Travel
#AfricaClimateSummit23 Yesterday, I heard young African children talk about how they need to be part of the discussion on climate finance. So good to see the future generation coming forward and demanding a better future. #ClimateAction #AfricaClimateSummit #Nairobi
Meeting innovative Solar enterprises in Kigali
The startup scene in Africa is really turning vibrant. I was in Kigali to participate in an accelerator workshop for the winners of SolarX (20 innovative startups leveraging solar energy to address challenges in energy access, food security, health ..). My session was on “Raising Commercial Capital” and I was a bit concerned as this was just after lunch and it was a two-hour long session. But the kind of participation I saw was unexpected. I was absolutely delighted to see these enterprises taking on the energy access challenge in Africa.
A rainy evening in London
Khan el-Khalili - Cairo
This is surely worth a visit if you plan a Cairo Trip
Ranchi Trip
Last month, I visited Ranchi for a couple of days almost after 23 years. I was so excited to visit that place, to see my school and go to those places which were slowly getting eroded from my memory. But the menace of ‘Naxalism’ completely ruined my enthusiasm. We could not go to remote villages and surely not in a 'car or jeep' as they garnered extra attention, and one local naxalite expert told me that in election time Naxals do not think before bashing up any outside face. Their policy.. first bash them up.. we will see the other issues later.
Though Ranchi city seemed quite peaceful, I ventured out on bike to find my childhood school and all I knew about that school was that there used to be a small hillock near the school and at top of that hillock there was a water tank. I called my mother to get more info. She told that the school was near a Hanuman temple in Harmu. We drove in and around Harmu and were able to locate almost 4-5 temples but the hillock was nowhere. That means there was no way to get to my school. New constructions and other developments made this place completely unrecognisable from the image of this place I had in mind.
So I came back to the guesthouse, disappointed. I was ruminating on a number of things ..Naxalism, Development, Urbanization etc.. My plan to take a road trip to Daltonganj, Garhwa and Ranka stood canceled. I wanted to use this weekend for that. It would have been an experience to visit these places but the fear of Naxalites and poor connectivity to these places left me with no options. Probably I will dare again, after the elections when the Naxal activities subside.
Next day I was busy in my official chores and I had given up on finding my old school in the concrete jungle, but a local resident and employee of the host organization here in Ranchi, blessed me with his local knowledge. He knew the location of the hillock which has a water tank on top. I realized I can still see my school and I ventured out. He took me near the hillock, in front of a very big nice looking school, St. Francis High School. He was sure that this was my school, but I knew I was not that lucky to have studied in schools like these. But I could still see the hillock and the water tank on top, our favorite place for having lunch around 23 years ago.
I wanted to go there again on the hilltop and somehow I found a way to go there and on the way, I found what I was looking for. That’s my school, I shouted. Rajkiya Krit Madhya Vidyalaya, Harmu – 12. Suddenly those faint memories became vivid. I could remember the place I used to stand for morning prayers and the school gate and numerous related incidents. School gate was a common factor in most of the incidents. I jumped the wall to go inside the campus (once inside I realized there were numerous ways, and surely not intended ones, to get inside the campus, the surrounding wall was broken at many places) and saw the menu of the food served under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan painted on the wall.
I pulled out my camera, wanted to capture these moments of relived, realised nostalgia. 
Great feeling to be there. If I look back on my school days, the biggest complaint (apart from not being able to study in any ‘decent’ schools) is my father's job forcing frequent school changes for me, that means I have no trace of those childhood friends. All gone.
Gabon Upcountry
After breakfast, there was nothing to do, so I just spent some time on my laptop, listening to those songs which I have stored, just for the single reason, that I got it from somewhere and my laptop had a lot of space. Sometimes you have so much time that if you believe in the old saying that time is money, you will feel like a billionaire. It was just like that. My guide here has gone to Libreville for a meeting and I was here alone, fighting with the French language and giving a very tough time to the person to whom I am talking too.
One of my seniors told me, don’t take tension that you don’t know French, make other people tense that you don’t know French. And let him understand. So basically I was doing the same thing.
Afternoon, Paul came to pick me up and in his heavily accented but fairly good English explained to me that we are going to visit the city and places around it. What more I could have asked for! Really great. Outside my hotel, there was an old Landcruiser waiting for me. I just took my laptop, camera and passport and was ready for action. First, we visited a nearby village in Makokou and it was really beautiful. Located on the banks of a river ‘La river de obenduâ’, I asked for the name but Paul’sheavy accented reply and my ears’ refusal to get accustomed to that accent, suggested me to not waste time getting the right name.
I went to the river and was surprised to see that the color of the water was black. O my god, I am seeing a black river in this Dark Continent! I asked the reason to Paul, expecting a really interesting answer. But the result was a dud. He simply told this due to the high content of iron ore. Suddenly something caught my attention, some people were there washing their cars in the river, and alongside them some girls taking bath.
Returning back to my hotel, I was lucky enough to have an encounter that I can never forget. On the way, Paul suddenly stopped the car, and I could see some people moving and making noise. I asked the reason and he told me to get the camera, photo, photo.. I was unable to understand anything that happened, why this fellow is asking me to capture pics of these people. “le serpent” “What?” “Snake” Then I looked at the crowd, on the ground there was a huge black snake moving, and two three-person equipped with small sticks were there to tackle him and 20–30 people around them. I took out my camera and from the car itself took some snaps.
I asked about the snake and the answer was it is a black cobra. One of the most deadly snakes on the planet. And those people were treating him like a harmless non-poisonous creature. Within a few seconds, two-three strikes with the small sticks and the black cobra was flat on the ground.
Though still moving rapidly, unable to go anywhere. I was mesmerized by their skill.
