Fulzar - Learning from field, course document

Date: 24 - 29th Sep 2018 Location: Fulzar village Near Ghela Somnath, Jasdan Tehsil, Rajkot District Gujarat

ફુલઝર Fulzar

Learning from field course document

Faculty: Mr. Jagadish Kumar Mr. Subir Dey Guest Faculty: Ms. Sarika samdani Student: Rahul Gajjar S1701108

Content Day 1

Arrival at the Ghela Somnath

Preconceived notions Observations Day 2

Making a map of Fulzar Observations Day 3

Finishing a map Observations Day 4

Activity study Observations Day 5

Activity Study Observations Day 6

Coming back to Ahmedabad Acknowledgment

Page 2

Day 1 24 October Arrival at the Ghela Somnath We left from Ahmedabad in the morning around 8:00 am. We reached at Ghela Somnath at around 1:30 pm. We had a lunch there in Ghela Somnath Mahadev temple.

Our accommodation was in the temple Dharamshala. After a short break we left for Fulzar, we took a local vehicle called Chhakado.

Chhakado is a made-up vehicle from Royal Enfield bike engine, Maruti transmission and metal frame. It has three wheels and sitting area is open, you could choose to sit or just stand there with support of metal frame. It is widely used in Saurashtra (South-West part of Gujarat) We were told to just observe the village and avoid taking photographs or having conversation with anyone. We roamed around a village and observed village life.

A Picture from Ghela Somnath mandir. It shows the way to mess and dormitory. It’s written with brushpen in Gujarati

Preconceived notions: Television and film have influenced our notion of village a lot. In real life villages are not as shown in reel life. I had previous experience with village life, so I had pretty rough idea about how village life would be. But Fulzar was even better than my expectation. The way which goes into the village was pretty good, very less bumpy. The cellphone network was also good. There was problem with some operators, but Reliance Jio had pretty good tower and villagers also had good internet connection from that network. When asked to a villager where you get new songs and movies, he replied they get it from internet, he also mentioned that they get around 1-2 MB/s speed. Other than road and cellphone connection everything was almost the same as I expected.

Observations: They were very welcoming. They tried to say hi (smiling or waving at you) even if we don’t know them. In cities this thing does not exist, you say hi only if you know that person, otherwise you just look elsewhere and ignore that person completely. I have heard that in western city like New York people smile at each other even if you don’t know them. It is considered rude not to smile or say good morning, good evening. Here in the village people do the same, greetings are very important. Maybe this is because there is no social media, greeting someone unknown is the only way to know that person. Usually villagers are very nice to the guests, maybe this is the way of gauging how nice the guests are, the first interaction could determine the intensity of future interaction.

Page 3

Day 2 25 October Making a map of Fulzar We were asked to make a map of Fulzar village. We were divided in three groups. Noel, Neerosha, Vidooshi and Tathagata was in my group. At first to get overall main layout of the village we spread in different direction from the main entry point of the village. We tried to laydown all main streets, roads and important landmarks. After we pinpointed easily recognizable landmarks like mandirs, cycle shop, vegetable shop, grocery shop, floor factory, mobile shop, barber shop etc to the main streets in the map we had rough idea about territory of Fulzar village.

At first it was very hard to compare handdrawn map from different group members.

There was lot of confusion. After a lunch we had discussion with faculty and we divided overall layout of Fulzar village in three different parts and distributed each part to a team. There was particular area which I had big confusion about and I could not figure out the territory of it, we ended up having that area. In the evening from the rough layout of the map we decided to have some measurement system so that we could figure out approximate distance and direction. There were also important landmarks were pointed out so that we can have reference point to

Page 4

make a measurement. Some of us measured in steps and some of us in units, where one unit is approximate average width of a house.

With all of us having our own measurement system we again spread into different direction, this time we spread into 2 and 3 people group.

Both started mapping from opposite direction.

It took us a time to get familiar with our own invented measurement system and getting used to mapping approximate distance. But after a while I was comfortable with gauging approximate distance in steps. Initial mapping took us some time, so we could not cover all the area which was assigned to us. After that we came back to Ghela Somnath and had dinner.

