I pick up threads from when we moved into a rented house near Pune.
Velhe, the town we were staying in, is a likable small town. Steadily urbanizing, but retains its small town characteristics. It is a little difficult to access because of the mountainous region and probably heavy rainfall.
We began finding answers to the next steps if we were to buy land. The proposed land was the steep portion of a small hill. These are the kind of land pieces most people are working on. Water is a challenge, despite the 4000mm rainfall. There is a river and a dam about one and half km from the land, but the ground does not hold water on the surface. There may be streams below and we may get water in an open well or a bore well. But bore well is not an appropriate solution in areas of such heavy rainfall. After thinking through alternatives, we zeroed in on collecting rain water during monsoon and using it through the year. This requires a storage tank. Our estimate of water requirement during the 8 months of no rain is approx. 70-80 thousand liters. I explored some options – whether a regular brick & concrete tank, fibre, ferro-cement, looked for a contractor to do it. In the meantime, we continued wonder if we should begin work after completing the purchase of land. Official demarcation of the land was not done. So, I thought it better to get atleast the demarcation done. This, I later understood was not a straight-through process.
While I was steadily moving in this direction and also getting to understand the place better, one day, I received a call from Veena (Gudalur). She made a passing reference that if I wished and could help Accord with the project of setting up a bank for the Adivasis, I may call on them. Accord has been working with the tribals of the Nilgiris for almost 3 decades. After the initial years of struggle to reclaim their access to forests and land, the community was now fairly stable. They’d been running their own hospital and some education efforts. There was a need felt that they should have their own bank. But the domain expertise was missing.
I thought that it would be a nice opportunity to get involved in something like this. I had some correspondence over e-mail and then planned a visit to Gudalur. We had explored Gudalur as an option to settle down, because of the language unfamiliarity, few months back. But this was a different proposition. I spent a couple of days in Gudalur with Stan (who’d founded Accord with a few more people). I was swept away with the Adivasi culture of trust, pragmatism and community living during my interaction with Stan and a few tribals. A bank based on their culture would be a phenomenal institution. I was excited about working on this project. It was not about a bank – it was about an economic system.
Back in Velhe, Rekha and I realized that this was a ‘larger than life’ work opportunity. We were anyway in a situation, where we could put on hold other things and start working on this. Gudalur had the people and the atmosphere, which was comfortable for the entire family. It seemed a great idea to let everything wait for some time and shift base to Gudalur.
A few days of thought, some reassurance from friends at Gudalur and there we were, on a 1000 km drive from Pune to Gudalur, house packed in the car!
It’s been about 3 weeks in Gudalur. We’ve managed to locate a house, we should move in couple of days later. I began some initial work on the bank project. There are many people here we’ve become friends with. Kids also have some company. There is a possibility of them attending a school run by the same set of people.
The question of permanent settlement is still elusive. There are reasons why this place may not be it. What is important and urgent at this stage is that we live at one place for at least one year. All of us are quite tired of shifting bases. Within the limitations, we would like to do some farming and if possible rear a couple of cows. All the decisions are wide open. It’s becoming a filmy story!!!
I plan to start a separate blog about my experiences of working with the tribals.
