#1. Facebook and such digital media are just like human beings - EPHEMERAL." Paani kera budbuda, Tyon maanush ki jaati." Just lost over 2- pages of the minutes of the workshop after faithfully pressing the "Save Drafts" button, so that I could retrieve it later. And lo behold it was no longer there so this is my best attempt to reproduce it.
#2.The workshop was organised by Ruban India Foundation. The showcase of the workshop was the Mechai Pattana school community model,as a case study for future ruban settlements across Asia.The Mechai Pattana school is in the backdrop of one of the poorest disticts of Thailand in Lamplaimat ,300 km from Bangkok.Over just a few years it has emerged to be one of the best schools in Thailand along with a self sustaining community which has lots more to give to the world.
#3. Sunny Narang shared a key note about why such a thing was more likely to emerge out of Thailand,based on his rich experiences of working in the south east Asian countries with craftsmen and communities.He emphasized how Thais were so glued to their cultural roots.As one of the very few Asian countries which was never colonized Thais have been successful in preserving their cultural identity.Even at the times of powerful invasions they split into camps and regrouped when the threat withered away.Buddhism,as he points out has become a connecting thread for the transmission of Asian values and knowledge.Buddhist monasteries also played a vital role in preserving the cultural ethos of Thailand.
#4. In the Indian context he shared his anxiety and frustration, stating that any talk on the primary cultural identity of India gets branded as saffron and communal without fair and deep dive analysis on the merits. He mentioned about Delhi School of Economics Prof JPS Uberoi who has written about western modernity and is a critic of the limitations and fallacy of the western model from a western perspective.He also referred to the works of environment activist Mr Claude Alvares and sociologist Ashish Nandi.
#5. Chandra Kumar Jain, industrialist and active member of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi Alumni Association, pointed out that urbanization was here to stay.The comforts and luxuries which urbanization has brought along with it are the key indicators of progress today.He lamented on why Indian minds could not think of how steam which displaces the lid from a boiling kettle could similarly be used to generate locomotive power.
#6. Tantric academic Madhu Khanna talked about the 99 herbs/trees used in Durga Puja , and how the Ramayan is a treasure trove of botanical knowledge with mention of plants in Chitrakoot, Ashok Vatika etc. We were surprised to know about a million varieties of rice in Asia which also act as cross defense for various bugs and pests. She is the founder-president of the Tantra Foundation which is working in the Burdwan district to create 16 traditional groves.
#7. Prakash Dubey shared an interesting insight on how the tribals of Bastar wouldn’t eat tomatoes because they thought it contained pouches of blood.He shared an anecdote about how a local administrator made sure that bicycles gifted to school girls weren’t sold off or taken away.To ensure that,he made the girls ride the bicycle one by one and those who couldn’t ride were asked to practice and meet him again after 6months. For them to identify their bicycles he also suggested that they should give them a calling name.
#8. On the whole, Shri Dubey held a healthy skepticism about new experiments and shared how various such experiments have floundered, so he had few words of advice and best wishes for the rubanisation initiative to which he took a fond liking.He also coined a new term for rubanisation in India which would appeal to the masses.Bringing together “DEHAT” (Hindi for rural and countryside) and “SHEHRIKARAN” (Hindi for Urbanization) he coined “DEHRIKARAN”. Dehri also has an additional meaning of threshold which he wished that rubanisation should attain in India.
#9. Ram Bahadur Rai emphasized that we should focus on two key areas of funding and policy intervention in the very early stages of the rubanisation journey. This resonates with ad guru and our friendly mentor Shubho Sengupta’s advice to the RIF team on shaping our efforts into a national campaign and as a movement. Rai ji shared anecdotes about how villagers initially rejected tube wells and roads and it took them a good few years to realize how it was useful to them.He also shared about 8 different crops which were sown in rotation on the same field while retaining soil fertility. With changing times there has been much greater awareness about the nutritional value of traditional grains and millets .
#10. Surya Prakash Loonker was quite excited about the prospects of rubanisation. He however cautioned that this should not end up as another fad but should grow to its full size and becomes a riveting movement.
#11. Shubho Sengupta shared some precious advice for us. ” If you want to build a movement don’t get trapped into old debates on economic and social ideologies.”, he says. He also advised us to steer clear of the East vs. West debate, while pointing out that the Western model did deliver significant benefits till the 1950s.
#12. There will be millions of people, he believes, who will agree to the idea but our challenge is to convert their interest into active participation. Our communication should focus on the sustainability of the movement, strategies and action objectives.
#12. There will be millions of people, he believes, who will agree to the idea but our challenge is to convert their interest into active participation. Our communication should focus on the sustainability of the movement, strategies and action objectives.
#13. What’s Rubanisation? This was a recurring question as various participants saw it from their own limited and larger perspectives. If I were to attempt an overall synthesis, Rubanisation is recognition of the multi-dimensionality of how diverse human communities and societies progress and set their own yardsticks with a common denominator of happiness and blissfulness.
#14. In response to the queries from Shri Dubey on a more precise understanding and objectives of Rubanisation in India, RIF Outreach Director Katyayini Kabir Kakar put it succinctly. Rubanisation, she believes will create counter-magnets of environment-friendly and self-sustaining development in the presently depleted smaller towns and rural areas. This will ease off the migration pressure on the ever expanding cities. Over time, as the population burden on the city reduces, more space can be carved out for the much needed playgrounds for children and youth and green cover and water bodies as lung space and arteries. This will also refurbish the local and peri-urban food growing capacity of our cities but would also generate cooler winds to withstand the double onslaught of global warming and diminishing fuel available for electric air-conditioning.
References:
i. http://mechaifoundation.org/school.asp
i. http://mechaifoundation.org/school.asp
iv.http://site.whenabillionchinesejump.com/ / http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/011448.html OR the impact of reckless urbanization
v.http://www.tantrafoundation.org/home.htm
v.http://www.tantrafoundation.org/home.htm
The Mechai Patana School-centred Community Model presentation will be available on demand. Kindly mail to ruban.indiafoundation@gmail.com for your copy along with your brief profile, your interest in Rubanisation and how you may like to contribute.
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