Saturday, December 24, 2011

28th Week @XIMB

28th Week - 18th December to 24th December

18th December- I again visted to the same village with more bonding and enthusiasm. While talking to villagers, I was overwhelmed by their efforts to overcome difficulty of credit, regular income, irrigation and education.

Despair is frightening at this situation when you love the people but placed in the system you despair of. Farmers were poor but they were trying to cope their life with dignity and hope. They have been cheated on the development projects before and still they were helping us with full enthusiasm. They are to be admired not pitied.

The field part of RLLE was over. This one month experience was a memorable one. I felt strongly that the strength of India lies in the resilience of poor not the money power of Indian middle class. Without the support of such agricultural workforce, the great Indian middle class bubble would have busted long back.

I finished remaining day work and started journey for one day documentation on the tourist spot of Gopalpur beach. We reached pretty late in the night. Recalling his previous experiences at Pradan, MM told us about nature, trekking, development and sustainable livelihood schemes.

19th December- I walked in the morning on the beach over to 2 km enjoying morning breeze at the seashore. We started to document and draw a lot in much more detailed manner for project report early in the morning. We left to Bhubaneswar from Berhampur city bus station. It was a 5 hours journey covering 170 KM.

20th December- Our group of four visited Dr P.S.Sivakumar at CTCRI for taking feedback on the rough draft of our reports. He talked openly about exaggerated figures and planning aspect of Indian government. He was equally critical of the government bureaucracy and blind following of  Robert Chambers and Johannes Hubertus Den Van Broek by our academics in the field of rural development. I didn't agree with all but lack of faith in original homemade solution is an old age problem for India.

I also visited Toshali National Crafts Mela 2011 exhibiting near our college at Janata Maidan, Bhubaneswar. Incredible Odisha, Incredible India !!!

21st December- I was congratulated by Chandan Raut for the selection as an intern in State Disaster Management Authority of SGGPA during summer 2012. It was 12:02 AM in the morning. SGGPA (School of good governance and policy analysis) is situated at Bhopal, M.P.

I am waiting for the return of other students to listen their stories of rural India. There are dark circles around mine eyes and dark shade on the face. This tour has affected health little bit.

22nd December- IRMA results has been declared and this year cut off is quite low. People are inquiring a lot about XIMB RM 2012-2014. There is a fair of chance of having only 60 seats in PGDM-RM 2012-2014 batch as we are not shifting to new campus. The quality of entrants will be much better this time around due to entrance through IRMA/CAT/XAT.

I am paying a lot of money for this course – so focusing less on grades, and more on learning but there is no preparation of the 2nd Trimester examination and have fair chance to grab lower grades.

23rd December- I was talking to many guys returning from the rural hinterland of India with one month of experience. Lot of youths of our generation including me neither had any idea earlier and nor do we care how other people live and struggle for their daily livelihood. It was an eyeopener for all of us. In some cases, the prevailing corruption had killed the enthusiasm of mine colleagues interested in the developing Bharat. Most of us has our heart in the development but inadequate money and educational loan comes as major constraint early in the career.

While I may grudgingly respect the enemy, I have nothing but contempt for traitors. The pseudo development and bureaucratic forces have shown their corrupt nature in implementation of various schemes. We generally admit that there was lot of work done for the poor in the last twenty years due to Panchayati Raj, RTI and liberalization of Indian economy. Even the disparities between rich and poor has increased, a lot of fund has been made available for various government projects. And yes there is lot of need of rural managers and rural developers in the country.

One of our Professor had actually lived like a wanderer and stayed into the wild. He is a bit difficult customer for students but he has gained respect from me today.

24th December- There is a positive air in the batch and a lot of confidence after this one month of rural stay. There is sudden springing of maturity and professionalism among the individuals. There is nothing more satisfying than the growth of the peers and friends.

I read and even bookmarked a fantastic piece of article - What to do during your MBA ?