[23:55 @ Rm.111, Kanha Jungle Lodge]
Last
night I woke up around 03:30 and had a hard time getting back to sleep, so I
wrote..
Today
cannot be said to be smooth, but still functional as much as the Indian system allowed. The electric supply was generous, with power
off only from noon to 18:00 (often it is power off 0:600-18:00). But the morning power supply was wasted,
because Faiyaz woke me up at 08:30 (late for me) and yanked me to Baihar to
phone the Collector at Mandla, among other dignitaries. Unfortunately, the STDs (phone services) of
various places went up and down, and we spent two hours managing to get through
only two calls, one of which being terminated in mid-conversation. The result is that the Mandla Collector
would be unavailable for the conference, but he will “make sure that the two
Deputy Directors will come”. The
Collector of Balaghat will come, and we faxed successfully to his wife (chief
of police in Seony) to invite her to attend.
So,
the only person left to whom we still have to deliver our formal invitation is
the Field Director (at Mandla), because he is a little too high up for the
Mandla Collector to “make sure” will come; but he was then in the field. As it happened, while we were in Baihar
making calls to Mandla, he was at Mukki talking to villagers.
While
at Baihar, we also delivered invitations to the judge and the magistrate. We had planned to go to Mandla to meet the
Collector, the Field Director and the two Deputy Directors. We’ve already met the last 3, the last 2
more than once, but the Indian etiquette system demands that we pay the
proper respects - what a waste of time from my Canadian perspective. According to further Indian protocol, even
though the Collector himself cannot attend, we still made the arrangement to go
to Mandla to go and personally pay our respects, and he said the 12th. Originally we had planned to go tomorrow,
the 11th, and had planned a panchayat meeting on the 12th,
so on the 11th, Faiyaz will have to go another round to change the
12th appointments to a later date.
We also paid a visit to the local carpenter, since we fired the one from
Mukki who did not meet the March 4th deadline. This new carpenter said he would come in by
bus in the afternoon to look at the large solar cooker. Because of the various delays, our Gypsy was
stuck at Baihar till 11:00, when Amar had to first drive us back to the lodge,
then go and pick up today’s panchayat members, so they will be late.
Still
the day could be well used. I’ve long
planned to do a video interview with Faiyaz & Anne, then with Tarun by
himself. So, from after lunch to the
time when the panchayats arrive seemed a good time. But just when the video camera and chairs were set in the school
house for the interview (about 13:30), a group of about 15 villagers led by an
outspoken village woman in a sari trooped in and began talking aggressively,
even belligerently, to Faiyaz. One or
two of them looked vaguely familiar.
Faiyaz took it calmly, but advised Anne and I to go back to our rooms
for the duration.
Anne
and I took the opportunity to do our video interview. After about an hour, we headed back towards the school house and
from the edge of the woods saw that the villagers were just trooping back out
to their vehicles. Faiyaz looked a
little frayed, and told us that the woman was a local “politician” who was
agitating the villagers against the park.
They were in this vicinity to meet the Field Director in Mukki at the
Kanha park gate at noon, but by then the FD was gone, so they came down to KJL
because they had heard about a bunch of people giving slideshows to villagers
and panchayats in favour of the park.
Faiyaz informed us that in their midst were indeed two villagers who
have seen my slideshow. At one point,
he also had a shouting match with the woman who said to him, “You watch
yourself. We have connections to the
Naxalites.” The Naxalites are rebel
tribals who on occasion have resorted to violence. It was on account of them that we had to return to the lodge by
sundown after visiting Chichrunpur.
So,
it seems that the Staines’ fiery murders aren’t all that distant after all.
At
about then, the Baihar carpenter arrived, so we spent about an hour to discuss
with him how to finish the unit and for how much. It will be portable still, clad in a mantle of plywood with fibre
glass (if available) or raw cotton as insulation and a new frame for the glass
on which the reflector plates will be hinged.
