Hope and Despair
Its extremely satisfying when you see the fruits of your hardwork. This is was true in case of digantik when we finished our deprivation issue. I refrained myself by not mentioning about our trip. Going back, the term deprivation sounds too pseudo and farce...but my perception was wrong. I was chosen as the coordinator for Arkavadi(40kms from Tiruvannamalai). I was excited as this meant i would be the editor for the issue along with other four students. Never would i get an oppurtunity to be an editor, for at least an other 20 years. But the visit hit us hard.We faced the harsh rural realities. Brought up in an urban cosmopolitan city like Mumbai, village was a picture of fantasies. Though people like Sainath did enlighten us before we went to Arkavadi during his series of lectures. In retrospect I was helpless in many ways. The only I way I was able to express my anger was to help some kids in village in whichever way it was possible. Though we stayed only for a week, we gauged the situation. In an era of globalisation where we are talking about MNC's and FDI's in retial business...the rural reality is completly different. The growth in my opinion is farce. I dont intend to write more, as we students of ACJ, uncovered major scams in different places. Imagine teachers who are considered to be pillars and are respected, do not feed the kids under the Mid-day meal scheme. This shows the lack of implementation and the will on the part of the government. For more details log on to www.digantik.com