The last couple of days have been very hectic for us. Getting up in the morning at 7 o’clock to get ready for the fieldwork, taking a quick bath or a quick decision to not take bath, and then along with the team members getting packed into jeep (7 people including the driver) and then get on with the real work, going from village to village and gathering information about the existing or potential pulpwood plantation.

Though, the whole process of gathering information about the plantation is being carried out by our team members as we have neither the ability (no knowledge of Kannada) nor the requirement to do it ourselves. The team members are really something, especially my namesake, a tall fair fellow, having a great affinity for jewelry, which I guessed either he has robbed his in-laws on the pretense of marriage or used his inherited wealth or has some relationship with some jeweler from where he has got all that on installments, as the salary he is getting from the organization (the organization in consideration is one of the biggest conglomerates of India), surely does not allow this. He is a bit annoyed by us and our methodology, which the team follows, this might be due to 5 hours of the lecture we rendered to them in the workshop to train them. In his opinion, there is no need for such kind of exercise as they have been doing all these exercises all the years, though it is another thing that management had never got any substantial result from their exercise.

So we started for Belur Taluk in Hassan district, I took my preferred back seat in the jeap (a result of my craving for leg space ). I tried my best to gather as much of Karnataka as possible through my visual receivers, which were constantly focused outside the window and kept me busy with the analysis. Actually, this is my way of keeping myself busy. Observing things around and looking for the extraordinary in ordinary things. Sometimes trying to read what is written on the signboards and posters to know about the town or place. End result, cursing the Kannadiga people for their lack of concern for people like us, who do not know Kannada, almost all the boards were in Kannada, or the information you are looking for is in Kannada. When we stop for the data collection, all the team members raid the puzzled victim. Thinking us as either police officials or some other Govt officials, a range of expressions does a quick parade on their faces. But the moment they hear the word Neelgiri and Survey, they start opening up and in some time we have 10-12 people surrounding us, trying to help us or help themselves I don’t know.

The most beautiful experience was a visit to Sakleshpur, famous for its coffee plantation. There were a lot of Silver Oak trees with small canopies, talking to the sky, and creepers of black pepper surrounded them, they looked more like green pillars (Coffee plants were planted with Silver Oak trees as they need partial shade.). Lush green plantations of coffee on both sides of the road, and beautiful landscapes give you a feeling beyond expression. I must thank IIFM for this experience, I doubt if any other institute provides such a beautiful experience. The population density in this region seems to be very low, as we traveled around 20-30 kilometers and the whole coffee plantation region was dotted with some groups of 5-6 houses. I found mostly women working in the plantations and nearby areas, dressed in shirts and a kind of Ghagra. Happily engrossed in what they were doing, they gave a cursory glance at our crossing vehicle.

There were several boards declaring “World’s Best Coffee Grows Here”. Another great experience was a visit to Belur, where we saw a great example of South Indian architecture in the Belur Temple, beautiful. It was just beautiful. Huge structures filled with a wonderful example of subtle, beautiful carvings. I just wondered how many days were spent on building this wonder. Cameras were allowed inside, a deviation from what was the almost universal rule in Tamilnadu/Karnataka. I took full liberty of this. I must thank Mr. Bapat, a real gentleman who took several snaps of us. Then we headed for Hallebeedu and visited the temple there. The next day, we got an opportunity to visit the village of our former Prime Minister Mr. Devegowda. Nothing special about the village apart from the road leading to the village, on which you can easily put your car in top gear and enjoy the rare experience of seeing your speedometer needle pass 100 kmh mark.

 Since we were to visit a lot of villages there, we had to take food in a small hotel (if I can call it), that hotel we found out about after asking a lot of people for a good hotel. I think that was the best hotel there. They served something, which you can take only to fill your tummy. They served something looking like a ball (slightly bigger than a cricket ball), and I could not muster the strength to say yes to that. When I asked what that was, some of my Kannadiga team members were relishing that. They told me that this dish was the secret of Mr. Devegowda’s health, full of protein. We paid Rs. 15 per person for the lunch, which made me wonder that to survive you need not much money. Though food in K’taka or you can say in the whole of south India is very cheap, you can get good food for 30-50 Rupees, the south Indian meals are very cheap compared to the North Indian foods here.

One thing that surprised me is that South Indian states have comparatively high literacy rates, but visit a magazine shop and stationery shop, you would find only Kannada magazines on the stand, almost all the magazines are either film-based or political. It is very difficult to find some good English magazines even in the district headquarters. While in Bihar or UP, all the newsstands keep a good range of popular English/ Hindi magazines. I think it is due to a lot of people in these states preparing for different competitive examinations. The need to keep themselves updated with world affairs and different topics makes them grab these English magazines. Contrary to that, here in Karnataka, I think the majority of youth go for professional education, engineering / medical, and why not, getting 20-30 percent mark in the state engineering / medical entrance, guarantees you a seat. Thanks to the mushrooming engineering and medical colleges. But don’t ask about the quality (no offense intended to anyone), but most of the colleges are just a center for the distribution of professional qualifications. And their students end up working for 5-6 thousand rupees per month or opt for a BPO career.