We do not remember
days; we remember moments
-Cesare
Pavese, The Burning Brand
"Memories: something remembered from the past",this is how we
define memories. But what is so special about these memories? They never change
with time and they stay throughout your life.
Opening a special bundle of memory, it takes me to the journey which
moulded me the person I am. Two years ago, in a chilled climate, I was sent on
a mission to analyse the viability of setting up a small community radio
station, The story behind this mission was basically an idea to educate and
keep updated to the remote villagers who are uneducated and do not interact
with media. I got the opportunity to travel to a small village near Jaipur,
Rajasthan, which is hard to find on maps. The village was around 40 kilometres
away from the main city. I was interning in Delhi, and I was assigned a task to
do a survey of 1000 people living in this village called Bassi. The
organization for whom I was working, wanted set up a Community Radio Station.
CRS concentrates only to a small community and it has a very narrow range. The
idea behind setting up this kind of radio station was that it will help the
farmers to ask the questions related to the plantation of seeds to the experts
directly by calling the experts through radio station.
When was the last time you felt like an alien? After travelling for two
hours and changing three buses, I managed to reach the village from Jaipur. I
still remember that moment when I entered and people thought I am an alien. As
'Parda system', still exist in this country, I can still recall
those eyes behind the ghunghat. Everything in that village was
new to me, whether it is people, Marwadi language, their culture, EVERYTHING!!!
I started my survey by collecting 20 people from the village and
explained them their work. As I had already prepared the questionnaire for the
survey, I distributed to each of them. Talking to the Sarpanch, head of the
village and convincing him to grant permission to set up a CSR was a difficult
task. This was the first time I was working on field and using my communication
skills. To commute from one house to another in the village, I was taking help
of villagers to drop me on their bikes.
When I was asking the questions to a women, while answering, she
suddenly stopped and gave me a strange look. I asked her why she is staring me
like that. The reply shocked me and made me depressed. She said, "You are
19 and you are travelling alone in this village, how your parents can allow
doing such work? I am 18 and I have three children. Aren't you supposed to be
married at this age?" That time I realized, till now I was living away
from the reality.
Living in city all my life, this was the first time I was experiencing
the importance of living together. When was the last time you met your
neighbours? When was the last time whole family had meal together? When was the
last time you were satisfied with what you have? Seeing their bonding, their
understanding with each other, made me realize that though the villagers were
not financially stable, but at least they were happy with what they have.
While leaving the village, I was complete new person. I could feel that change in myself. I can say this because even after two years, I still remember each and every moment I had spent there.
While leaving the village, I was complete new person. I could feel that change in myself. I can say this because even after two years, I still remember each and every moment I had spent there.
