Day 2 & Day 3

Process of blogging –

This phase of the journey has been really tight…was always running short of time and trying to cover more distance…some minor issues with planning and some other with the fact that I had to reach to Wardha by 16^th as I had to get back to Lucknow (my hometown) for the festival of Diwali…Hence the process which took the beating was blogging…every evening I would pick up my netbook but would just go to sleep…

Today I am blogging in the train from Wardha to Lucknow and trying to catch up to the schedule of blogging…now back to the blog…(16^th Oct 09)

Day 2: Better than day 0 & 1 [Place(s): Hyderabad, Travel: 45 km, Date: 10^th Oct ‘09]

Was feeling tired in the morning and pain was still there…not to mention bike was still an issue…but wanted to catch up with things fast to make up the delay…Fr. John, Sanghmitra called me to the office of NDWM (National Domestic Worker Movement)…there I met Sr. Lissy and her team of empowered women…I explained what journey I am doing and then tried to understand the work…basically they were working the development and rights of domestic workers and unorganized labours in Andhra Pradesh…very dedicated team and very large reach…few of the good works included education of children of such people who otherwise will just roam around in the day, and empowering women by teaching them how to handle their financial matters…

Had my first “community interaction” there…found it difficult to interact and lead the discussion…other problem was the language…I can speak and understand telugu…but like English movies, when people speak very fast in their own accent it becomes difficult sometimes…anyway Sr. Lissy to rescue, she helped in forming the question by taking what I was trying to say…probably group themselves was even bigger help as they spoke very confidently and shared their experiences and issues very openly…I could get a overall picture of the community…

In Andhra Pradesh, there are three major schemes which are run in the health sector. One is 108 – Ambulance, 104 – Mobile Clinic and Insurance for the people living below poverty line (BPL)…all of them were used by the people and corruption overall was low…even in preparation of white card (for BPL families) delay used to happen but not much of corruption / exploitation…but again no white cards for the displaced labourers…other important issue in terms of the access to health, private system is faster and more effective in general but makes money by writing large numbers of test to be done / drugs to be taken…whereas government system is slow with some minor corruptions like paying bribe to peon to enter in the line…but were generally correct in diagnostic and consultation…between these two bad systems, people preferred private whenever they can afford…regarding the mobile they all understand and use it…after I floated the idea of using mobile for information regarding their basic needs, they felt it can be useful, but not much thoughts…session ended with some nice photographs with the team and the reinforcement of learning that people understand quality service and are willing to pay for it if they are ‘able’ to…

After this first session, where I did a miserable job during the discussion…I had lunch with Fr. John and heard his story…then came back to Sudu’s place to take some rest and started again at around 5…now the objective was to get the bike repaired before meeting to Vd. Jaikrishna (who was also supposed to tie me up with the flood relief team)…tried with two local mechanics thinking they will do it fast but they simply refuse to do it stating they are busy…they wanted me to come next morning…after almost giving up the thought of getting it repaired, I saw a Hero Honda showroom…some good sense prevailed at that moment and I went inside…the fellow took time but repaired the thing properly…worst part to know that issue was with carburetor cleaning…which was supposed to be done during the last servicing (Did that on 1^st Oct at Guntut company showroom)…this really pissed me off as this was an avoidable things and I told that guy at least thousand time that please do the servicing properly as I am going on a long trip…anyway another feather in the cap of Guntur customer service…

After getting it done reached Vd. Jaikrishna’s place at Safilguda and had dinner with him and understood his work as practicing ayurvedic doctor…he told me about his customer and diseases profile and other market dynamics…He connected me to Mr. Anilingappa ji of Seva Bharati who was leading the flood relief work in south Mahboobnagar district and next day trip to Mahboobnagar was fixed…although option of train was available, I thought taking the bike there was a good idea as local travel will not be issue…this I did after checking out the distance of Mahboobnagar from Hyderbad (which was about 120 km)…came back to Sudu’s place and went to sleep after a better day apart from another bike repair experience….

