On the Mercy of God…..

During the fishermen livelihood survey, I visited almost all villages situated on the bank of river Mattru Jong. It came in Bonthe district the Southern part of Sierra Leone, West Africa. The river Jong meet with the Atlantic Ocean because of back water of sea the Jong river water is some places turned in brackish water and that created good ecology for the development of Mangrove forest. Near this bank the small- small hamlet is developed, mostly fishing and farming communities are habituating in villages moreover these hamlet constituted with 15 to 50 families or houses. I visited nearly 12 fishing cum farming hamlet of Nongo Babulon & Bendu Cha chiefdoms like Momaya, Molbat, Mania, Bendu Cha, Mosele, Tisana, Modevis, Bunpetoke, Taigbe, Garinga and Yealewa. I observed that in what condition these people are living, the life totally depend on mercy of God. No primary health and sanitation facilities, no education and no appropriate reliable means of transportation. For transportation they are using dug-out canoes Keno (The small boat carved in one big trunk of wood). Because of insufficient income from fishing they are engage in other business such as wood cutting, farming etc.

The situation is most worst in rainy season when the Jong river flow up to its normal water mark, the water logging and flood water of Jong river make it very hard for the people in the vicinity to came out from hamlet, even that of whole week time they can’t able to come out to purchase their daily needs items. The voyage by Keno turned very dangerous in rainy season because of flood water and back water of Atlantic Ocean creates lot of currants in the Jong river stream. Lots of losses occurred by Keno transportation generally in rainy season but there is no proper official record of these casualties to reduce them.

Though the life is going on the river side villages on the name of God, When I observed the children’s with big tummy clearly indicating their malnutrition status, no education facility, I thought how they will cop up with the future situation and challenges in this daily changing world. In some villages I observed that children’s are learning Arabic, practicing and reading the character written on the wooden plate. But it not help them lot, because the English & the Krio (broken English) is the most common official and communication language here. It is hard for them to get job on the basis of Arabic. I asked mother of Chief of village in Mende language, Kawu Ae Na? (How are you?) and she replied in Mende, just pushing my days ahead, she was suffering from back pain but its not easy to get treatment, first she have to cross the river by Keno and then by catching the Poda Poda (the private motor transport) she have to go Bo and its take near about 14 to 16 hours from her place and all this journey is not easy in this old age.

I really fail to understand how these people are living in such difficult terrain, in muddy swamp with misquotes. Communities are living hand in hand with Malaria, Typhoid and Dihoria because of poverty and lack of means of transportation they are not treating themselves; in place of that sometime they use the local herbal medicines. But, thanks to UNICEF and WHO health programs, under the program misquote nets were distributed and by awareness programs they taught them how to use it to keep them away from Malaria.

During my return way I just look towards these villages and understand what is the meaning of sentence ‘Living on mercy of almighty God”. I just remembered the communities’ living in the Sundarban Area of Bangladesh and India. The unsecured life, for their livelihood they are depends on the Sundarban forest which is filled with predators like Royal Bengal tiger and Crocodiles. When men left from his house for livelihood the wife never have guaranteed that her husband will be return back safely, but they living the life by trusting the Goddess Bon Bebi.

How tough lives these people are living. We are living in big metro cities with all luxury and basic amenities though we are feeling insecure and to deal with it we are just prefer to run for money, status and power. I was just contemplating on two contradictory pictures, the people who have all modern amenities and the people who are far away from the basic amenities and right of living moderate life.

Only for Bread & Butter

This is an incident, on my way to Rishikesh to Delhi by Utter Pradesh Govt. Bus Transport Service. I catch the bus from Rishikesh bus depot for Delhi on 4 pm to catch train from Delhi at 11 p.m. . The bus driver was driving the bus very slowly, though he is not taking care of hurdles and small rupture on road. Some passengers advised him to drive properly and to little bit increase the speed of bus to reach Delhi in time. On this he was replied angrily and told that he has 10 years of experience of driving and he has no need of any suggestion. All passenger realizes his rudeness and they keep quite to avoid any hard talks. During driving all the way he kept continue to making jokes and talks with the Conductor (Ticket Collector) who was resting behind him, which put off him to concentrate on road.

We all were shattered when he put in the bus on wrong side on National Highway were clear demarcation of Right Side and Left Side. All passengers were not understand why he is doing this, we asked him, he told to keep quite and not to disturb otherwise accident will occur, once again we keep quite.

The rider of other vehicles who are coming on their right direction got disturbed because of this wrong side vehicle (Bus). One car driver not understand, how to drive his car against the wrong sided vehicle and he stopped his car in front of Bus, he scolded the bus driver for driving the Bus on wrong side. We all passengers were frightened in thought to be caught by an accident. Driving the Bus on wrong side near about 1 KM on National Highway, at last bus Driver stopped the bus on one Panjabai Dhaba (Restaurant) though there is one another Dhaba (Restaurant) on the right side, now the puzzle was solved why driver drive the bus on wrong way by taking the risk of his own as well as passengers life.

