Day three of Tata Jagriti Yatra proved to be a one of those days that really captured the imagination of both participants and facilitators. Today we were to meet Shree Padre who hails from Vaninagar, a village bordering Kerala and Karnataka.  Shree Padre is promoting self-help journalism among farmers in Karnataka. His “Pen in the Farmer’s Hand” movement allows farmers to trade information on agriculture and related subjects, giving a new voice to traditional wisdom. He recognizes that, collectively, farmers know how to solve the various problems they face; what they have lacked is a system for sharing their experiences and techniques with one another.

Mr Padre proved to be an eloquent and thought provoking speaker, immediately engaging with the participants. I was fortunate enough to be able to squeeze in at the back of one of the classroom coaches and listen in to the afternoon session which took place. Topics were wide and varied but one which stood out for me was on the subject of water harvesting and resource management. It was clear that the participants were fully engaged with Mr. Padre’s talk as a tremendous amount of energy was thought was evident during the Q&A session. Today the two coach set up worked very well with questions being fielded from both sides and relayed via plasma screen between coaches so that everyone could see and hear each other, thanks in great part to one of our facilitators who made it a point to rush the mic over to the participants in the second carriage.  Following his morning session with the participants, we decided to give him a tour of the train and the whole set up. Lunch followed at the station we stopped at and the afternoon session with Shree Padre actually took place on the platform under the welcome cool shade of the platform roof.  Whilst the a large group formed in front of Shree Padre, smaller clusters of participants who had previously attended the morning session formed small groups to discuss in detail the mornings discussions and form their own opinions about the issues raised. I took an opportunity to walk around all these sessions, taken photographs and listening in to the - at times - raging debates, questions, answers and reports being exchanged between members of the various groups. At no point did any of the debates fall out with each other, which was heartened to see but a number of groups certainly did have some some robust and well thought out arguments. All in all, a very inspiring afternoon session of group discussions.

It was time now to head off to Kerala, our next stop Trivandrum where we woud visit the Trivandrum Technopark.

Oh gosh! Day two is a total blur in my mind as I type this blog entry. All I can remember is that we were still traveling along a VERY long stretch between Mumbai and Trivandrum and I, Kaustav, was running about like a headless chicken trying despirately to get a clutch full of useless data cards to work correctly on our stash of laptops.  With much groaning, cursing and head slapping, I managed to get some of them working. I then quickly got one of our respected photographers on the train up and running on the micro-site blog and enabled his blog account. As a result we now have five genuine yatri generated blog entries.  I really do encourage you to read them as they’re capturing some of the true essence of the journey. We have one yatri from London writing blogs, another from India with two different perspectives and incredible enthusiasm. We’d love to get your feedback once you’ve read their entries.

As I type, the days events are slowly returning to me. Two interactive discussions took place on day two, primarily to accomodate all the yatri’s on-board the train who otherwise would not be able to physically all fit in to two train carriages in one go. The morning discussion session was missed by myself as I was busy photographing life on board the train and interviewing yatri’s and facilitators. How I wish I could show you some of those snaps but the data connection is simply proving to be too slow. The afternoon session was one I did attend. There was intense chat and debate going on about the Lijjat Papad company that we heard about on the opening day at IIT Bombay. The pro’s and con’s of an all women organisation was debated and insights we made on Lijjat Papad’s model of women empowerment, transformation and their entrepreneurial and social spirit. One interesting observation I made during this session, as I was sitting next to one of our Kenyan African yatri’s was that in her own country she knew of a similar women’s co-operative, but it had failed primarily due to political intervention within Kenya. I really do hope that as the days roll on, our African contingent can build up the courage to raise their hand and ask some questions. One of the most heartening comments I heard today was that by coming on this jounrey of discovery, one of the Kenyan candidates was inspired enough to wonder if a journey like Tata Jagriti Yatra could be arranged by herself back in her own home country of Kenya and hopefully inspire a generation of entrepreneurs who believe in enterprise lead development. How wonderful! Day two and we’re already having an impact on our international members.

Day two seems to be getting foggy in my mind already. What with all the rushing about, photographing, interviewing, session attending and general train vigialance, I think the level of tiredness is telling me to call it a day and write up day three early in the morning. One thing is clear from day two’s experience is that the youth on board the train and not a laid back crowd. They do have opinions, they are switched on and most of all they are receptive to new ideas and discussing possibilities. I’m looking forward to speaking to many of the participants on day three to see if they would consider modifying their own lifesyle, belieafs and way of living to include some of the learnings they are making from the role model interactions. Day three of Tata Jagriti Yatra will defintiely prove to be interesting, as we will be meeting Shree Padre who works in the area of natural resource management. I’m sure his alternative methods and insightful advice will bring about much needed mind shifts and attitude changes amongst the yatri’s. I am particularly intererested to know how the yatri’s change their outlook on the usage and wastage of one of the most precious resources on our planet - water.  Only time will tell. Roll on day three!

Kaustav