AND THE MEMORIES LIVE ON

The last few days have simply been amazing, i have always read and even debated on the pro's and con's of rural life but come 1st May and there i was nestled in this serene little village called ambatha (which is around 100kms from nashik) ,and thats when it hit me real hard i mean debating and talking for hours on end about people living in these villages is one thing but actcually living that kind of life and experinicing it for yourself is totally other.I always thought i could manage but i nearly "freaked out" when i realized that there were no taps in the loos and bathrooms and we needed to draw water from this well , and there was water scarcity so we had to save the tiniest drop of water, yup the area we stayed had fans and lights its just that we never were really able to use them there were power cuts for 20-22 hrs a day .The firstday or two i must admit i was wondering what did i get myself into but come the third day it did not matter whether there was electricity or not , nor did it matter that we had to draw water in fact i fell in love with all of it not for once after that did i think it was difficult or uncomfortable.The most of all i fell in love with the kids (the aim of trip was to teach these tribal kids english they were in standard 10 and were studying in marathi medium) this trip has really made me think and think some more its brought some real worrying questions to mind like
firstly when we taught the kids and interacted with them i realized its not like they are dumb or that the don't know stuff they are equally good and smart its just that they have a real problem communicating their thoughts in english speak to them in marathi or hindi and you will be suprized the amount of gyaan they have , the language barrier does exist and thats where the whole problem lies and in a way it made me change my prespective towards certain things like intailly i would strongly feel that reservations at the grassroot levels (like schools,colleges ....)and all would help these kids and having reservations at a higher level won't really help true but then again has anyone thought that even reservations at the grassroot level wont help because even then the medium of education used would be "marathi" which makes it diffficult for the students to compete later and its not that they are incapable of competing they surely can but its coz of english they loose out is it fair??? after all come to think of it english is their third language , how many of us are fluent in our third language all throughout school and college life we have been comfortably conversing in english and then one fine day ask us to start conversing in marathi we feel restricted don't we? its intersting to note how differently we react to this language divide when we ourselves are not part of the picture.
the second thing is that we want development and change to happen throughout and yet on one level we want our villages to remain the same and not loose out their charm ? ironic isn't it , that apart we (urban india) have every right to move away to greener pastures for better opportunites and but when it comes to rural india and our villages we immediately begin to question why people migrate to cities? and even if they do how many them go back and try to change things and improve conditions back home how ridiculous can we get? not once does anyone question the intentions of the "urban elite" then why does it apply to the rural??
another very intresting thing was that this whole glamourized picture we (both of us the urban and the rural ) have of each other its fascinating in a way .
This trip has literally forced me to find answers and the serach continues , above all what i really loved about the trip was it just to an extent changed me as a person its truly made me realize its the smallest things in life that give bring you the ulitmate joy and happiness that money can nver buy like climbing trees,singing around the bonfire , learing to roll rotis and drawing water from the well ...... phew the list is endless indeed .
I have made a promise to myself to go back there someday having said that now am learning to move on and continue with my wonderful "soulful" journey living with the wonderful memories .