IIFM #africa
Organizational Training in Gabon
After 7 hours of train journey I reached to a small place called Booeu. And my god, if you do not know French here your life is hell here. So far I was always accompanied by one or another person who helped me in interacting with these. But on the train, no one was there to help me out. And I was damn worried about how I am going to alight at my destination. It was night journey and everyone was sleeping and I was worried that if I go to sleep, might miss the station. I tried to know from other people that when I ll reach at Booeu, but what I managed to get from them did not make any sense to me, I thanked (â??merciâ?? the French for thanks) them for their help.
So I did my own calculation based on the info provided by my Libreville friends and slept for 3-4 hours and set the alarm in my cell, quite well earlier to my calculated arrival at Booeu. Somehow or another I managed to alight at Booeu. The station was very small station, just like any small station in divine land of Bihar. So a feeling of nostalgia crept in. Four-five people were there on the station. I did an exploratory scan of the whole place to find the person, supposed to be there to receive me. But I realized the futility of the exercise, how I am going to recognize that fellow, to me all faces are alien.
I waited and waited, no one so far. With a laptop on my shoulder, a camera hanging at my hip and a face, distinctly different, were giving invitation for trouble at 4 am. After 15 minutes, I saw person approaching towards me, 6 â??5â?? tall, double my width, dressed in blue denim and t-shirt. He pointed his finger to me and spoke in voice which sent  chill through my spine: “you Mr. Singh?” I could not belive my ear. All I could manage was an ‘Yes’ and deep sigh of relief. But for make it doubly sure, I asked “Are you from Olam?” Answer was a soothing “oui”.
He took my luggage and I followed him to a Toyota pick-up, I hurriedly snuggled into back seat. I was happy that within a few hours I am going to reach my hotel and settle for at least 20 days. No more travel with the entire luggage. But I was mistaken. We started for Makakou and after few minutes it started raining heavily. After 15 minutes of concrete road, we shifted to kachha road. And after another 10 minutes we were surrounded by big giant trees and no trace of any human being. Huge trees, and here these kind of forests are called a ‘bush’, I could not help but smiled. I remembered my trip to Vellore, Tamilnadu, where all they had was some patches of 2-3 feet tall Acacia nilotica, and Subabool plantation and they called that forest.
It was a journey which seemed never ending. After 20-30 killometer drive I could see some small house made of wood. The population density is very low in all part of Africa. Barring a few countries or for that matter cities. Kinshasha (capital of Cango) was an exception, when I visited the local market there, it was very similar to any market in India full of people and a lot of buzz. After 3 hours of journey finally I reached Makokou. Small city with big wide clean roads. Very less population. My first stop was to Mr.Anandâ??s house. The only Indian family in Makakou. And there I was greeted with south Indian breakfast and lunch. It was delightful to get some really good homemade Indian food. After visiting the Olam Office here, I checked in my hotel. Belinga Place. Nice hotel by any standard. If you just remove food served here as one of the parameters. For a person, who prefers vegetarian food, its tough life here. You have to take non-veg food or starve. There is no other option, if you are not cooking yourself. So, I had only one option to resort to non-veg foods. Here, the first thing I learnt was what they call chicken and eggs. As they serve hell lot of different types of meat. So it is better not to experiment, unless and until you know what they are going to serve. You get monkeys, frogs, beef and god knows what not.Â
So I decided not to experiment and go on staple breakfast of Omelet, coffee, orange juice and breads. Even the bread served here is different. It takes hell lot of time to explain them what I want. I got hold of some French words but the pronunciation, these idiots right something and speak something entirely different. In the evening, Mr. Anand too me to a round trip to city which lasted for 45 minutes and I had seen all nook and corners of the city. Nice clean city. And best thing is that, it is as safe as any other city in India, or even safer than that. So I can easily roam around without any fear. A relief from security concerns, which were quite restrictive in Kinshasha, where I could not move out from my hotel room. #iifm #africa
The Karnataka Diary
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.
Our Fieldwork in South India
Our one-month fieldwork is coming to an end. But what a great month it was, though the killer tsunami wave made us cry for the departed soul and affected people. We were fortunate enough to be alright as that day, we were supposed to be at Kanyakumari, but our Guide/ Reporting officer (Conservator of Forest, Vellore) could not arrange the visit due to some administrative problems.
Right from learning eating manners to interacting with tribal people, it was a great experience. We got a taste of cultural differences in one of the restaurants, where we were having our lunch. We ordered our lunch, and they put a banana leave in front of us. We were waiting for the food to be served. Our waiter, an old man, who knew only Tamil, started shouting at one of our friends, we were astonished at what we have done that caused that old man to be angry (actually by the pitch and tone of his voice we guessed that he was upset with something. Then we called one of the staffs of the restaurant and he told us that first we have to put water on the banana leaves and wash it with hands, and we had not done that. Hence the old man was annoyed and was not serving us food. The amazing part of our stay, was interacting with waiters and local ppl, we were never sure what we will get in our lunch and we ordered something else it was completely different, from what was served. Being on official fieldwork, one or two forest department officials were always with us whenever we visited anywhere. Though they tried hard to answer our questions/queries, often failed. So we were depending heavily on our observations.
Luckily, we met five students from Chennai, pursuing Masters in Social Work and doing almost the same study we were doing. They proved to be of great help. Though, we could get them only in the last part of our stay. It also give us a unique opportunity to interact freely about several topics related or not related to our study/course and they eagerly satisfied our queries. Hope to explore South India a bit more once I get the opportunity. Thanks IIFM.. For giving us the opportunity to visit South India. Thanks, South India For Rasam, Sambhar, Uttapam, Dosai , Coffee, Sri rangam temple, Rockfort, Yallaneer and for wonderful hospitality ……