Combined map of a group

Initial Individual Map

Page 5

Day 3 26 October Finishing a Map On day 3 we resumed previous day’s work. The area I had big confusion about was much clear now. We compared notes with each other and with pleasant surprise map was matching even with having different measurement systems. I started on finishing the area which was assigned to me. After a lunch we again compared our notes and we were almost finished. So, after lunch I went to the area which Vidooshi was covering and we matched our maps and finished uncovered areas. I also carried camera with me this time, so I took some pictures and since our work was almost finished I roamed around deep into the streets of Fulzar. In the evening after dark we roasted fresh peanuts. Which test different because it’s little bit wet and freshly pulled out from the ground.

Page 6

Page 7

Observations When I was roaming around the streets I saw this contrast in terms of technology. In right side picture the wall on the left side belongs to new constructed house, where opposite side old handmade wall house which was made of stone bricks and sand mixture. The satellite dish for tv connection is fixated on new house but the connection is going to the old stone made house. I saw lot of other dish connection in the village, these are paid dish connection with brands like Airtel, Tata-Sky etc. It shows the villager’s enthusiasm for the technology in spite of having low income.

Page 8

The boy in the picture is Paresh.

When I was walking by his house he saw that I was looking at new-born goat, so he invited me into his home. He was very welcoming.

He is in 7th standard. After finishing a school it’s his job to tends to these goats. He belongs to ‘Koli’ community, their main occupation is to take care of livestock. At the time of visit he was alone at home; his parents were out feeding to the livestock. They also make pots. They had handmade furnace which was filled with discarded pots. I asked him about dish connection since he also had dish connection at his home, he said after the cable connection ended everyone had to buy dish connection.

In the evening I met Bhupatbhai. He is a painter, he works in nearby town Jasdan.

He leaves home at 8:00 am in the morning and come back to Fulzar at 7:00 am in the evening. I wanted to spend more time with him for next assignment but because of timing it wasn’t possible. I am enthusiast about Gujarati hand lettering and he had done hand lettering at many places, so I asked him if he could write Guajarati letters for me in a notebook. He also showed me his sketches and I shared few of mine. He has two brothers, one take care of livestock and other is driver. He belongs to ‘Maldhari’ community.

Lettering by Bhupatbhai

Day 4 27 October Activity Study On day 4 we were asked to pick one subject from the village and stick to it and observe.

That subject could be profession, person, activity or another subject. I choose the barber shop which was in the end of village, it was new painted in blue and made from metal sheets cabin.

Barber Shop : Amitbhai Makwana Amit is 18 years old and he runs small barber shop in Fulzar. He opened this shop two years ago after he dropped out from 9th class. He said he was not good at study and after 9th he loose interest in study and, he wanted to earn, so he opened this cabin. I asked if he is married, he said no. He also mentioned that he should be married by now, but he has yet to find a girl. I asked what the age of girl would be, he said around 18. His father is also in the same business. His shop is in nearby village. He opens a shop 7:00 am in the morning and closes at 10:00 pm. He provides hair cutting and shaving service only. He also does hair colour but it’s rare. He has all new equipment like electric trimmer, he also had a sound system. He listens to Gujarati and Hindi songs both, some new and some old too. He downloads songs from the internet.

His customers are regular ones, so they don’t need to tell him what they want to do. To one of his customers he asked what he wants to do, and customer replied with bit irritated and rude voice ‘Hajamat’ It means hair cutting. So, it’s all his authority about what to be done with their hair. His customers come for hair cutting once a month and for shaving once a week. Some

Page 10

people who does office job they might come once a 3 day for shaving. He brings tiffin for a lunch. And drink water via mineral water pouch from nearby shop. He does not have electricity meter. It’s borrowed from nearby electricity pole. He has one portable, one LED light bulb and few electricity ports for mobile charging, music system and trimmer. After finishing a day, he throws all hair to a place which is nearby end of village where all villagers throw their garbage.

Page 11

Diamond Polishing Work At lunch time I heard about a family who does diming polishing which Noel and Shipra were interviewing. I had heard about diamond polishing a lot as being Gujarati. I have heard stories about people migrating to Suraj just so that they could work there as diamond polisher. But I had no idea how it is being done.

So, I decided to go with Noel and Shipra after lunch. The couple in this family Bhupatbhai and Devkiben does diamond polishing work. Initially only Bhupatbhai knew how to polish diamond but after marriage Bhupatbhai taught her about diamond polishing. They have diamond polishing machine installed in their house.

