The man who sowed Gandhi and reaped happiness

During my travels for goodNewsIndia I was to encounter Gandhi in the most unexpected places. He popped up again in far

Cherkady, Karnataka. Read on to discover. That morning spent with Sri Ramachandra Rao was transforming. As write this note in 2017, I feel proud of what I wrote in the last paragraph: "The original sin is greed".
Ramachandra Rao passed away in 2010.
-dv 2017
The road north, out of Udupi induces peace and calm. The Arabian Sea to the left, the sense of space and the bright light make you wonder if there can be anything better.

Soon you learn that there is. Turn right at Brahmavar ['Gift of Brahma'!] and right again. You are on a road fast asleep. Trees stand tall, broad and quiet. Fruit lies on the ground unclaimed. There are so few people about. You have just dropped through two or three floors of time, from noisy, crowded India.

10 km down the road at the village of Cherkady, 86 year old Ramachandra Rao welcomes you with a pitcher of water and three tiny cones of jaggery, into his 2.5 acre homestead. He's a small, wiry man with twinkling eyes on an untroubled face. 

He is eager to tell his story and it is best we have it in his voice.

Anna Hazare is soldiering for rural regeneration

Anna Hazare's place in history as a man who brought life back to his village is assured. He brought abundance of water, employment, health and education to a village that lay as a ruined society. Hazare was a valiant champion of villagers' rights too. In 2003, a decade before the simple man was taken away to Delhi and misused by Arvind Kejriwal for his political ambitions, I spent a day in Ralegan Siddhi. I was lucky. He was at his temple residence. I sat among a bus load of visiting villagers and listened to him. After they left, he spoke to exclusively. A most memorable day, accompanied by my batchmate R S Nagarkar of Pune

An army truck driver finds his mission in the battle-field: serve others.

At about 80 km towards Ahmednagar from Pune, turn left at Wadegaon. Ask anyone the way to Ralegan Siddhi. They will point you to a Shangri La. Be ready to strain your credulity as facts are reeled off, and evidence is presented. No one starves here --in fact everyone is well nourished--, there's no disease, the environment is clean and wooded, all the young are at school, the farm economy is booming, there are no social divisions, women are empowered and no one wastes time or money on movies, tobacco or liquor.

The direct action to save mangroves of Kerala

This is a story I posted in GoodNewsIndia in 2003. I was drawn to do this story by a tiny reference in a news article about

Pokkudan, a Dalit who had personally restored mangroves along 3kM of water front.
I spent a whole day visiting his work and also that of others who had fought back to re-establish an esteem for mangroves. I learnt a lot about mangroves, yes but more importantly, about the spirit of faceless Indians who work for their beliefs.
- dv 2017

Mangroves in Kerala find friends in lay naturalists.

Mangroves are forests' less-understood, poor cousins. If forests are getting a bad deal you can imagine what mangroves are going through. In a state like Kerala where backwaters run through bursting human habitats, mangroves have been cherished for long, though lately they have been considered dispensable impediments in the way of economic development. But now there is hope. A group of enthusiastic, lay naturalists have risen to the task and the tenacious family of flora called mangroves is gamely fighting back. Some of newly legislated state laws of course will help, but it is the peoples' movement that will save the mangroves.

Abdul Kareem: a seed sent from heaven

For 25 years Abdul Kareem has put his  protective arms around a rocky hill side- to let it bloom.

     

It is dark at noon. A thick, wet leaf pile squelches underfoot. Often your way is blocked and you must crawl under branches or take detours. The silence of the forest is sometimes unnerving. Every now and then you are lost and can't tell the way.

Abdul Kareem, in front of you, wends and weaves through the thicket with a proud ease. But then he has been around here - for 25 years, in fact. He has seen the 32 acres of a lateritic hillside grow into this wild forest. He had simply dreamed it, willed it, kept vigil, stood guard, ran a few errands-  and the forest happened. And is still happening: it's a work in progress. Abdul Kareem has created and saved forever a piece of wilderness for India.

They raised trees to fill a personal void

The status of 'good news' was so bad in 2001 that a tiny note on Thimmakka was all that appeared, as a snippet, in the inner

pages of national press; that too because she had been given a national award. It took me 3 months to actually track down her address. Newspaper offices didn't know. They had moved on. A young journalist in Bangalore helped me with driving direction. 
I drove down one morning and was alone in that tree-lined avenue. Wind rustled and birds were in song. Four years later I was to begin my pointReturn work.
Once I  posted the detailed story, below, it drew wide attention. I was convinced of the value in reporting good work.The last line in the article provoked many to get into action. Many visited her.Fame and recognition followed. In this WikiPedia page, my story is the earliest listed reference. Do visit it to read all that followed the 2002 story. She made me famous and gNI gained many followers.
As I write Thimmakka lives on aged 105, inspiring many around the world
-dv 2017

The 300 trees of Thimmakka and Chikkanna

To be in Karnataka's countryside is to be among a gentle people in a cared for land. Unhurried gaits, unfailing courtesy and old world ways are the norm. But are you to be served with magic too? Yes, at least on a 4 km road between Kudur and Hulikal.