THE TILONIA EFFECT

People..the word tilonia itself had a sepcial aura in itself, leave aside the place. When i heard about this place for the very first time some months ago,i had no idea of what or how this place is. Never knew that this place would bring such a big change in me.
I was very eager to visit tilonia among all the places in the yatra coz it would be the first time i would be visiting a place in rajasthan.So obviously the excitement levels were quite high as our train left delhi. It was a pleasant surprise the next day at around 6am seeing myself at the jaipur railway station. Another three hours or so,n there we reach tilonia!!!!!!
The first pleasant surpsrise was the welcome the local villagers had arranged for us with music and dance.It was great.Almost evryone jumped off the train and joined them in the dance. After sometime we were supposed to go to the famous barefoot college, the society responsible for tilonia's success and development. As we went there, another beautiful sight was seeing all the village kids lined up for welcoming us with a big smile and a namaste. Man,for a moment i forgot who i was!!!!! I met a small kid of standard 4 and started talking with him.I just asked him the subjects that were taught to him in his school n he gives me a whole list of subjects from maths,science,hindi,sanskrit,value education and so on. I asked if they were taught english.And this kid replies me back in english-"Yes, we are taught to speak in english in the school".great!!i asked him what he wanted to do as he grew up. And guess what he wanted to become?? a maths teacher!!!!Way to go...
The real shocks were in fact yet to come.As we were moving towards the village,one thing that amazed me was a tall communication tower.That was strange!!! As we moved forward, there's a ground where you see a array of solar panels lined up.and wait,these were not ordinary solar panels.they have been designed by the villagers themselves,who call themselves the barefoot solar engineers all built by using scrap materials. And now they train people from villages all over the country and abroad so that they can do the same.Awesome!!
As we were taking a round of the village,we go inside a hall. And what i see there is a room having around 10 computers where some ladies were working on accounts.i was shocked!!!At a corner i saw a old lady who could easily be in her 60's making some reports on ms excel..Oh my god!!!i was speechless. later i found that none of them have received formal education. Still with the shock of what i saw,i moved on to the next room and the only thing left for me to do was fall down in wonder-there i see a huge room with people from different countries sitting in tables and doing what-designing integrated circuits to make small tubelights. Any guesses who was teaching these foreigners???yes,it was the villagers itself. These villagers had to be superhumans or aliens. i found that they all had come for a duration of 6 months from their respective countries where they were trained to design these circuits,make the lights and train other villagers in their country......just too good..
Still amazed with what i just saw, me,guru and maitreyee just walkd off d room and were just roaming around that a lady called us to her home. How could we miss that chance!!! As we entered her house,it seemed as a normal house itself, small and beautiful. As she took us to one of the rooms,i stood still. What i see is a big tv in the corner of the room with a dvd player beside it.there was a pack of dvd's of all d recent movies. Yes,its a village. Beside the dvd player i see a report on international labour organization(ILO) supposedly made by her daughter who's in class 8.What should i say on that??
There were so many incidents in that village that left me amazed, shocked, inspired and brought about a thought in me. Who said development is only limited only to the cities?? Who said formal education is the only way by which you can bring about a change in the society?? For answers, welcome to tilonia!!

tata jagriti yatra

this jagriti yatra is somethng dat happnd just a fortnght before, so i thnk its high time to start with this one...
for illiterates, tata jagriti yatra was a magnificent 18 day train journey takin 350 of the "BRIGHT" youth from all over the country and abroad to 18 places in 18 days all over the country making them meet with many ngo's,social entreprenuers n business entreprenuers to give them a source of inspiration and leaving inspired to do something good for the country...luckily i was a part of dis grt journey that took place frm 24th dec-11th jan and it was somethng dat changed my life in many ways....at the same time, i got a chance of meeting so many people frm diff places and different nooks and corners of life with my group being the best example....i would like to share some incidents that were on the softer side of the trip-i mean those funny incidents, some memorable chats n interactions, dat contributed the most in making this journey the most memorable one...

