SFC work at Almora

Friends, In an earlier posting on this blog on September 8th, 2009, we had told you about setting up the experimental SFC and PG groups at the remote Almora, (IGNOU) SC. We had told you then that important to setting up the study groups would be the multicultural experiences of the students of our PG member Dr. Dandekar. His students were to stay with families in the villages of different communities in the vicinity of the Almora SC.These students themselves come from different backgrounds and for most of them staying in a remote rural village would be a first time experience. Since these students were not trained anthropologists, Dr. Dandekar had gone in advance along with some of us to meet the families in the villages where these students had to stay. He also liased with a local NGO and asked them to take care. The students, however, had to be on their own and had to live with the families as family members and even do chores etc. in the process of creating time and conditions to study the local developmental processes. Towards the end of their stay, we made another trip, to visit the students in the villages they were staying in. This time we were accompanied by some local IGNOU students as well. In the discussions of Dr. Dandekar with his students, the IGNOU students got a first hand opportunity to listen in and participate in discussions on remote area developmental processes. That these studies were being conducted in a multicultural environment in harsh winter months was itself a learning experience(This perhaps would be used in setting up their study groups). Moreover these villages were poorly connected by roads. There was no telephone network except now one satellite phone is kept at the house of the village sarpanch for emergency calls etc. We too had to walk long distances in the cold to reach these villages.The villages we visited were Dulum, Loharkhet, Chaura and Supy(height of 7000 feet above sea level). This was sometimes end October 2009. It is important to recall these experiences at a time when the left in India just this week held a rally to focus on the issues of peasants and workers in Delhi.In the rally also figured the issue of the cycle of violence in which the Indian countryside(and elsewhere) developmental processes get caught up in. In this context the role of students in studying and understanding these processes is important.Our students were by this time nearing the end of their stay and were a little emotional about leaving.The families with whom they were staying had developed an affectionate bond with them. Many of us have gone through the school/college/university leaving experiences after a long period of stay. Farewells normally are a reminder that the 'carnival' is over and time for goodbyes has come. As the number by the Australian group Seekers put it ' Now the carnival is over, high above the dawn is waiting,and my tears are falling rain, for the carnival is over, we may never meet again' It is towards this high dawn that our students were moving for different and more absorbing experiences when we left their villages in Almora.Doubtless thousands of IGNOU students would perhaps be feeling the same when they leave after receiving their degrees on the convocation to be held on the 15th of March2010. (SFC, PG IGNOU with the help of Mr. Ajay Mahurkar and Dr. Dolly Mathew. We are posting some pics sent by Dr. Dandekar taken on the trip)

(above) the family with whom the students stayed at Supy village

(above) observing developmental work at Supy village

(above) students at the village Supy(7,000 feet above sea level)

(above) villagers at dusk in Chaura

(right) a stream on the way to Supy village(below) a shot of a grove

(above) a view of the village Chaura

(right) students at village Chaura

(above) village Chaura at night

(right) view of the mountains

(Right) IGNOU students contemplating the way. Students at village Loharkhet (above)

(Below) 1. A village student at Dulum2.A view of the snow mountains3. Our students at the village Dulum. Dulum in the local language is the place where the shadow of the rising sun meets the shadow of setting sun (Right) A grove

Thank You!