Day 3: Crazzy day…lots of learning and lots of driving…[Place(s): Hyderabad & Mahboobnagar, Travel: 475km, Date:11^th Oct ‘09]

I knew before sleeping that it is going to be a special experience with the flood relief process…my mom was worried as post flood disease outbreaks are common…but I said don’t worry as I shall be with the expert relief team and things will be fine…as a part of additional caution I said that I would properly cover my wounds woth bandage…so got up around 7 and pushed off around 7:45…plan was to reach some place called Beechupally at about 10 AM and then park the bike there and go to relief area, come back by 3:30 – 4:00 and drive back to Hyderabad…total expected distance to cover was somewhere 225 – 250 km…

Stopped after driving around 80 km with a great driving experience on 4 lane NH7 for the breakfast…asked the restaurant guy how far is Beechupally and I got shock of the life…he said another 100 km…it took me no time to understand what miscommunication happened…the place is in Mahbubnagar district but is far from the Mahboobnagar town and what I checked on the map was the distance of the town…now I had a decision to make, as going ahead would mean that I would not be able to come back on the same day delaying the program of following day and going back would mean 160 km of useless driving…knowing that there are some arrangements to stay at the base camp and the fact that objective is to get these experience, I took a call that I would go ahead…I called up Mr. Anilingappa and told him that I would be a bit a late, he said come down and assured that he’ll attach me to some team or the other…

Started from the restaurant after stuffing myself as much as I could, as it was informed that there’ll be no food or water available in the area…I also bought some biscuit packets and water bottle…only good factor till now was the road…great driving experience and knowing that I was late, I started cruising at 3 figure speed…covered balance 100 km in about 1 and half hours and reached the base camp at Beechupally at about 11 AM…Beechupally is a village near which a bridge is there on River Krishna…seeing the river I though the flood affected area must be real closed…but that thought prevailed only for few minutes…after reaching I called the team and came to know they just started and wanted me to come another 20 km from the base camp…now I realized that part II of the plan of going to the area on the flood relief team’s vehicle is also gone for a six and shall be driving all through the day on my bike on flood damaged roads…with these mixed feelings of frustration (of poor planning, and distance kept on increasing) and excitement (of driving whole day) I started…started only to realize that 20 km was actually 28.8 km and that too that road was blocked because of the CM’s visit…again called up the team they said come down another 10km where they are stuck in traffic jam…after driving about 220 km (already !!!) I met the team and Mr. Anilingappa joined me on the bike and we were leading the team now…We took a left turn just before the bridge on Tungbhadra River, which got damaged during the flood and I could see the Karnool town from this side of the river…

***Continuing the blogging from the train…(17^th Oct 09)

The Flood Experience: the flood experience was on the expected lines…the damage to the roads, villages and other infrastructure was as one can imagine…the water level next to the river rose as high as 20 ft and even the electricity poles were washed off…watered entered the villages on 2^nd Oct afternoon and villages were informed earlier about this by local government officials, hence no damage to the life in that area…but the level of water was so high that there was a huge damage to the property…water receded on the 3^rd / 4^th and then the relief work started…

I reached the place after a week after the water went down…but still water was there in the low areas…all the kaccha roads (mud roads) were not in the shape to support any kind of transport…but huge team of government was on ground trying to set right the infrastructure in place…they were using gravels and sand to temporary make the roads in a condition to support transport…people were still trying to clear their houses and set their places even after a week of the flood…over and above this misery there was very bad smell which was obvious due to the water logging…no clear sign of mosquitoes (may be because it was day time) and no news of any disease outbreaks…most of the relief workers were using nose mask…that was mostly for smell and to prevent them from diseases…as I came directly to the area, couldn’t get a mask…

We just went passed the area slowly to reach the target area of food distribution…I was worried about the bike as it was really taking a toll and over and above there was a big risk of a puncture, for which I was not prepared (in case of puncture, only option would have been to carry the bike on one of the relief trucks)…but there was no other choice so I kept moving…then I saw huge pile of clothes thrown on the road…on enquiry I came to know that people are not accepting the old clothes distribute by the relief team…after detailed enquiry came to know that people in the area were economically well off…land next to river in productive and they are well connected to markets…and generally the clothes contributed by the people for the relief work are really not in a very good condition to use…and once people start throwing it on the roads, even those who really need them would not pick it up to keep their social esteem…now this was a very tricky situation because social pressure is denying access to a help which is needed and available…it really shows the importance of considering social factors while planning any activity with the community…

