Had got up at 7 when Karayilji brought us piping hot tea. Went through the chores and we're ready well in time. Teacher, as we called her, gave us a fantastic breakfast. Her daughter, Shiny and her little one, Prarthana were in attendance. The little one was effervescent, friendly and hyperactive. She was very sad when we're leaving; hope to see them at Guruvayur soon as promised!
Aniyan, Padmakumar and Mahesh had fetched up by the Mangalore Express which was an hour late. They had their bath and joined us as we took off for the first point of reception at Thrikkarippur.
The panchayats that we'd our trysts with today, were:-
(a) Thrikarippur.
(b) Pilicode.
(c) Cheruvathur.
(d) Ajanur and
(e) Udma.
The venue in Thikaripur was at the Government High school. The audience, mostly women, was lively and interactive. We honoured an 81 year old lady, Karthyayani, who worked as a casual labourer for her positive attitude. Raghavan maash, our district co-ordinator, wanted to keep everyone happy and therefore, the podium was housefull. He gave everyone a chance to speak, too. The most poignant moment was when the previous secretary, Balakrishnan, came and spoke out his agony of not having received his pension till date because the last spell of the e-literacy project, that we'd initiated in '12 during his tenure, had not borne fruition till date. We've assured him that we'd ensure that he got his pension soon as he was being crucified for no fault of his and it was because of the sudden change in policy brought about by the central government.
The police team, later, performed the street play as we set off for Pilicode. There was a lot of time wasted for no rhyme or reason and we'd to pay for it towards the end of the day. At Cheruvathur, we came across a graduate, Elsy, who was a casual labourer. Her children, a son and a daughter, were graduates and working for MNCs, while her husband was also a casual labourer. Their union must have been a case of love, I'm sure!
At Ajanur, our interaction was mainly with upper primary school children and the ladies of the Kudumbasree project. It was a nice interaction. We'd reached Udma by 1800 hrs and there was no crowd whatsover. We'd to get down to some plain speaking and inform the panchayat leadership as to what we expected out of our visit and even expressed our displeasure to our co-ordinator and his team for the communication gap. The 20 hour e-literacy training programme was explained and Anju, of the CSE, who'd co-ordinate the training sessions, was introduced to them.
We settled down at the PWD Rest House for the night halt.
Tailpiece.
A stiflingly hot and dusty day with the last programme of the day ending up in a damp squib! Sad!!
And it's just one more day left for the yatra to come to an end.
Aniyan, Padmakumar and Mahesh had fetched up by the Mangalore Express which was an hour late. They had their bath and joined us as we took off for the first point of reception at Thrikkarippur.
The panchayats that we'd our trysts with today, were:-
(a) Thrikarippur.
(b) Pilicode.
(c) Cheruvathur.
(d) Ajanur and
(e) Udma.
The venue in Thikaripur was at the Government High school. The audience, mostly women, was lively and interactive. We honoured an 81 year old lady, Karthyayani, who worked as a casual labourer for her positive attitude. Raghavan maash, our district co-ordinator, wanted to keep everyone happy and therefore, the podium was housefull. He gave everyone a chance to speak, too. The most poignant moment was when the previous secretary, Balakrishnan, came and spoke out his agony of not having received his pension till date because the last spell of the e-literacy project, that we'd initiated in '12 during his tenure, had not borne fruition till date. We've assured him that we'd ensure that he got his pension soon as he was being crucified for no fault of his and it was because of the sudden change in policy brought about by the central government.
The police team, later, performed the street play as we set off for Pilicode. There was a lot of time wasted for no rhyme or reason and we'd to pay for it towards the end of the day. At Cheruvathur, we came across a graduate, Elsy, who was a casual labourer. Her children, a son and a daughter, were graduates and working for MNCs, while her husband was also a casual labourer. Their union must have been a case of love, I'm sure!
At Ajanur, our interaction was mainly with upper primary school children and the ladies of the Kudumbasree project. It was a nice interaction. We'd reached Udma by 1800 hrs and there was no crowd whatsover. We'd to get down to some plain speaking and inform the panchayat leadership as to what we expected out of our visit and even expressed our displeasure to our co-ordinator and his team for the communication gap. The 20 hour e-literacy training programme was explained and Anju, of the CSE, who'd co-ordinate the training sessions, was introduced to them.
We settled down at the PWD Rest House for the night halt.
Tailpiece.
A stiflingly hot and dusty day with the last programme of the day ending up in a damp squib! Sad!!
And it's just one more day left for the yatra to come to an end.
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