Before I begin with the tale of 6 of us in Pochampally wanted to clarify a common misconception that most people had -

Demystifying Fabulinus :

In Roman Mythology, Fabulinus is the Lord of Education and Offerings were given to HIM when a child spoke its first words because he was the god that taught children to speak. The word is not a rip off / modified version of fabulous, and since our video for the Grassroutes application was on girl education and hence the team name so.

As Udaykiran  has mentioned in the previous post that we jointly would be filling you with what all we noticed about weavers, farmers, toddy tappers, shopkeepers, banks and other financial institutions and co-operatives and government/ NGO driven initiatives at Pochampally along with our views and perspectives of the whole issue. However, before we begin with the tale and present the facts and figures along with our personal views I wanted you to gulp down this bitter capsule (my perspective of the issue) ! Am pretty sure it would be next to impossible for you to even think about it once the tales begin, the sad and sorry condition of skilled labor is appalling. I know, from whatever little I have seen, this perspective seems unjust and unorthodox on too many different levels or even invoking ” how in god’s name could you think of it?” reaction.

Rural India is different to what we see in Mumbai, Bangalore or Delhi and everyone knows it. The roots of social and economic structures are intensely intertwingled and unlike urban folks who have a single source of income, people in rural India have multiple livelihood sources which are highly fluctuating and seasonal. So, sculpting a solution to their problems wasn’t our main goal (although we wished to be of any help), we were well aware that any suggestion we might rant out might ripple into a butterfly effect causing undesired consequences. Thus, we concentrated primarily on noting the grievances and problems of the inhabitants so that once back we could utilise social media to create awareness and direct the right forces towards the change awaited !

However, one blunder that I believe we committed was that we just taped in only the sad, sorry tales, stories of people being duped or cheated and people being left vulnerable by different institutions/people. I remember very vividly the three faces of people in the small roadside tiffin shop (restaurant) where we used to have sambar vada/ rice with pappu n perugu ( dal and curd ) everyday; who asked us as to why everyone only filmed the poor weavers and not them( whom I feel should have been taped, as because of their enterprising skills they were able to live happily).

I hate to tell it, but from what I saw and from what I could make of it - not all but quite a few people just kept blaming every possible thing under the sky for their vulnerable condition. It seemed as if it was a norm that the more vulnerable you become the higher the probability of getting a favour ( loans/ facilities etc.). Hence, the competition for showcasing more sorry faces and better blaming skills since its EASIER !

Now, its a known fact and even Mr.Darwin said so - ‘Survival of the Fittest’. But if the definiton of the fittest gets misfigured and isn’t in sync with truth, survival becomes a tough ask.

We did discuss in detail on the last couple of nights at Pochampally about the issue mentioned, when it struck us that we should have filmed a weaver, a toddy tapper or a farmer who was enterprising and had done something slightly different, that iota better than conventional and was improving his condition one step at a time and should have given him more importance. Because that is how human psychology works. The reward/recognition mechanism for a better weaver, who knows; might inspire a few others to imbibe/imitate or even better him and might … so on and so forth. There is a dire need for in-house role models and success stories for the inhabitants of Pochampally to look up to ( I believe ). They are not at all dumb; rather know their work and every loophole in the system very well but lack motivation to do better !

So, I think there is no harm in recognizing the smart hard workers and rewarding them to become better even at the cost of few others( Capitalist, you may say ). The reason why I think it would work better in rural India is the fact that I mentioned before about the interconnectivity of social and economic institutions that once prosperity enters, it shouldn’t take long to percolate to more people and raise the standard of living of the whole community.

Now, the truth and other views would flow in, soon. But, I had to blurt it out to know what you people think!

Also, another observaton (isn’t universal) - we could hardly see any Gujju’s or Marwaris (except a couple of families running sweet shops) out in Pochampally, the major contributors to trade prosperity in India, specially in Mumbai, and I think they need to be enticed into making this a prosperous venture.