On our way to the target area, many group of people tried to stop the vehicle for the relief material, but we had to make our way through the whole situation…After sometime we stopped for distribution of food material which the team was carrying…they had breads and water pouches to distribute…as soon as the jeep stopped a crowed surrounded the jeep and tried to pull the material forcibly…people told me this a common thing during flood relief operation when people try to loot the vehicles carrying the relief material…but I was quite amazed the way relief team handled the whole situation…they convinced them to make a proper queue and distribution started…the good thing was line was intact until the distribution was completed, because if you allow to break the line, people will try to re-enter and the whole thing converts to a big chaos…but the whole thing finished properly and after distributing the breads and water pouches to about 50-60 people we started for the next location…but discipline is really really important to carry out the relief operations…

Reaching next place was really difficult as we went to a very remote village named Gannavaram…road were horrible, couldn’t judge what was the impact of flood and what was their original condition but it took nice toll on my back…after riding for about half an hour we reached their and joined another team of relief workers…this distribution was happening in the center of a village, where damage occurred only to the low lying areas…but the discipline was amazing and I noticed one more unusual thing…everybody was carrying their ration cards…I enquired about the same and came to know that relief team had already visited the areas before and identified the families which were affected…only such identified families were supposed to get the relief material…truly speaking I didn’t expect such a level of planning and professionalism…one the line was formed and distribution started, it took not more than 15 minutes to distribute food to 100-125 people…it is an experience in itself to see such a process carried out in such a peaceful manner…I came to know that most of the government trucks are looted and most of the NGO distribution happen peacefully…in fact a government team came to Seva Bharti team requesting their assistance in distributing the material, which the gladly accepted…this is because NGO people reach out to the people in advance and try to connect to them, plan the operation with the community seniors and for government people it’s only a process to achieve a target of x number of packets…exceptions may be there but this is the overall story…but people recognize this and I witnessed it happening…then we moved to other part of the village and distribution continued…I also tried to find out the extent of damage to the standing crops, but couldn’t get much details on that…crops grown in that area are paddy and some other cash crops…

It was amazing to see people, most of them were not looking stressed / worried...they were hopeful and were sure that things will improve quickly…this may be a story of this area only because of the good agriculture…but I was happy to see that there were positive feelings…during all this time kids were roaming around freely, it was a gala time for them as all the parents were busy in getting the relief material for survival and of course there were school holidays…my bike and my biking gear was a attraction for them…I also had some good time with the kids…with all these feelings we headed back to the base camp…I wouldn’t say it was an eye opening experience but it is really different to see actual things happening on the ground what you expect / see on tv / read in news papers…

On the way back Mr. Anilingappa went with the other team and Mr. Baloo and Mr. Amarendra joined me on the bike…triplee...both of them were teachers in the Mahboobnagar…they gave me some insight on the planning process of the relief operation…I was happy with the discussion but was thinking if my bike could speak it would curse me…anyway, we stopped in between to meet some of Baloo’s relative and then headed back to the base camp…

Relief Planning: Base camp was setup in an Engineering college at Beechupally…a hostel was allotted to the relief team and in the ground all the material was received and repacked into the packets…we reached there at about 4:30 and went to take lunch…after taking the lunch tried to understand the planning process of the whole operation…there are actual four phases of the planning…these phases are classified based on my understanding only…

o Phase I - Rescue : This phase is all about getting out the people who are trapped in the water to a safe place or safety zone…volunteers reach immediately reach to the area and whole focus is on saving the life with whatever means available…in this phase another team woks on arranging some food material for the people and its generally cooked food which is arranged from neighboring towns…senior people arrange for a base camp and material to be arranged for the next phases…this phase is mostly unplanned and local resources are used…government also reaches to the site and try to help people for both rescue and food…