the night of horror
day 2...dec 25th..merry christmas
we had just started n were going frm mumbai to thiruvananthapuram....d journey was just too beautiful with the magnificent konkan ghats giving picteresque views all day....n evry1 on the train was njoyin it...throughout the day we were having discussions, chats and all over a whole list of topics.....some meaningful,some really baseless ranging from singing, arranged or love marriages, spiritualism wich was too gud wit aditya and guru n den finally as it was around 10pm suddenly the topic switched over to horror...we all then decided to play a game where each one would say a horror or spooky story wich dey had encountered in their life...the fun started.......
aditya and varun were mostly speakin of deir own remixed editions of various episodes of zee horror story...wich were partly spooky and partly funny....i had my own share of experiences which i shall share seperately..
den came mohit's turn...he literally made evryone spellbound and shocked wit d mention of his biking incidents- d one of 4 accidents in 4 months n den he said somethng that scared the shit out of us. he says-all his four accidents in four months were frm sep- nov at the end of the month where he was with a different group in a journey or a trip everytime he had the accident...n den suddenly it clicks that it was december,again d end of the month n again he was in a different group...suddenly evry1 was silent...some people indeed started praying....luckily nothin happened-unfortunately for mohit....
while dis all was happenin,hemant was completely silent n just listenin...so when we urged him to speak,he starts with his story,which believe me is the best story i have ever heard in my whole life...so he starts by askin - "How many of you hav carried a dead body?????""
silence all over...yet 2-3 of dem raise deir hand. his next question -"how many of u hav carried a dead body of a stranger???"" pin drop silence...d only thng audible was the noise of the moving train..n den he starts his story in his words -
" once i was coming home late from outside.As i was just entering, my neighbor aunty called me n said- hemant, can u help me??
i replied- sure aunty...wt can i do fr u??
aunty-i think dere is a body in my balcony....i dunno frm where it has come from...m really scared hemant...pls help me
i gained some courage and move into aunty's house all with good intentions....as i reached d balcony,dere was d body...it was in a corner,still as a rock....i went near d body and tried moving it...bt it ws nt moving...i checked its breath.........he was dead..."
hemant intentionally stops his story....evry1 is shockd n surprised....no one had expected dis type of story frm hemant.someone asks him-"wt did u do next??"
our hemant,sittin relaxed replies-"nothin...i just picked d body up n threw it in d dustbin.!!"
"WHAT??????"
ya..i threw it in the dustbin
nw it was confusion n shock more than fear...how could he throw a body in a dustbin???
hemant-"kuch nahi yaar...the body was that of a dead parrot.."
silence...i dunno if nyone wantd to say nythn or could get hold of the fact that it was a dead parrot....rest is history about wt happened wit him...
omg-d dead parrot...later dis story got famous all over d train as d chidiya story!!!!!!


D B.Sc confusion
hemant was seriously someone who could make you laugh at the drop of a hat...dunno if it was his innocence or his great sense of humour, you would almost end up laughing on every line he would speak....one more incident was d bsc incident
okk...so dis is during the middle of the journey...everyone is in deir respective births doin deir own work.... suddenly maitreyee frm d other grp comes n sits with us fr a chat....as she was chattin, suddenly hemantbhai moves forward n asks-" maitreyee, wt do u study??"
maitreyee- "m doin my b.sc."
n den knw wat hemant asks next??? - "ARE YOU DOING B.Sc IN SCIENCE??????""
i almost fell off my birth laughing...

How a different meaning of a sentence changes d whole perspective??
m sorry hemant....i hav to write this one too...dese small small jokes were somethng dat really kept us goin in d whole journey...okk again dis is somewhere in d middle of the journey..
we were havin a discussion or something till late in the night in the chair car and even the girls were with us....as we were discussin, hemant starts feelin very sleepy and n says - "guys...m feeling sleepy...does anybody wants to sleep with me????""
first silence...den laughter....it took some time before hemant realised d folly behind wat he said...it was just so funny..


the awake presentation
as a part of the journey, every group had to make a presentation on a role model. My grp had to make a presentation on awake, an organization based in bengaluuru..so we sat a day b4 thnkin to prepare fr it..an idea floats of makin a skit about how awake started and everyone agrees for it and then roles are distributed - hemant becomes a shrewd bank manager, tanya an educated lady strugglin fr a loan, shivani a.k.a kiddo a distressed rural housewife who is thrashed regularly by her husband, archana-a representative frm awake and so on...left was a role of a rural widow. as we had only 3 girls, it had to be done by a guy...n just coz adithya had long hair,he was chosen to do the role..poor guy.he was forced to shave his beard,something wich i thnk he had nt done since ages..
time fr rehearsal....1st.d tanya hemant scene...both r too gud in their roles...scene perfect
2nd. d adithya kiddo scene- as adithya was bit weak in hindi, i startd makin a script fr him...bt den it was nt goin dat good....he was nt abl to delivr dat well....n our varun...d iit-kgp one starts trainin him....while varun was teachin adithya,evryone noticed d hidden skill varun had in acting..he was just so good and natural....so aftr a lot of requesting n nautanki,d roles were exchanged...nw varun was d widow....d way varun spoke- his facial expressions, d lines he used, his body language,...was just tooo good...some excerpts frm his dialogues -
(as a widow)- ""kya batau behen...jabse wo chal base,mera jeena hi bahut mushkil ho gaya hai...kya karu,kaise karu, kuch samajh me hi nahi aa raha.....aur fir mera pappu(mohit) kuch karta bhi nahi hai....din bhar ghar me hi rehta hai,bas khata rehta hai,kuch karta bhi nahi hai....samajh me nahi aa raha mera gujara kaise hoga!!!!""
n den kiddo starts as a troubld housewife-"tumhe kya batau behen....mere wo roj ghar peeke aate hai aur mujhe bahut marte hai....mujhe kuch bolne bhi nahi dete....dinbhar main bas kaam karti rehti hu....mujhe pyar bhi nahi karte.."
it was just so hilarious....n believe me,,,people loved d skit...especially varun as d widow

