REMOTE. The Rural Changemakers Of Janwaar

REMOTE. The Rural Changemakers Of Janwaar.

REMOTE. The Rural Changemakers In Janwaar.

Published by we_magaine.net http://www.we-magazine.net Photos: Shail Desai, Gabriel Engelke, Vicky Roy Layout: Bea Gschwend Editor: Ulrike Reinhard Heidelberg, Germany

Remote. The Rural Changemakers In Janwaar.

Through The Eyes Of The Kids And Villagers Jayanti – The Unexplored Explorer Sepi – The “Star” Suman – A Flower Blooms In The Guwahati Rains Little Dipen The Red Frock Ajay – From Chewing Tobacco To Writing Diaries Hi, my name is Ramkesh!

Dreams Are No Longer Dreams Tomorrow’s Leaders Far From The Tree

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Through The Eyes Of Visitors And Observers The Barefoot Skateboarders The Skateboarding Bug A Premise Of Disobedience A Fraught Relationship The Photographic Eye A Visit To India Community First!

It’s My Life!

Discovery Journey Form Pemberton To Janwaar Kittu The Kundarpura Kids

90 92 100 108 114 126 140 146 156 158 166 174 176

A Development Aid Model For The 21st Century Timeline – How Everything Evolved

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Page 2/3– Photo by Gabriel Engelke. Barefoot.

Far From The Tree Avinash Kothuri

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When Shivraj needed to get some coursework done in Delhi, Apoorv (ex-colleague and Janwaar team mate), and I had volunteered to host him – we were his parents for one week. Every day at 6 am – an unimaginable time for me otherwise, since it’s when I’d sometimes go to bed – I would kick him out of bed, ensure his bags are packed, and rebuff all his sincere attempts to explain why he didn’t need to go that day as I sat him down in the cab and waited till I heard that he had reached school safely. At which point, I’d go back to bed in peace. It was hard being a parent for a week – and it made me realize what my Mom put up with me over the last 25 years.

One of those days, while waiting for the call from the school confirming that he had reached, I’d begun to wonder about the thought process of the parents who had completely entrusted their child to people who – not so long ago – were complete strangers.

Our champions are getting stamps in their passports that I envy, but their parents still get flustered whenever they talk to me because I’m a “Sheheri Babu” (city boy). For people who had barely seen the outside of the village to send their kids to another country had to be overwhelming.

So on my next trip to Janwaar, I met the families of some of our champions to find out straight from the horse’s mouth. In these conversations, I was privy to some incredible stories, and some honest opinions on the impact of the skatepark – both on the village and on their families. Here are some excerpts from these conversations:

Arun’s parents How has the skatepark and the entire ecosystem affected your family?

Our kids always wanted to study, and we’ve always encouraged them to do so. But once Arun started skateboarding, he started doing better at school as well. Now, he gets to travel and meet people and he is learning new things we’d never have been able to teach him here. The way he behaves has changed, and now the way we speak has slightly changed as well because we observe our kids talk. Because of the exposure our kids get, their language is more refined now – so we silently observe and learn from them.

They have also taught us to sign on a piece of paper. For people who have always relied on thumbprints, it’s great now to be able to sign. Well, it`s also true that the signature is the only thing we can write (laughs).

Page 80/81 – Photos by Vicky Roy. Arun’s parents.

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Do you see a change in the village?

The village itself hasn’t changed as much as the kids have, but you can see traces of the effect that the skatepark has in the mindsets of the elders as well. There used to be a lot more fights on the basis of caste earlier. We think they have reduced considerably and that the skatepark has played a big role in this.

Arun is going to Europe soon. As parents, how do you feel about this?

There are a lot of people discouraging us. Everyone asking us why we’re sending our child that far. People keep insinuating that he might never come back. They keep asking us if we’re doing the right thing by sending him. But we are sure that we want to send him. He will go and learn something.

Then people try and scare us by telling us we won’t be able to even go looking for him in case something happens to him. I agree with them. We won’t be able to. But we have faith in him – he’ll definitely come back. Maybe he decides he wants to stay out and not in the village, but some day he will come back to see us no? Even if it’s 20-30 years.

We’ve brought him up here and we’ve fed him with these hands – we have faith he’ll always come back to us.

So these people try to scare us and plant thoughts in our head. Truth is, it does work.

We do get concerned about our child. But we need to be brave before we send him out to the world. We only want him to go out there and make a name for himself. Hopefully he will make a name for himself for something good and not for something bad (laughs).

What could be better in the village and in the skatepark?

The school currently is only till 8th grade. If it would be possible to get it upgraded to the 12th grade, or at least to the 10th – then the likelihood of employment would be much better. A lot of kids stop studying after the 8th grade because high school is far away and the families don’t have the money or time to send their children that far.

