What do you think?

My grandma left her body a few days ago, on March 22. We think she was over 105 years old.

Since my first long visit to India in 2003, I have been drawn to documenting my paternal grandparents journey, focusing on the seeds they've planted. I think it is only due to their karmic deeds that our family came out poverty within 1 generation. My motivation to work with rural communities was triggered by understanding the situations my grandparents experienced in moving from a village to Ahmedabad and building enough capacity for the family to later migrate to the US. The next generation, their 6 children, are just as inspiring. (The youngest is my dad.)

My grandma's recent death re-triggers my urge to document a part of our family's journey...however I contemplate the purpose and medium for such a documentation. The main purpose would be to capture the journey in order for future generations of our family to know their roots. ...but then I think I cannot force anything down the minds of the future generations? Another purpose to document would be to exemplify many other families who had similar journeies after India's independence. ...but are there already such memoirs?

...When i look closer, the main motivation to document is actually only about me. I feel blessed to be born in this family...somehow i want capture the essence of it forever. ...the reason to do that is because at times i do not live up to that essence...and i guess highlighting it helps engrain it in my being. At times i question whether i put too much or not enough importance my family identity.

How have you dealt with your roots?

Like Father, Like Son

Chores are more than chores in these communities. They are part of a process of children coming to age, acknowledging nature, and mere survival.

Karlapat Alternator Woes

Two weeks ago the Karlapat system generator stopped producing voltage. I was hoping to resolve the issue at the village, not needing to transport the alternator to town.

We did various trouble shooting at the powerhouse, confirming the coils and AVR are OK. However, we couldn't open the compartment where the diode assembly sits.

We had to bring it Berhampur 300km away. Sure enough a part of the diode bridge had been burned.

Silly folks in Berhampur are not motivated to find the root cause, even the village technicians have come up with ideas. If you have ideas, i'd love to hear them.

fyi--the voltage has never gone beyond 420 volts and the max load has been 7 kW. The alternator has been running for 1 year, even though it was purchased 2 years ago. We've had to replace the AVR once since only 350 volts were being produced.

A new diode bridge is around Rs. 6000, just as a new AVR. ...System has not been running for 2weeks :-(



Burned lead.


See the 7pm location of the burned diode?

Surja Mukhi

They never face the I direction I want.




Yet, they are boldly beautiful...




...And useful! Surja Mukhi (sun flower) oil and the shells of the sunflower seeds are high in demand.




The shells of the seeds are so valuable that the local vendors send their own truck from town to the village to collect the seeds and return the oil to the village, all free of cost!





The challenge is how to compete with such vendors. Now that the village is electrified, how can the community re-pay a loan on an oil extracter if they don't charge the villagers for extracting? If they do charge, they can't compete with the vendors in town!

One way is to directly sell the shells of the seeds to the wholesale buyer and not charge for the extracting, just as the local vendor does. ...Though that buyers is several hours away and he only buys high quantities. Open to your ideas!

Update from Inside

I'm sorry for not utilizing this blog to its full potential. There just doesn't seem to be enough time or energy to reflect. Yes, just another lame excuse. (I haven't forgotten about the Melghat Mitra update--it will come soon.)

Despite being a bit confused by what I'm seeing here, I've acquired a few key lessons:
a. Intentions don't always count.
b. "Development" is a business if you let it take form.
c. The trick is to be formless...it's a really hard trick!

I'm learning the hard way to let go and observe...without intentions.

The Gram Vikas Campus

...speaks for itself.

The secret is simplicity.

Domi

This week I returned from a second insightful visit to a Domi village in Melghat, Maharastra.

The project involved implementing LED lights. Here is link to some photos from the installation. Next time, I'll post more info on what happened during the installation and the 6 month update.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Karan.ldce/Domi