Breathe, see, hear, touch, feel, get drenched, immersed, be in the tight hugs, listen to echoes, lie down, jump around, in the early morning, late into the night, be there with N. In Himalayas, Vindhya Hills, Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats. Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea. Ganga, Brahmaputra, Naramda, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri. Lakes, streams, falls. Dandakaaranya, Venkateshwara. Islands in the sea. Islands in the rivers. Forests, green tunnels, caves. Wild Life Scanctauries. National Parks. Sacred groves. Deserts, Ranns, Plateus, Plains, Deltas. Hillocks, Gardens, Temples. Cultural fests, jatras. Fesivals, haats, lives, livelihoods, occupations, ways of living, caring, celebrations.
And there are continuums across. This is where we need to go. We need to be with. This is N. This is where N wants us.
Western Ghats – Sahyadri, Nilgiris, Annamalai, Cardamom. Home to Krishna, Godavari, Kaveri. These rivers flow through Eastern Ghats – Shevaroy, Javadi, Palakonda, Nallamala, Seshachalam Hills – into Bay of Bengal. More deltas in Eastern Ghats. More estuaries in West. More dense forests.
The work has taken me to tribal communities and tribal areas in and around, and in between these ghats. Tribal areas made me more human and confirmed me as lifeworker.
Born in deccan plateau. Lived close to major dams on Krishna – Srisailam, and Nagarjunasagar. Very early in life, interacted with Banjaras. These communities have been recognised as Scheduled Tribes in combined AP around 1975. They are treated as Backward Communities in Maharashtra, Scheduled Castes in Karnataka. These are linked to nomadic groups of North India. My village and neighbouring villages had/have populations of Banjaras/Lambadas. Very hardworking groups. These were the labour in the dams and other tanks. Now, settled down in thandas (villages) all around reservoir back waters and on the roads to Hyderabad. Recently, Telangana Government has made Thandas into Panchayats.
Subsequent interaction has been with tribal communities of Eastern Ghats, north-coastal Andhra Pradesh, when I went on Fieldwork from IRMA. Met Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups too. Spent some days and nights in their habitations, gudems. Then met tribal communities in Nilgiris, Kodai and Yercaud, during the management traineeship.
Met the hunter-gatherer PVTG Chenchus first time while at Dairy Board. Visited Kurnool Collector, Appa Rao, to appreciate SETKUR (Self-employment Training Society at Kurnool). Simultaneously visited and spent time Chenchu Areas around Srisailam, along with my friend of life, Vadrevu China Veerabhadrudu. Much later, when we were in Appapur, a Chenchu habitation (penta) from GCC and Kovel, we have to spend some 3 days, with them. Earlier, on a Sivaratri day, we had to go up to Sikharam, to finalize the trust deed of Kovel Foundation. I have also been to BR Hills in Karnataka to study the work of medicinal herb formulation enterprise of Vivekananda Resource Centre.
Post Rajan’s accident and death, me and Manohar were hinting Miss Patel that we would leave Dairy Board to go to the ground. Miss Patel was saying that she would put us in a cooperative or in a spearhead team. We concluded that we need to go all the way to communities and be with them. The best was to leave Dairy Board. She let us go in two instalments – first Manohar, then me, after some 6-9 months, via IRMA. Dairy Board and IRMA let me leave only in March 1992.
Joined Girijan Corporation at Visakhapatnam as Commodity (later renamed as Community) Coordinator and went through another wonderful 6-month induction taking me to various areas and people. It included a 30+ day stay-walk in Bejjur area in Adilabad region; working for substantial time with ITDAs – Project Officers, Collectors of tribal dominant districts, and grassroots organizations working with tribal areas; working on key value-chains – cotton, NTFP. Visited all the tribal areas of combined AP. Bejjur became the girijan karmabhoomi. Gradually, moved to Visakhapatnam to conceptualize, interpret and manage Community Coordination Teams, to get more CCs, to support two large participatory tribal development projects covering the entire tribal area of combined AP, to facilitate and lead commercializing research and development on natural produce – products, and take to market, retail and consumer market. Facilitated computerization up to field.
Co-founded and led Kovel Foundation of and for the ntfp-collecting indigenous tribal communities. SR Sankaran agreed to chair Sahayog Community Coordination Network to take the CCT concept to the entire tribal area. His conditions were simply: cannot take foreign funds; cannot use his name to leverage.
Later, been to tribals all over the country, NTGCF, NRLM and otherwise. These included tribal communities in various North-eastern states, Atappady, Vedaranyam, Odisha gramya jungles, Himalayan communities, Gujarat-Rajasthan Bhils, Rajasthan, Kashmir, Ladakh nomadic communities, Bengal Gorkhas, Lepchas et al, Tibetan Communities, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, MP, Maharashtra tribals, aboriginal tribal communities in A&N islands, and so on.
Together, they made me more human. They made me to be in the present. They made me equity-oriented. They made me to be joyous. They reinforced me to remain lifeworker. They are hastening me into third transition towards local useful coexistence. With N, in N. With hope, faith, promise, love. For dignity, choice, joy, integrity for all of us. We lose ourselves. This is the third life of useful coexistence. For 7L.
Join us in the world of yoga of useful local coexistence in N – prakritiicharayoga for 7L.
G Muralidhar