The water facility built at the skatepark is a great initiative, but it’s a little far away for us so it doesn’t help us as much as it helps other families. We end up taking water from the hand pump near our house.

It would also be great if we could build a boundary around the skatepark.

My takeaway Arun’s parents are an absolute joy to speak to. A conversation that I had planned to wrap up in 20 minutes went on for more than an hour. Watching Jalsa bai – Arun’s 12

Page 84/85 – Photos by Vicky Roy. Shivraj’s parents.

mom – speaking over her husband every time he was about to make his point turned into a running joke. I found out that she got married when she was 11! She had her eldest child when she was 13 and barely survived the delivery. She eventually became a grandmother when she was 37. She was married into this village because her much older friend – Asha’s mom – was also married into Janwaar.

Then there’s the story about the time Arun’s dad was bitten by a snake. A snake bit him and slept right next to him on “Nag Panchami” (a day when snakes are worshipped).

They believed (with tongue slightly in cheek) that the snake was guilt-ridden about biting her devotee on that auspicious day, and thus decided to make her presence felt so that they find out about the bite. Soon enough he searched his body for bite marks, went to the doctor, and cured himself.

Not taking any chances with compassionate snakes, surely I didn’t sleep on the floor that night. But of course I lit a kerosene lamp in a closed room and fell asleep for more than an hour before my roommate came in and warned me – I woke up feeling slightly giddy and with a sooty nose. As it turns out I don’t need snakes for my own near-death story.

Shivraj’s parents Do you see a change in the kids because of the skatepark?

The skatepark has definitely changed things. The behaviour of the kids has changed.

It just feels like the kids now have a better shot at a good future. In Shivraj we can see that the way he talks, the way he carries himself has all changed for the good. People come in from outside and all the kids interact with them. The kids also travel a lot – travels that the organisation takes care of. All of this exposure has definitely altered the way they behave.

They’ve also learnt so many new things. Look, for example (she points to a greeting card), this is something Shivraj made. He also went to Art Ichol and learnt how to make clay models. Look at this, isn’t it really nice? (she swells with pride as she points to a clay model that he made).

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Do you see a change in the village?

The water facility that the skatepark has set up has been incredibly helpful. It has saved us a lot of effort and hardship that we had to endure otherwise.

Before the skatepark, when there were problems in the village and the kids were involved, the first question was always: ‘Who are your parents?’. It always turned into a matter between the families that were involved. Now the kids have started taking more responsibility. For example, recently some boxes were lost at the bamboo house and we were not involved with it at all. But it was Shivraj who took responsibility and he handled the matter.

Shivraj has become so much more responsible. Ulrike sent a cheque of 50,000 rupees (roughly 800 Euros) with Shivraj – that’s how much she trusts him now. This is important as it helps him grow. The organisation has generally really taken good care of the children. They have ensured that the kids are comfortable wherever they go. It’s almost like Ulrike and Mannan are their other parents – and they’re doing a good job at it. Trusting them came easy for us – somehow even the first time when we were sending Shivraj away to school (for six months), we weren’t scared at all. We were just glad – and excited – that Ulrike had helped Shivraj to find a new avenue to learn.

What could be better?

If we could put up a boundary around the skatepark, that would be great. Just go to the skatepark right now – you’ll see cows everywhere.

We could also plant trees around the kids and name each plant according to the child who has planted it. That way the plants will grow and the kids will get a sense of responsibility to care for their plants.

My takeaway Shivraj’s mom was surprisingly forthcoming and comfortable in my presence. Although the villagers are now used to us outsiders, she was clearly more confident than the others.

Shivraj is one of our champs who has been associated with the skatepark since its inception, and you could see the difference in demeanour spilling over to his parents as well.

Just a few days before I landed in Janwaar, Shivraj had an accident on his way to Delhi.

The word reached the village soon enough. She saw me walking past the pond and called out to me all the way from the water hand pump. But this time she didn’t have that 16

warm comforting smile that I always associate her with. “Babu!” (son or boy depending on where you’re from), “I need to speak to Shivraj. How is my son?”. After assurances that he was alright, I put him on call and switched on the loudspeaker.

“Shivraj!”

“Haan maa.” (Yes mom) “I hear you got hurt. Are you alright?”

“Haan maa”.

I was expecting the conversation to go on for a while. But as soon as he said that, she suddenly looked up at me – with the smile back on her face – and nodded to suggest that she was done and handed me the phone. Apparently that – his voice – was all it took for her to know he was alright. Mothers I tell you…

Abhilasha’s parents During my last visit to Janwaar, I wanted to spend as much time as possible in the village. Luckily Janwaar now has five home stays. They really help the villagers to make extra, desperately needed money which they happily spent on food or paying school fees for their elder kids who go to Panna, the next bigger town, to school. These home stays make it extremely convenient for me (and others I assume) to stay inside the village and spend as much time as possible with the champions. I’ve been hosting couch surfers before, and I always enjoyed the experience of hosting and interacting with new people. Being the couch-surfer (cot-surfer I should actually say) this time, I was treated with much warmth by Abhilasha and her family. Here is them explaining what they love most about being a host.

