Sadgati. 20 killed after a Tipper Truck with gravel hit a bus near Chevella in Rangareddy district near Hyderabad. Several others were seriously injured.
Agency. Women’s agency. Ability of women to make their own choices and act on them. In accessing and controlling resources, having mobility, having voice in family-community-public spaces, making life decisions, living, participating in public life. By setting goals, acting on them and realizing them.
The 47+ year marathon, 8+ year gritty relentless campaign of WCWC has climaxed with Jemimah Rodrigues taking India into finals and Harmanpreet’s young team claiming the championship convincingly on 2 November. A demonstration of agency. Rewarded with win and prize money. Rewarded with special gifts. Maybe: Women’s Cricket Association of India, WCAI, merging with the BCCI helped. Into finals twice earlier – in 2005 and 2017. Edulji, Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, and Anjum Chopra emerged as legends. In 2017, Harmanpreet Kaur’s blistering 171 against Australia in the semi-final took India to final but this could not be converted into a championship. In 2022, the BCCI announced equal match fees for men and women. The Women’s Premier League (WPL) has come. All of this is a promise that a woman can dream – set a goal; try – walk the path, play on the field, claim the future; and achieve it. This is part of the history of the agency. Agency of women from the communities, not so elite.
Amid India’s celebrations, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav et al have been seen consoling a distraught Marizanne Kapp. A gesture of deeper ‘arrived’ agency.
In my thoughts: around this time in 2003, I could join hands with Prof. S Trilochan Sastry, at his instance and co-founded Centre for Collective Development – Sahakara Mitra Samstha (CCD, SMS). Served on its Board for some 18 years. Today, CCD, a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization, is serving ~50,000 small and marginal farmers in their 500+ collectives across 6 states. CCD is working with farmers to help them build sustainable livelihoods through cooperatives and collective action. Starting with Groundnut, red gram commodities. Farmveda takes these farmers up in the value-chain by reaching the consumers as directly as possible through value-addition including aggregation, storage, processing, packing and packaging. Can we have more such collectives and such collective support organizations? In the NF domain.
It is clear now, to most of us: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel were on the same side as far as Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir is concerned. Nehru might be slightly more favourable to Kashmir being in India, than Patel. Article 370 inclusion was piloted by Patel. Nehru was on an official visit to the US.
SOS. The SOS signal. An internationally recognized distress signal transmitted in Morse code – three dots, three dashes, and three dots. Save our Souls is an associated phrase indicating distress. Alternative phrases for SOS include Mayday; Help me; Emergency; danger; warning etc. The planet is calling SOS. Climate, Soil, farmer, consumer are calling SOS. N living, NF can be the SOS response. Now. Can it be ‘default’ if not universal? Can we live N, farm N? Can we transcend critical mass?
Yes, we can. If we coexist, flowing. Take 3/10 at least! In N? saprakrtiyoga for 7L.