My Work!

IT has almost been two months since i shifted to Digital Green from PRADAN. I am already finding it very exciting because i see myself addressing one of the major problems of the development world - upscaling by mobilising the very people who are the recipients of benefits of any development program - the community. Something which is missed out by many.....something which I thought I had missed out for so many years till i had an opportunity to work in a certain place called Kesla. More about Kesla sometime later....as now its time for my new place of work and the nature of work.


I was always convinced that information communication technology had a huge role to play in development provided the right place to introduce it was found.One was the area of market interface for disadvantaged populations and the other is as we are doing in Digital Green- taking the best practices in farm and off farm livelihood options and the experiences of good farmers to other farmers.  Basically we are trying to bring down the lag time between early adopters of innovations and late adopters. And being a development -wallah I believe that it is us who have make sure that agricultural adoptions are the business end of our services. Yes i know it is a not a two way process and that most of our partners and their overall methods of extension would also play a huge role; but i am under no illusion when I say that such short films made by youngsters from the villages and on farmers is the way to go forward to achieve greater numbers in any intervention and with quality. The reason - Quite simple! Farmers learn by observing...and who better to observe than someone who is their own?! so Play on..and lets make this happen.....Ohh!! and Krishnaa.......well i promise the next post will be about him and his new life that hes come around to.

Chapter 1: The Awakening!

Slowly……..my eyes open……the blur of the neon lights are painful and my eyes flinch trying to get accustomed to the glare. It’s as if a long time has passed since I saw this familiar glare of the tubelight. But why do I feel that a long time has passed since I saw this familiar glare. Strange indeed!

My gaze slowly adjusts itself to the brightness around and falls on this elderly woman who I see in front of me. She has a smile on her face and her eyes are tearful. I can make out by looking at her face that  she has been crying for a long time and waiting for this very moment… for me to open my eyes….why? My eyes move around trying to see the reaction of all others in the room and I see similar expressions on everyone’s faces. There are a couple of men one in his thirties, tall, quite handsome; he has a smile in his face a very genuine smile. There another who is in his sixtys and I could see that his eyes like the woman in the room were moist with recently welled tears and yet he was smiling amongst all of it. He looked quite stoic and beautiful like someone who had lost everything and by some miracle had got it all back.

 And then I became aware of a dull pain in the back of my head which was there ever since I had opened my eyes but it took me sometime to realize that it was painfull. This realization was disturbed by the first words from someone..it was the woman who had lowered her face and brought it nearer to me and asked me “Krishnaa! how do you feel?” “There is a slight pain here” I said pointing to the back of my head when I realised that my head was all taped up. I also saw that the room was a hospital and all the implements were there in place…the ECG machine, the Temperature and the Blood pressure display blipping away incessantly.  Suddenly a splurge of thoughts started to flood my mind……what am I doing in this hospital room? who are these men?  who is this woman? who is this woman talking to? who is Krishnaa? Where am I?....and then the next question struck me and struck me hard….WHO AM I?.......I did not remember who I was. I blinked my eyes hoping that all this was a dream but I did not get up from any sleep. I was wide awake and yet I could not answer this simple question….Who am I?

to be continued.....!