole family towards his decisions and they have even taken me as a part of their family. His father said once “I have put my boy’s responsibility in your hands”, as I was keeping him informed about developments from time to time.

Bhupal knows there is a path to self sustenance and success. But it is not easy for either Bhupal or me. The path ahead is tough for both of us. When he went to the collector’s office for cheque collection, he was made to go around in circles for a month before the cheque was given to him. Then the dispatch clerk said that they took special care to move his file, subtly indicating they should be paid something. Bhupal escaped the situation saying he will have to talk to me. Immediately after elections when we went to the village, Bhupal discussed about how every one was paid 500 rupees for casting their vote. He laughed and said “I am not into those things, I am in COW party”

Bhupal is on loose. But will he have staying power? I don’t know, I only know I have too many expectaions from a young village boy from an ordinary family.

At a personal level, it is important for him to do what I say, because he believes it is for his good. For me it is a huge responsibility. It is so much better to walk side by side than lead. But I am taking to leading only because I respect Bhupal’s sentiment and affection for me. My capacity might fail me and him, but my affection will not. After all it is an eastern model for development.

This is the first blog being published in ViDAL CMS. I am Rajeswari I am a social development practitioner, and work in some remote villages in Mahbubnagar District. My stint with social work is not new but social work in developmental context is very new, just about five years.

I thought hard and long about what I should write in the first blog. To make it easy for myself I thought I will write about one of my recent experiences and about harmonium keys and tanpura strings.

I was on a shopping expedition recently and chanced meeting two young girls in famous Hollywood Shoes in abids (by the way, I live in Hyderabad in India). I felt cheerful to meet these two girls who were very courteous and offered me a seat by adjusting a little bit each. One can never find place to sit in this shop. I always wonder, from where so much money is coming for people to shop all those fancy chappals etc., Some of them are costlier than an average income of a poor family. I sat next to them and got into a conversation as the assistant took forever to get the kind of sandals I wanted. I got to know their names. One of them is Sitara and the other is Anju. They work in a BPO doing medical transcription and took a day off for shopping. They actively participated in selecting sandals for me, as I openly expressed that I feel like a fish out of water without my daughter helping me shop. They shared some common feelings like I do, and said it is hard to find people with whom we can talk and relate, especially in a city. That led me to talk about villages and I said I don’t find that problem when I frequent to the villages and I can actually get to talk to village people much easily. Sitara then said something very profound, she said “my music teacher says, people in towns and cities are like harmonium keys that make sound in isolation and people in villages are like strings on a tanpura, sound from one sting carries on to the sound from the other string..”. This simple yet powerful analogy stayed with me now for more than 20 days, and I keep thinking about it every now and then.

I think that this analogy means urbanites are indifferent and rural folk have a sense of connection with each other. To a large extent it feels true, but I think it is mythical too in today’s context.

I remember going to Appareddypalli (one of the villages I work in) in 2003 when the Director of Stanford Reuters Program came to visit “Computers on Wheels” project in field. By the time we went to the village square, there was a small gathering of people and an auto rickshaw was standing in between. We could hardly make out what was happening. Even before we could comprehend what happened the auto rickshaw left the village carrying three or four people tightly sitting inside. I enquired what the matter was from one of the onlookers. He said one of the persons from their village is axed by another person from the same village. They had a quarrel about politics and one axed the other. Within no time, the place settled to normalcy and people were very casual about what just happened. I do the same thing in the city, when I see violence. Initially, my blood pressure shoots up, and then I settle for being an onlooker, meekly watching without trying to stop.

We held our meeting under the tree near the temple after some time and asked about COW project and came back to Hyderabad. Looking back, I feel, all of us over there were so indifferent with the issue of violence. Where is the sense of connection that Sitara spoke about? I guess I went to the villages in search of that connection having been raised in a small town in a close-knit large family and community. I am still searching for that sense of connection that will work, not merely exists when all is well.

Violence triggers feelings of fear, and it is easy to detach than protest, whether it is a day to day issue or bigger problems like a war. In small communities generally the reaction is expected to be different, where protection of theirs falls on majority of the crowd. But that too seem to be changing. I guess our perceptions of issues like justice are changing rapidly. Going into situations of risk and saving fellow human beings is becoming more a story than one of the norms. Is it the sheer frustration of numbers for people living in populous countries like India or it is general apathy all over the globe? There are more questions than answers.

I wish I can talk to Sitara and Anju a little more. But, dumb I was that I have not even taken their contact details.

It is an abrupt ending, but, believe me I can not write anymore, I am overpowered by feelings of sadness. I wish tanpura strings analogy is true and we can protect them from becoming harmonium keys.