It was came to known that Dhaba owner provide full meal, liquor and some fixed money to Driver and Conductor (Ticket Collector) in form of commission, to stop the bus on his Dhaba. We all passenger were discussed that only for meal and some money how can he put the life of all passengers in danger? Some people talks to book the complaint against driver, some people told that it has no use, this will go on, no one can stop this business and we were entered in the bus to catch our destination.

Ganges is our Holy River?

Why I put here question mark because I felt this question when I visited to Haridwar and Rishikesh recently and observed the attitudes, behaviour of people, community and the people visiting there very religiously to take Darshana of “Ma Ganga”.
When scientists and experts saying that the water of Ganges is polluted, and it not worth to drink. But the people visiting to Ma Ganga took bath in Ganga and even drink the water which looks like muddy tea colour; can we say that, this is madness? The people doing this because they felt that it is sacred reviver and they will be benefiting by doing all this rituals. This all faith, trust on Ma Ganga is really heartening, but don’t you think that this is blind faith?
In Haridwar I observed that the people who are coming for taking Darshana of Ma Ganga used to bring coconut, flower in plastic carry bag and after doing sacred rituals they live it abandon or throwing in the river bed, also they are purchasing plastic sheets of size 2 x 5 feet to keep their cloths or to sleep on it in night on the bank of river by fulfilling their need they live it freely or throw it in the river bed. I want to ask these people that if the river Ganga is really sacred for them then how they can do this act. Ma Ganga is dustbin for them.
We are polluting our rivers by domestic and industrial water materials & water. The people living on the bank of Ganges are careless about their Ma. In Haridwar and Harikesh I observed that the household waste going untreated in nallas and through nalla it going in river bed, this much extent people are careless about Ma Ganga, who are regularly attending the Aarti of Ma Ganaga, in every evening. I read the slogan put on the all in Haridwar that “Save Ma Ganga, don’t pollute it” are you think that this type of wall paintings and slogans are enough without any concrete act. The time is still in our hand; we can able to save our sacred rivers Ganges, Godavari, Narmada, Yamuna, Kaveri, Brahmaputra, which are life line of people living in different States of India.
To save Ganges we have to starts from its top, the villages the cities which established on the bank of Ganga river should have to be made aware, they should have to open their eye that only Aarti, puja, prayer is not only solution along with this every individuals should have ensure that single polluted material, waste must not be enter in the river bed, if anyone who will disobey will not support the mission should have to be declare sinner.
We must have to be clear in our thoughts, if rivers are sacred for every Indians. If we are calling river on the name of “Ma”- The Mother, then it is responsibility/ duty of every Indian that he should have to stop & prevent from polluting his Mother Rivers anyway.

“Ja Ma Ganga”

The Journey of Credit Based Housing Scheme….

In the first phase Habitat program gone through ups & down. It was not easy for the team to change the grant base mind set up of the village people. The main problem was faced in selection of potential borrower. In some cases team constrained to select some of clients at least to initiate to got entry in the village. But afterwards it has shown adverse effect, in form of non- cooperation at client’s level. To stop the practice in some cases team took the action of recovery of released loan amount and in some cases even cancellation of client’s selection too. The team learned so many things during the implantation of project; it was realize that for smooth functioning of project, it is essential to understand village level dynamics, people expectations & how to make credit base housing policy more realistic.
To percolate the experienced base strategy on ground, team increased the frequency of its visits & meetings with villagers. It was strongly felt that to find out potential borrower, the demand creation of credit based housing would have to be increase, but how? The team decided to provide more input to build the cost effective house, the process of material purchase made flexible, people were encouraged for bulk purchasing of construction material & for giving their inputs in designing their house, team assisted the clients by providing trained masons through their resources. To boost up the interest of clients team emphasize on quick solving of construction related problems of clients. Engineer supervised the work frequently and tried their best to provide one beautiful, cost effective house. The rat-trap, and in some place arc over door and window given the new look to the house, it looks different in the middle of the other houses. At the end, when house was complete in very short period of time, clients observed that his small bungalow was completed merely in Rupees 30,000/- or 40,000/- they never expect that such good looking house construction could possible in such small amount. Now the clients was proved to be main advertising centre, he performing his role by doing the mouth publicity of Habitat Program and its cost effective housing scheme in the nearby areas.

Thus the habitat team wins the heart of the people through their services. The team also succeed in convincing the people that Rs. 12,000/- loan amount has to be return with 6% interest with nominal monthly installments, which is distributed in 60 nos of installments for 5 years along with this facility they were getting consultancy and supervision of Engineer . This is the big opportunity for them in housing sector and they have to grab this opportunity. Most of the people understand and liked the theme they came forward by their own and demanding for providing the credit base housing facility. It helped the team to drag/select the potential borrower and real needy person.