The way it works is that they get rough unpolished diamonds from a client and then Bhupatbhai take a rough diamond and then put it in diamond holder and polish one side on machine. After one side is polished, Devkiben collect those diamond and then put it in another diamond holder which is different than the first, this one has angle measurement and side selection. So that one polished side stick to the diamond holder with a chemical and then Devkiben set and angle and polish one side, after that she rotate that cylinder 180 degree and polish another side. This was she polish total 8 sides of a diamond. So final diamond have not one flat side and another 8 sides on the bottom. After that the diamond is sent to the client. Finished diamond takes lot more steps after this. Client send those rough polished diamonds to another polisher, they wash it with chemical and give it more shining. The also make more polished sides. More polished sides mean more value of a diamond. Bhupatbhai told me that the diamond which have 36 or 54 sides are used in rings and they are the expensive ones. The rough unpolished diamond sent by client has 10 rs value per piece. They get 2 rs per diamond as polishing charge. They start working in the morning at 8 am and take lunch break at 12. They resume working at 2 pm and stops working around 6 pm.

We talked a lot about different topics like marriage, education, where are we from, what do we study, how much is cost etc. One thing that I got to know which was surprising for me is that wife of Bhupatbhai is the daughter of Bhupatbhai’s father’s sister. I didn’t expect that marriage in a family would be acceptable in this community. Devkiben is one year older than Bhupatbhai. He was telling that she had decided to marry Bhupatbhai since a long time and in the end, he accepted her proposal.

Mother of Devkiben also live there with them.

She is mother-in-law and aunt of Bhupatbhai.

Since Devkiben and Bhupatbhai does diamond polishing work all day, she handles cooking work.

Bhupatbhai and Devkiben polishing a diamond.

Page 12

When I was asking about diamond polishing work, I also had an opportunity to polish a diamond.

After initial explanation by Bhupatbhai it doesn’t seems that trickier. I polished two diamonds. Next day was supposed to be our last day in a village. We visited this family again and we asked if we could buy few diamonds for a memory from him. He was very hesitant to sell it to us, instead he preferred to give us those diamonds free. It was very hard to convince him to take money. In the end he agreed to take only half the money and he was very emotional about us leaving. They also offered us laddu, evening snack and lot of chai during the visit. It was a memorable experience visiting this family.

Page 14

Sweet Making Work

Later that day I and Meghana visited Vipulbhai’s house. He and his father Bhavanbhai have sweet shop in their home only. Vipulbhai’s wife also help in sweet making. They have various business including diamond polishing, bricks making, sewing and mattress making. Vipulbhai’s aunt also live with them since her husband passed away. She is really old but still does lot of work. At the time of visit she was filling water. She does the cooking work after filling water, she also makes mattress from waste clothes.

The people from village give worn out clothes like sari and she stitches them together and makes mattress.

She charges 80 rs for straight stitching pattern and 100 rs for round designed stitching pattern. She can make max 4 mattress in a day. I asked about occupation

history of a family and I got to know that they have done lot of seasonal business. They used to wash dishes during marriage or other festival. Male from family used to go for bricks making. It lasts for few months, so they had to stay there. After that they started doing diamond polishing. They also have diamond polishing machine at their home. Recently they have opened sweet making shop. They learned how to make sweet from their uncle who have shops in Ghela Somnath. Their relative also have sweet shop in Fulzar. Apparently, they don’t talk with each other. I asked why someone would buy your sweets over theirs. They replied that people would know it from the taste which one is better. Later that evening I bought few jalebis which was freshly made by him and his wife.

These sketches are from Vipulbhai’s house. I saw lot of handmade flowerpot.

One was made from a plastic oil packaging bottle and another was made from metal oil package. There was other flowerpot too which was made from different cylinder vessels. I saw much enthusiasm about gardening.

Page 15

I asked about the water situation since I saw everybody fetching water from a place nearby the school. They told me that the drinking water come once in 10 days and that too the timing is not fixated. It comes for 2-3 hours and they must fetch water which can last 10 days straight. They store drinking water in plastic syntax tank. They have a pipeline, but it’s been dead since beginning. There is a single place from where they can get drinking and daily use water. Daily use water they can get 24 hours a day, but they can’t use that water for drinking. It’s salty and you might cholera from drinking that water. Since they also must carry daily use water, everybody (mostly female) in the village are always busy in fetching water.

