Wanderlust — Digging Deeper into the ‘Land of Everything’
I have always been a fan of traveling and exploring new places. Being an avid reader, a few words in a novel can get me to book a ticket to the location I’m reading about.
It’s a mix of curiosity and intrigue that leads you to a great place or pure wanderlust. The best part about it is not just the new places you see and the experiences you have, but the feeling of purpose you come back home with.
I recently went for a trip around India — ‘Jagriti Yatra’. It was a fifteen-day journey around India into its interior rural areas, to analyze how sustainable schools or villages have been constructed in those areas, eventually getting us to emulate those ideas in our own cities.
Most of us who went on the trip went without any anticipation about how the places were going to be. Many looked at it as a tour around India for a very low price and others were curious to know what the great ‘Jagriti Yatra’ was all about.
When I heard ‘villages’, the first thing that came into my mind was mud huts, many children running around and facilities that were not as good as cities. But little did I know how that initial impression of mine would change for good.
The ‘Jagriti Yatra’ journey encompassed a round tour of twelve places, each having a specialty of its own.
You can have a look at the map below to get an idea about the route.
Our starting point was Mumbai. The very word ‘Mumbai’ brings to our minds the sights and sounds of hawkers on the streets and the scintillating scent of vada pav and fresh ginger tea. Well, that’s Mumbai for you!!
After a fruitful beginning in this vibrant city and various introductions to everyone else who was part of the trip, we set off on our ‘Great Indian Adventure’.
Our second stop was Hubli-Dharwad. We got off the train to board a bus that took us down beautiful meadows and rusty dirt roads to reach a place of ultimate peace. It was a School of Art and Music called ‘Kalkeri’. The School was built entirely of bamboo and mud. As we entered the space we heard the chirpy voices of children singing. We were drawn to this as never before. After a long stay at the house of Carnatic Music, built within the School, we moved on to have lunch with the children. These children were very curious to know where we had come from. The children were very different from those we had seen in Schools in the city. The city children have it all and nothing intrigues them much. On the contrary, the children here were very sharp and took the time to converse with us and absorb anything we had to say. This was an opportunity they didn’t want to miss — to be connected to the world outside which they lived.
After a short walk around the campus, we came across a small center where some of the children were learning to play the Veena. This was one of the most thrilling sights to see. Although we had seen Veena performances before, the sight of the kids playing together and sometimes even messing up, was a performance we could never get enough of!
Our next stop was Bangalore. As always Bangalore had an air of positivity around it and it never ceases to give you that extra energy you’re looking for; whether it’s the range of artists you find there, the graffiti art around the city or the pure start up culture that makes people want to try new things; a market existing for almost anything new!
We went down to Mount Carmel college to meet a few start-up gurus and ended the visit touring a start-up fair that had everything from organic food to colorful eco friendly cloth sanitary pads. It was an eye-opener as to how such simple ideas could be creative, colorful, alluring, and make a difference in a large way at the same time.
Stop three was Madurai, the city of temples. It was interesting to know that the largest Eye Clinic — Arvind Eye Care, was set up right there. And this was not just any ordinary eye clinic, but one that provided free treatment to all of its patients. All the contributions for surgeries were given as generous donations. The business model was very unique. The price per surgery was very nominal. So those who could afford it were asked to pay double the amount, and half of that would be used to help another patient who couldn’t afford it. Now why didn’t anyone else think of that before? If all our hospitals ran like that, everyone would be cured in a jiffy!
Apart from the pitstop at the hospital, we obviously couldn’t miss the temple of Madurai, the amazing Madurai Meenakshi, before we headed back.
This was the second time I was at the temple, each visit bringing more peace and excitement than the last. I’m not much of a temple person, but this temple always brings a feeling of openness and spiritedness in me that allows me to feel freer than protected. The temple also had a new stone sculpture gallery added to it that had a thousand sculptures for guests to see.
Our next destination was Chennai. Chennai is well known for its artistic culture, beautiful temples, and silk sarees. But the space we visited came to us as a surprise. We headed to a mini-city called Sri City; a city within a city, 50 km from Chennai. It was a 9000-acre space built to be a mini version of Japan. It consisted of factories, housing, and schooling. The land was originally a farm area and was taken from the farmers to construct corporate buildings and create more employment opportunities. The Farmer’s children were given the benefit of 18 years of education in Schools constructed within the city.