Considering the big demand of houses from the field, the need was felt to ensure the repayment, quality of housing construction, stipulated time period for completion of one house etc. The team decided to establish formats, needful changes in pervious MOU, procedure & norms of client’s selection. To bring the all theme in one row the operation manual was developed to use it as a guideline for all team members. The team has very broad vision for making the credit base housing scheme more people oriented to make it national movement for providing the habitat for all humankind.

Love

Different people drag out different meaning of Love. Some called it lust, some called it thrust for sex, some called it passion, but I want to call it sweet feeling, way of leaving life, devotion, sacrifice, and learn to leave for others. Loves teach to keep care for others. It teaches to understand this world. It is one feeling, when the person with you, you felt that you wins the entire world, all world is in your punch, you understand the meaning of true life, it is an extreme stage of joy, satisfaction and fulfill ness.

Love is very precious thing, which get some people, but it is tragedy the some people understand it and some play with it. It got someone for long time, up to end of life, someone for an hours, someone for few days it has no life. Love has no life, but it makes its place in your heart forever, you can’t able to wipe it out. When you are lonely, depressed remember your love, smile will be spread on your face. It is destiny that you will get company for long time or up to end of your life with whom you loved from the bottom of your heart.

Someone asked, how you felt that you are in love, its very simple, if you are very caring about someone, with his/ her voice you feel energetic, by seeing or only by his/her view you felt that you got something precious, only one touch of his/her create sensation in you, when he/she is with you, you felt sense of security, like as baby feels with its mother. These are all feelings which are beyond control and not counted on the basis of age, money, status, profession, creed & caste. That’s why love caught anyone in any age of his/ her life.

So, friends are you in love, then please take care of it, make a true love, without any fear, protect it from all ills, be honest & responsible then see you feel that you got a God, who is smiling and blessings on you. Are you thought that I am right or wrong, in both cases convey your views to understand me more.
Sharad Pant

Save Rhinos

Kaziranga National Park in Assam (INDIA) is presently again in lime light because of killings of Rhino mother and its baby for horn. Over a year there are 24 Rhinos killed by poachers. These poachers worked for the international agency there are brokers who lined up with local poachers and carried out the killings. On the name of protection of 900 sq km area of park, there is very less staff with Forest Department. The guards have not sufficient basic accessories such as long distance focus torch, communication equipments, arms and ammunition. On the other hand the poachers are well equipped with mobiles, arms and ammunition. They have jeep and high frequency search light.

The broker purchases the horn in 4.5 lakh to 7 lakh. It depends on the size and weight of the horn. Due to less protection to the national park it is very easy to the poachers to kill the Rhino for the horn. The dead body of Rhino with missing horn is common here. The people leaving around the park are found involved in the poaching. These poachers very easily rescued themselves in want of evidence. Even due to highway no 36 Forest Dept. is unable to track the new people.

To save this innocent animal Govt. of India should look after in this matter seriously , now the science reached on the moon and mercury then why this technology should apply to monitor the Rhinos. The killing of Rhinos shows the inefficiency and negligence of the Forest Department, State Govt of Assam, Ministry of Environment and wild life and Govt. India. It is not hard to get the assistance of local populace the save the Rhinos. If we will link their livelihood with tourism, if we will convinced them that “if there is Rhinos there will Tourists”, people will assist the forest Dept to save the Rhinos. Even through tourism Forest Department will get revenue and they can able to manage workforce for them. At the same time provision of strict punishment should be made for poachers also. But to do all these things it requires will & zeal. If we really want to stop the killings of this innocent animal then we have to create pressure on State & Govt. of India for taking strict action again poaching and for providing necessary security, electronic monitoring facility to the park. Otherwise one day will come, when Rhinos will vanish from Kaziranga and we were constrained to see its picture only.

The Incidents

The incidents may be good or bad happens in everyone’s life. Good experiences strengthen the moral, it increases the confident and lead person towards the successful life, and it provides opportunity to leave every moment of life joyfully and lively. On the other hand bad experience creates bitterness in life, it makes life dull and the person turned into pessimist, he feels life is like burden. He pulls his days and pushes his life ahead.

Incidents of bad & good got in relation, between blood relation, in friendship and in love. Good experience in all these relations tends person to leave life with positive thoughts. But the bad experience in above all creates hollow ness in the person’s life. The person thought that this world is not worth to leave, it is not his place, and he is not fit to survive in this world. The person feels lonely, he not found anyone around him whom he will trust and share his good & bad. This hollow ness, lonely ness tends the person to thought about quitting this world.

But in this selfish world ones should have to prepare himself to face betray & bad experience with smiling face. Forgive ness is the best remedy on this disease. If you will learn to forgive then half problem will be solved, at the same time you should have to adopt ‘Chankaya (Kautiliya) Niti’ in your business, you should have to be alert on the movement of people around, never the less you must include it in your habit. The straight, tall trees are looking good but in big storm they fall first. Person should have to keep his policy & nature flexible. Some incidents are really painful but unforgettable, when we tried to forgive it intentionally, it sit on our head and constrained our brain to think about the incident again and again. Although, it is compulsory to leave this God gifted life, may be by crying or by smiling, the choice is yours!