I went to the roof of Vipulbhai’s house and I saw this small girl struggling to carry a steel pot filled with water, the pot had many dents, assuming it has been dropped many times because of heavy weight. This is the story of every little girl in this village, they don’t have playtime after school. This is the only thing they do after they are done with school. Scarcity of drinking water and unavailability of pipeline has stolen their right of being a child! The time child should spend playing with other children is being wasted in fetching a water for their family. The same thing is true for other members of family. The time they spend on water could be invested in other businesses like diamond polishing, knitting, sewing, sweet making. If they had water availability directly from their house, it would make huge difference in their life.

Young girl struggling to carry water pot.

Page 17

Day 5 28 October Activity Study and Observations As this was our last day in Fulzar we wanted to as much ground as we can cover and visit the places we wanted to see. Those large windmills were one of those places. After that we entered Fulzar, it was sunny morning. We went to a house nearby our stoppage, as everybody in a village are so welcoming, they offered us a tea.

While we were there, many kids surrounded us and kept asking everyone to draw their picture.

But there was a girl sitting a distant apart busy in studying, her name is Komal. I went to her to see what she is studying, I was surprised she was doing her homework for English subject.

She was class 4 only. As per my knowledge when I was in class 4, we were just introduced with subject English, we were still learning ABCD and basic spellings. I also crosschecked by asking her to translate some name to English and she was surprisingly good at it. As you can see in the picture, she isn’t going to easily distracted by the surroundings like group of kids running around or the fly on her nose! She just doesn’t care.

After a while, I went with Tathagata, we went to back side of village and from there we went to entering of village, where the cycle repair shop was there. That was typical gathering spot for people of Fulzar, there were people smoking hukkah and talking with each other.

Page 18

The other side of Fulzar

After that we went to Tathagata’s friends who he was hanging out with since past few days. They had already been comfortable with him, and since I knew Gujarati, they became even more comfortable and started sharing things that we were shocked of! They were talking about how there is cast system followed in a village and them having sexual relationship with the women in the village. We heard lot of affair stories about who is having affair with whom, with how many women and how they convince their wife or fiancé that they are innocent. There was also a conversation about how lower caste underage girl wanting to have physical relationship with adults and how they justified that it was okay to have relationship with underage girl.

How untouchability does not come in way when they are talking about sex, apparently once could put a coin in their mouth and touch them! So far these has been darkest things we uncovered about Fulzar. We both were freaked out and wanted to leave their house as soon as possible. But we acted normal till they finish their talk and then we left saying it’s getting late and people are waiting for us. That conversation changed whole perception of a village.

Page 19

Concept of beauty After that we went to another sweet maker’s house. They were making ‘Besan Laddu’ at that time. The girl in the picture getting ready to go to school, but as in act of getting ready she had put on too much powder on her face. Being white always has been associated with being beautiful! Even in this small kid, who would have put such thoughts in kids mind! Why should she even have concerned about looking pretty or beautiful. It must have come from people around her like her family, friends or villagers.

After lunch we went to see a farm. There were small houses in a row in that farm, it was neat, clean and pretty.

It was our last few hours in Fulzar so we went back to Makwana family where we had our last goodbyes. Of course we had tea and they were sad about us leaving.

They were more connected to Shipra and Noel as they spend more time there. I had refrained myself from connecting too much with anyone so, it wasn’t as hard for me to say goodbye. I had learned lot from Fulzar, met some most honest, humble and nice people.

Page 21

Day 6 29 October Coming back to Ahmedabad We were ready to get back to Ahmedabad. On the way back, we visited few factories where they make miniature versions of vehicles like Chhakado, Tractor, JCB, Jeep etc. We also visited a museum and another factory where they make mechanical automatic drums for Mandirs.

On the way back we had food at Jay Shakti Paratha house. It was Gujarati Kathiyavadi food, and it is the best food I ever had. We reached at Ahmedabad around 7:30 in the evening.

Page 22

Acknowledgements I would like to thank our faculties Mr. Jagadish Kumar, Mr. Subir Dey and Ms. Sarika Samdani for the great support and constant guidance throughout the course. I would also like to thank my batchmates for being supportive and helpful. I would specially thank to the managing trust of Ghela Somnath for providing us with accommodation and awesome food and people of Fulzar for welcoming us like their family. It was a great learning experience.

Page 23