The best gift begins by giving away one’s ego

Learning is a lifelong journey! A well heard phrase and we live it often. If we look closely and with an open mind, every conversation and every situation can provide us with a learning point for LIFE.

We began our journey in Gollakandukur, a village in Andhra Pradesh for our first project. Since then we have been exploring the areas of need to understand and plan our initial steps. I have had multiple conversations with local residents of the villages which included people of various ages, genders, and unfortunately the still existing caste systems. Also had further discussions with experts, specialists in the field of agriculture, enthusiasts, activists in this arena, and also individuals with extreme passion towards villages of India. These discussions provided tremendous learning opportunities and different perspectives towards villages and their beauty.

All conversations have been thought provoking and insightful but one was definitely outstanding and deeply impactful. It was my 90 min discussion with Retd. Brigadier P. Ganesham, Founder of Palle Srujana. It was filled with enthralling stories of his life, his learnings from the villages and the stories of innovators of the villages. The discussion included topics from self sustenance of the villages in the 1940s which mostly imported just 2-3 essential commodities to the village, reasons for single level homes in villages, how we can continue to save the beauty of these vanishing villages. Similarly we talked about how we can develop the association between the cities and the villages without the need for the younger generations to flee away to the cities to live.

Brig. Ganesham described the possibility of many philanthropists going to a village with an attitude of self pride and ego than with an attitude of respect. Respect earns trust and acceptance which helps open up the villagers with their deepest problems. Education taught many of us the ability to answer questions from elementary school but that might be lacking without a formal education. Conversations and living with the people in the villages will give us exposure to deeper problems than a formal survey eventually giving the philanthropists the understanding of true concerns.

The dialogue continued with learning the importance of giving what’s necessary after exploring the needs. Addressing the entire village rather than an individual issue for the overall development of the village is another aspect that should be strongly considered. He highlights the importance of strengthening the strengths. We can enjoy the village as nature and admire the cultural heritage of our ancestors. Bringing back these missing emotions in certain villages, beautifies the whole concept.

His observations included significant changes from a self sustainable way of living in our grandparents’ generations to a farmer becoming a consumer as well. They are importing many of the basic needs from outside the village rather than exports. Remarks on how the advances in media brought in the aspirations of the villagers towards more materialistic gains as with the rest of the world were saddening. Despite many changes he also signifies the presence of many intelligent, and smart innovators in the villages. He has been living and continues to advocate lending a supporting hand to these innovators. He proposes that occasional fine tunings of their work, and providing platforms will bring about advanced innovations from the grassroot levels.

In essence, Brigadier Ganesham suggests a good samaritan to go to the village with a complete open mind, becoming a zero before entering the village, becoming one of them, learning from them, and refine the solutions they provide with the advance technology from outside the village. This helps not only the reinvigoration of the villages but also sustaining the coexistence and interdependence of the villages with the rest of the world.