Thursday, August 25, 2011

Bade Sahab Engineer

This is something that I scribbled in my notebook while in one of my journeys during my one year stint at TARA Nirman Kendra. It is not complete as I like it to be but I cannot reproduce what feelings I had then. So, I completed this in whatever way I could, almost 4 months later.

Rewa to Sidhi (4-May-2011)

Even in the most desolate of places, one can see smoke rising from a thatched roof in the distance. One feels the urge to go and ask the inhabitants about the life they live, where do they get their basic needs… but we are rushing. No time to waste. So the house remains there with the unknown inhabitants cooking their lunch perhaps. Sitting in the car, I try to answer the questions in my head from whatever experience I have of people and settlements from the last one year.

The stories are more or less same everywhere. A couple, a few children who haven’t washed for a few months. The wife would be cooking in front of a smoky chulha. The source of all the smoke. The man would be lounging on a wooden charpoy, laziness and procrastination hollowing out his body and mind of any skill that he might know. The children, with a line under their noses, caused by the runnings of the nose on a face matted with dirt.

On asking the question about where they but their basic requirements, the woman looks at you at the stupidity of the question and replies matter-of-factly, ”Why, from the town of course.” For a split second you think what a stupid question to ask. Then it strikes you that the nearest town might be 20kms from this god-forsaken place. Then why are these people still here? Because it is the only place they have. It is still better than the inhuman conditions that manual labourers live in cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Manual labour is the other way for these people. Dumbing them down and killing their skills. Do these people not have a right to live? Yes, they are not living. They are just existing. It is also very easy to impress these people. They are simple folks. Maybe the reason why they are kept in that condition, generations after generations by the ‘elected’ representatives. Because they are very easy to impress. Such is their state that even a penny of help earns their gratitude. One mason in a village once sang a little song for me. I forget all of the words except this line,

“Bade sahab engineer aae, Chuha Faas rang layi…”

‘Chuha Faas’ would be Laurie Baker’s rat-trap bond brick masonry, which we were supposed to train them in. As part of a mason training programme in low-cost alternative building technologies. When I heard this song(there were about 5-7 other lines), I did not have words to say. He looked at me expectantly, for some response. I could only manage a smile.

No comments:

Post a Comment