Vishakapatnam was next. I had never been to Andhra so it was interesting to see how much of hill cover the state had. Everywhere we looked there were mountains far beyond in the distance. We visited an interesting place called “Akshaya Patra” there. Akshaya Patra is an NGO that provides mid-day meals to students across the country. They provide about 1.6 million meals a day across the country.
Every meal is given to the students at Schools at around 12.30 pm. A feedback form is given to them post the meal, to find out if they are liking the food and also to get more ideas on how to make the food cater to their taste buds.
At Akshaya Patra, we went into a room where there were giant cooking machines (basically giant cookers) which were about 8 feet in height. 400 tons of rice was cooked in them every day, not to mention the number of vegetables cut and the lentil soups made!
There were moments during our trip here that we wanted to escape, enough was enough! We were tired of moving around so much and all we wanted to have was a nice cup of tea from a chai waala nearby or the taste of some delicious Andhra dosa and pickle on our tongues.
Sometimes the brunt of travel gets to you. It’s great if the locations are luxurious and you have a lot of time to relax, but a trip that takes you to the interiors of the country is bound to make you tired. Nevertheless, the people and inspirational ideas kept us going.
Our locations over the next two days were Bhuvaneshwar and Patna, where we went to Gram Vikas, a 40-year-old village that was spruced up by constructing clean toilets, a School, and housing facilities. A space called ‘Kalpana Dham’ was started at the School there — something of a small Maker’s Space for the children where they would pool in their ideas and make items from recyclable material.
That night was New Year's Eve. All of us got out into the School ground. We had a DJ playing music and we danced with the children all night long, not to mention the dancing we did after we got back to the train, right on the platform. ‘DJ wale babu mera gaana chaladho gaana chalado…”. We were treated with pani puri and shahi tukda for dinner on the platform that night. Crazy moves, good food, and some wonderful bonding with the children and each other -What more could we ask for?
Patna was a treat. We visited Nalanda Univerity at Rajgir, one of the oldest Universities which was responsible for cultivating the art scene in Northern India. This University consisted of serene structures made of brick that resembled the construction sites of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. We found many monks coming into this space to meditate.
The street markets resembled those of Nepal and Bhutan and had a plethora of intricately carved items made of stone for very affordable prices.
Our next destination was Deoria, a village in U.P where we were introduced to magnificent weavers. Deoria was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. There was so much tranquillity there; I had never seen greener pastures in my life, in spite of having traveled across the terrains of the U.S and Europe. Nothing could match what I felt there. It was the welcoming hearts of the villagers and the natural, untarnished beauty of the place that made our day.
This village comprised a group of exceptional weavers whose talent was recognized and outsourced to Fab India. They now make earrings and necklaces for Fab India, from which they get a large share of the money.
That night was a night of singing, dancing and drinking of malai dhoodh to keep us warm in the 3 degree weather.
We reached Delhi the next morning, where we interacted with Goonj, a company that makes products out of recycled goods.
No one can get out of Delhi without heading to the best eat-streets there, so to Chandini Chowk we went! From the street side balla papdis to the paratha waala gully, we were floored at the variety of food present. We doused ourselves in the fresh aroma of jelabis and basked in the scent of matka kulfis around us.
We also visited the Jama Masjid, the largest Masjid in India. We went to the top of the tower to get a view of a large section of Delhi. The houses looked like tiny matchboxes of different colors. We headed back to the train that evening.
Our final exploratory journey ended at Ahmedabad where we went to the Sabarmati Ashram. We were all in a meditative state of mind by then, yet a bit forlorn that the trip was coming to an end.
The Ashram was the starting point of the Dhandi March lead by Mahatma Gandhi. The government of India constructed the monument as a tribute to the ‘Salt Satyagraha’.
Our final stop was back in Mumbai. All of us had heavy hearts but our minds on fire with all the wonderful, insightful experiences, still fresh.
And with tears in our eyes, stronger hearts, and wiser minds, we bid our fellow travelers goodbye, knowing we would always stay connected.