dont gimme the theatre tickets

people....i'l tel u a tradition what has been going on in my family since the past 10 years or so,dat of never giving me a movie hall ticket to hold while going to watch a movie.And it has a beautiful story behind it. So let me take u back to time to glorify this incident..
Ok...so dis incident takes place whn i was somewhat about 10-12 years old...i was in orissa at my grandparents place for vacations with my whole family. One day we all planned to watch a movie n so my family wit some of my cousins left off for the theatre...as far as i could recall,it was some crap sunny deol movie d name i cant recollect at all.
Anyways, as we reached the hall,we were not surprised seeing a big line at the counter as it was a weekend. So my dad joined the battlefront and after 40 mins or so of heavy firing and shelling,, he came out victorious with the tickets. Being a small kid, i always had the craze of holdin the tickets with me so as to carry the big responsibility. As usual,i started crying for the tickets n my dad gave it to me. Which kid goes to a theatre and doesnt ask fr chips n chocolates????deciding nt to break the trend,my startd pesterin my dad fr some money...aftr bit of overacting, my dad had to let down. the excitement of gettin money fr chips was so exciting dat i completely forgot holding movie tickets in my hand.As my dad was checkin out his wallet, i absent-mindedly crumpled the tickets n threw it near the dumpyard just so dat i cud have the money..getting the chips was a more exciting prospect than watching the movie...so gt d chips wit a big smile and went to the hall....
as we went inside,d guy in d theatre asked for the tickets n my dad looked at me...n guess wat,i was busy munching chips. As he repeated to show the tickets,then the lightning struck me!!!!!!i suddenly realised that i dont have the tickets with me...
Trying to act innocent,i gave a sheepish smile n replied-i think i hav misplaced it somewhere....
It is situations as these where you test the temper of your parents...my dad pulled us all out of the line,evryone sorrounded me to interrogate n then each present started giving a piece of their respective minds to me. And still then i was not able to recollect where i threw the tickets. In a desperate effort, we all startd searchin fr the tickets in a fanatic way...after around 20 mins or so when the movie had already startd, everyone lost their hope n decided to go back....at the very moment i got a nature's call n had to run to relieve myself....as i went towards d dumpyard area depressd n afraid of what was goin to happen aftr i would reach home,i startd releivin myself....n den suddenly guess wat!!!there i find the crumpled tickets at a corner...d happiness was more dan coming 1st in class at that very moment....i just ran as fast as i could towards everyone wit those crumpled tickets in my hand n luckily we ended up watching d movie, although 40 mins late..More than that, i just got saved from the evenin session that would have been booked for me..
So after this incident, everyone makes it sure nt to give me hold the tickets when going to a theatre...

THE GREAT RABBIT RACE

THE GREAT RABBIT RACE
okk people...i had to start with this one....this rabbit race incident is somethng that is still etched in my mind...d time machine takes us to 1991-92...i must b 3 or 4 yrs old coz i was in upper kindergarten studyin in a village called pakyong in sikkim....we were having the annual athletic meet n i was participating in somethng wat u call as the rabbit race where kindergarten kids had to run 100 metres hopping as a rabbit all over....before d race we all were dressed up as rabbits itself wit white shirts,white half pants, a stupid pair of rabbit ears n all....i was d perfect white n brown rabbit among all white rabbits being the only dark complexioned guy.i.e.rabbit among the fair rabbits in d class...
okk...d time to d race is nearing...all d rabbits are lined up for the race...and lo there goes the whistle...all the rabbits start hoppin around....guess wt happnd..while all rabbits were literally runnin and hoppin as to complete the race 1st, our great odd rabbit,i mean me was more interstd in hopping than completing the race..it was a new joy altogether..i was takin a perfect hop wit completetely sittin on the ground n den takin d next hop...so by the time i covered 10m,d race was already over....but even then i had completely forgotten about the race...i was busy hoppin feelin like a rabbit n d whole crowd was starin at me thnkin who is dis stupid kid who is still hoppin whn others hav already finished ages ago...n den guess wat happnd....d teachers had to come and literally lift me off the race so that i would stop hopping and clear the track......n dis was how my great rabbit race came to an end...
i think dis is the reason y i love rabbits....