“Even when the smallest of a shrub is taken into focus, it will stand apart.....”

This was precisely the motto of our NSS camp to Durgawadi, tal. Mhasala, dist. Raigad.

The first line said by the photographer in me, who had his first village portfolio to his profit.

The other NSS first timers had the 10 marks in mind. But no one even dreamt of what life had in store for them. So along with an NGO: SHARE, we students on Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering, set aboard the ship to help mankind!

Mumbai university was astonishingly grateful enough to grant us our new year. So last paper on the 30th December, bags packed, full of zest to celebrate the new year's eve with new found friends at an outing.

Having precisely no idea as to what work was to be done at the aforementioned village, everyone prepared themselves as if it was the most inhospitable place on planet Earth.

Armed with sleeping bags, spoons, plates, mugs, glasses, mosquito repellents, cold creams, moisturisers, torches, headphones, me with my camera and extra memory cards, trolley-type bags, hiking shoes, handkerchiefs, crocin, combiflam, relispray, chlorine for water purification, deodorants, and the list goes on and on........

 

Day 1 made us all miserable, with cow dung thatched all over the place, no young crowd to be seen, no shops even for a gum. Sleeping bags were rendered useless for 40-odd people were to be adjusted in a single room. Using plates was of no point since the food included only rice. Yes, rice at lunch, rice at diner and if that wasn't enough, breakfast was also made of rice derivatives! Glasses were useless since no one over there seemed to know what coffee was and the tea was devoid of milk and that void was filled by more water. No point of mugs since there was no time to have a bath, and if by some means we found time, finding place to bathe was the next problem. Bathrooms didn't have doors let alone proper lighting facilities, and don't get me started on the toilets!

Mosquito repellents, cold creams, deodorants, relispray, crocin, combiflam, torches all however, came to aid.

Sport shoes came in handy to save us from the creepy crawlers day in and day out, and to walk all the distances transporting tens of 50-odd kg sacs, but more on that later. It didn't matter whether they were Nike/Reebok/Adidas etc. cause today they all look the exact same-brown.

 

During the later part of this first day, we learnt what we were supposed to do in this camp and how it would be beneficial for the villagers. So to make it sound like a report, we were to help build smokeless chulha in their houses, the population of the village being about 65 families. The villagers still used to cook food via traditional means, burning of wood, which as we all know, emits SO2 and CO2 and other harmful gases. This caused the women in the village to suffer from respiratory diseases, cataract was also majorly seen. There was a major drop in the haemoglobin levels amongst the villagers. Thus, the smokeless chulhas, still used wool as fuel, though streamlined the outflow of smoke out of their houses, thereby reducing all the above and further decreasing wood consumption by almost 50%.

So the Fr.CRCE Chapter of NSS, paid for these chimneys and other related necessities. All the students in the camp were designated to complete work of smokeless chulhas of 5-6 houses. This included transporting bricks, cement, and other raw materials from where it had been placed, to respective houses. This job, however, saw a bit of mismanagement when all the students parted in groups were given only the name of the person to whom the materials were to be delivered. Thus boys and girls roamed throughout the village carrying much more than half their own weight in search of directions that would point out to the name written on the chits which by the way was not in English!

The other work was that of the nursery wherein the saplings which didn't bloom were supposed to be replaced with new ones which the villagers could later sell.

Just a visualisation for the people reading this who weren't a part of the camp, Durgawadi was like a pretty small village. Stretch out your left hand, the little finger being the only tar road in the village joining the palm of your hand representing the only water source in the village. The village got its first water connection by rainwater harvesting in December 2000, yes during the Y2K fervor, around the same time everyone reading this opened their first Yahoo account on the Internet! Earlier the villagers had to walk 8-10 km everyday to fetch a pail of water. Even now no house has a tap, all that is available is at the palm of your left hand! The ring finger goes to the only school wherein classes till 5th std are conducted. Further learning desires meant a 10km walk to the foot of the hill. The middle finger represented the central, cow dung thatched road on which was the boy's dorm. The index finger took us to the group of houses wherein one of them had a marriage ceremony in a few days. The thumb meant more climb up the hill for a bit more settlement.

 

Day 2 was the new year day. The first day of 2011. If in Mumbai, this day would have started around 12-1 in the afternoon. That's if we were in Mumbai. But our new year's celebrations were cancelled due to the sad demise of an elderly in the village. However, when the villagers came to know of we cancelling our plans, they invited us to the wedding I mentioned earlier. The whole village was present. Rather than the bride and groom, we seemed to be more in the limelight! We danced, sang, played games, had loads of fun!

Everyday work was done on time, it was very nice to see the villager's promising faces about their new chulhas. We were slowly and steadily becoming one amongst them. Even they were sporty when we called them to sing and dance along with us. It was surprising to see them get out of their shells and open up!

Another exhilarating experience was teaching students at the school. We taught them to dance on the song they've never heard! It was so overwhelming to see them try to lip sync all the songs while learning. This was followed by a small drawing competition wherein all the students of Durgawadi showed us their talents. They were honored by the prizes they received.

 

You must be wondering I didn't mention about sleeping at nights, cause, well we didn't! We used to roam in the village, play cards and what not! But even at 3 a.m. in the night, if we sat down at someones doorstep to play cards, they would give us a matress to sit on and light a lamp for us! Contrary to Mumbai, if we disturbed anyone at 3 a.m., we would be in jail! Rather the villagers used to be happy that we chose their veranda to sit on!

I could go on and on with all that I've learnt from this trip, from giving away spoons and forks, sitting on ground to eat, to carry own water bucket for bathing, western commodes and what not!

Now back in Mumbai, back to just a push of a button to get hot coffee, boiled water for bathing, comfortable cars, so on and so forth!

Every life is different, we here in have different needs, different wants; they over there have minimal needs and are not even acquainted with our wants.

I will always cherish these moments and will always look forward to having more of such!