He estimated that the entire large oven, parts included, would cost
about Rs.1800 (CDN$65). We also asked
about making them in volume, and making some of 1/8th size (0.5 all
three dimensions).
Around
15:30, the panchayats came in. Too late
for the park and too early for the power to come back on, so we settled down to
talk. They too were impressed by the
small cooker and the heat they felt on their faces from the parabolic
mirror. One even said on his own accord,
“This can save a lot of wood.” They too
seemed eager to try out a unit in their village. We plan to systematically access the supply problem. We will formally sign them on at the
conference. We will subsidize the
initial unit, and teach them how to make subsequent ones out of locally
available material.
Chris
C. and Kim are both sick today. We are
concerned about Kim, because normally she doesn’t eat breakfast or lunch. Anne, too, have been sick off and on, but at
least she eats like a horse. Tarun
quipped, “Kim doesn’t eat to preserve her figure, and Anne eats to preserve her
vigor.”
During
the chai break, Anne and I joined the village boys to play soccer. She and I took turns selecting players. My first choice was Punkesh, a 12 year old
boy who looked only about 8, who was so happy I picked him he ran to me and
gave me a big hug. I scored 3 goals,
but our team lost 6-9, and long before the “game” was finished, I was
soaked. It must be 40oC in
the sun.
17:30
was a lull, and the villagers showed signs of restlessness. Thanks to the inefficiency of the lodge
staff, chai was served late, and by the time they were done, the power came on
and they decided to see the slideshow after all. The new Swiss tourist Oty (about 55) also came in to watch. He was late for the first part, and later
asked me when the next show would be.
Unfortunately, it won’t be till the 13th, after he will have
left.
In
the evening, we had to talk about follow-up action after my departure in just
two short weeks. The follow-up will
include slideshow visits by Anne and Faiyaz to Baihar, Malanjkahn, Mandla,
Jabalpur, Balaghat and Seony, and to various Buffer Zone schools, plus the
distribution and installation of solar cookers at those villages that will have
signed up. Anne will network with
women’s groups, etc.. These will keep
them busy until May when she herself will leave. After that, Faiyaz will be on his own.
Both
Faiyaz and Anne seemed forlorn at that prospect. Perhaps also knowing the liberating effect of going cosmic, he
mused, “In an egg, there is the white and the yolk, and of course the embryo
itself. The same applies, it seems to
cosmic egg Earth. Its geo-embryo is the
Biosphere; its yolk and white are Earth’s inorganic body - including the
atmosphere, hydrosphere, the lithosphere – the crust, and perhaps even the
Barysphere – the molten Mantle. These
of course include oxygen, water, soil, minerals – food for the various
organisms on the various levels of organization. And then of course, since Day One 4.6 billion years ago, the
Earth has been incubating in the light and warmth of the Sun.”
“And let’s not forget the fossil fuels, the current food and energy source of our technological civilizations,” Anne pointed out.
“Fossil
fuels, yes. Just think. Originally, there was none. Then the Sun gave rise to huge biomasses in
the form of plants, and in the form of animals that feed on the plants and each
other. Eventually, some of this biomass
became converted into the fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, life evolved and gave rise to the humans who created the
technological civilizations that feed on the fossil fuels. A more poetic case of cosmic providence I
have never seen.”
“If
I were religious, I’d call it divine providence,” said Anne.
“And
there is a test in the middle of it all.”
“What
kind of test?”
“What would happen if the humans burned up all the fossil fuels that they could get their hands on?”
“All
of it? I’d say that it’d precipitate a
runaway greenhouse effect on the Earth,” said Faiyaz.
“And what is the best use for the remaining fossil fuels that can be burned?”
Anne and Faiyaz looked at each other, then back at me again. “Why don’t you tell us?” Anne said.
“To
build a new, clean, renewable, non-combustion technology to replace
fossil-fuels technology with, failing which the energy hungry Geo-Embryo would
be still born,” said Raminothna.