o Phase II – Survey: As soon as the water starts receding, a team of young people quickly do a comprehensive survey of the affected villages…they prepare a list of the villages, population, extent of damage etc…in many villages damage happen to some low lying parts only…in such villages they prepare a list of affected people…government also does the planning based on the number of villages and population but they don’t conduct such massive survey to assess the actual issue...Seva Bharati team claimed that this process of survey helps them to connect to people and once the credibility is establish it is much easier to control the mob during the actual distribution…

o Phase III – Immediate relief: This is the part of the operation which I witnessed…this involves getting the aid from external agencies…making food packets at the base camp (they may contain utensils also) and daily sending teams to various villages with planned number of packets…by this stage people don’t want to take cooked food and ask (not request) for raw food only…[the reasons for this was people feel cooked food is more like what beggers get and raw food (grains etc.) is like the ration and that’s their right…also raw food can be stored and cooked food is good for only a meal or two] [Reason for ask and not request was these people feel that its government’s responsibility to give them the food material and the fact that they are economically well off, requesting is like begging]..this process continues for about 15-20 days…meanwhile government has a major role to set right the infrastructure as only government works towards that…I witnessed that NH7 was fully repair and even the dividers were repaired…one side of the bridge on Tungbhadra River (next to Karnool) was repaired from one side and other side repair was in progress…also a good number of government teams were working to repair the access roads to villages…

o Phase IV – Rehabilitation: This is most neglected part by both government and NGOs, majorly because it doesn’t have any “media” value…people in our country really forget things very quickly and hence it doesn’t give good popularity to the teams working for rehabilitation for the people who lose their house during the floods…although local teams were really interested in carrying out this work but because of above mentioned reasons funds were not available…

Going back and ‘Ants’: It was almost six by the time we finished the discussion on relief process…got hold of some data prepared by the team, which showed goods worth almost Rs 1.1 Cr. Was distributed by their team alone during the operation, majority of which was food…followed by this there was a review meeting planned but then I thought why not go back now itself…although it was a crazy idea to go back as it would mean 450+ km which is insane and would be travelling in night…but then I thought if stay here I am not assured of a good sleep and would need to start real early in the morning…and because of the travelling I would feel tired again…as far as driving was concerned, I had seen the road and was comfortable on driving that four lane high way…So I took the bold decision of going back…

But then one of the most unexpected things happen…I kept the safety jacket and gloves at one corner while I had the lunch and discussion…when I wore my jacket immediately ants started biting me…I immediately took it off to realize what has happened, there were thousands of ants inside my jacket, inside gloves and on my bag….what happened was during driving there are lot of small bugs and insects come and hit the jacket to die…ants came to eat those dead insects…but this lead to major problem as jacket, gloves and bag, all three had net type cloth and ants were both inside and outside…with time not on my side cleaning up that thing was really frustrating…after 15 minutes of dedicated effort I realized that it is impossible to get rid of ants…so I started driving and hung the jacket from the handle hoping ants would fly off…after riding about 5 km I stopped to check again, still some of them were there so cleaned them manually and wore it with front zip open so that it flies off and if one or two are left they don’t bother me…after riding another 15 minutes I zipped the jacket and was hoping nothing will happen and luckily nothing happened…

Night driving – Plan for this five month journey was to never drive long distances in the night and I was driving in the night on the third day of the trip itself…Driving on a four lane high with divider is real easy as there is no traffic coming towards you…what you need to do in such case is to find a four wheeler in your speed range and just follow it…this helps you in many ways, one - it blocks the light coming from the vehicles coming towards you, two – it gives you extra light and hence better view of your side of the lane, third – it clears pedestrians and cycle riders for you…with this funda just rocked the road and covered 180 km in 2.5 hrs which included two breaks…only problem was the number of insects hitting on the visor kept going up and hence one break was to just clean the visor…anyway reached back safely to Hyderabad and called Sudu…both of us went to subway, had a nice sub and moved back to sudu’s place…shared a bit of story with him, made one or two call and crashed into the bed with following status message on the Facebook –

krrraaaazzzzyyyyy day... Drove 475 km in the day....when plan was to drive 225-250 km... Drove 50 km on the flood damaged roads.... Drove another 50 km triple to get volunteers back to the base camp... Witnessed relief work for the flood affected area near Kurnool... one of the most memorable day of my life...