How has setting up a homestay changed your life?

Since the building of the skatepark, things have changed because people from outside keep coming in. Since the homestay it’s even better because now the people actually come over to my place and stay with us instead of just visiting the skatepark. We’re building relationships. It feels like as if my own children are staying with us. It feels really bad when they leave. We don’t know if they’ll come back.

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It’s good that people coming in from outside and mingle with our people. Habits that we would have never picked up, we have started to learn from the outsiders. We are imbibing great qualities from them, and because of it we will have a better future.

My takeaway Sleeping under a cloudy sky that covered the moonlight meant that the fireflies were the only momentary relief for my eyes that were otherwise getting disconcerted because of the pitch darkness. Turns out though that this was the absolute perfect setting to share stories as we fell asleep.

Rakesh – Abhilasha’s brother – would recall fondly about the time he had spent helping build the skatepark. “This blanket I’m under right now - it was given to me by my friends from Delhi who were building the skatepark. We made some incredible memories that I’ll never forget, and this blanket will always be a memoir of those times.”

Abhilasha would speak about Naomi – a guest from America who stayed over for a month – much in the same manner. In both their voices, you could sense a longing as they spoke – very bittersweet.

I stayed at Abhilasha’s house for a couple of nights, and her mom wasn’t lying about caring for their guests like their own children. The times I’d eaten outside, she’d make this face upon finding out – a face I’m all too familiar with from back home. But the moment I’d ask her to make a few pakoras (=deep fried onions in batter) for me, she would seemingly find a sense of purpose. Next thing you know, a plate full of hot crunchy pakoras would be in front of you, and as soon as you’d finish a plate, the second one would appear out of nowhere. Mothers I tell you…

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Page 89 – Photo by Vicky Roy. Abhilash’s parents.

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It’s My Life!

Gautam D. Kamath

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Happy aka Gautham Kamath was part of the construction team who came to build the skatepark in Janwaar. He blazed the trail for many other skateboarders in India and is certainly one of those who put effort into spreading the skateboarding virus all over India. During the construction work he really got sick – it was a tough “winter” in Madhya Pradesh in 2014/2015 – so he could only stay for two weeks. He never had the chance to “shred” Janwaar Castle so he came back recently to do exactly this. But nice as he is, he also trained our barefoot skateboarders. And he was surprised by what he experienced.

What role does skateboarding play in your life?

It’s like someone is asking me what’s the role of food in your life?

Well, skateboarding is a part of me. It is my life. Wow – this is actually quite hard to explain.

Skateboarding gives me happiness and has taught me a lot about life. Sometimes I feel it’s an escape from the rest of the world – on my board I just can be me and do what I want to do. It’s been more than two months now that I haven’t skated because of an accident I’ve had. Still, I can’t stop thinking of the tricks I wanna land once I’m back. I can’t wait to be back on the board! Soon I will be!

Even my view on architecture has changed. My perspective on places is: how can I skate it?

What made you start skateboarding?

One of my friends (Poornabodh) introduced me to skateboarding. It was at a time when I was working as a sales manager for a mobile carrier so my time was limited and I could only go skateboarding for three days a week. Sometimes I got even more time – then I went. I remember the day exactly – as if it was 23

yesterday: On April 23, 2012 I saw Sandro Diaz, a pro skater from Brazil, shredding the park which I had been skating for the last couple of months. To see him skateboarding totally blew my mind. I’d never seen anything like this. It was truly a life-changing experience! From that day onwards my “corporate life” no longer made any sense to me. I had to quit. It was my last working day. I never went back to the office.

How would you describe the skateboarding scene in India?

BOOM !!!! Is the word. The skate scene in India is growing rapidly. Almost every city now has skateboarders and the number of skateparks is also growing. Slowly though. It wasn’t like this when I started. Since then we’ve seen huge progress.

Only recently Gautham Nalasingu, a friend of mine, and I made a road trip. We called it “Skate India Expedition”. It led us to 14 states across India and we did it on our motorbikes. 108 days on the road. An amazing experience it was! What we saw was very inspiring. We were skating with the local skateboarders at their local spots and we found a good number of skaters who skate regularly and are very good with their tricks. So the level of skateboarding is also growing at a good rate.

For both of us this trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

What were your first thoughts when you came to Janwaar and saw this small village?

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When I first came I was really amazed at what was happening there. We were building a skatepark in the middle of nowhere – and I was part of it! I felt very proud! It was some kind of wonderland. Initiatives like these should actually be government initiatives and they should be done in all our states.

What was the biggest takeaway when you first left?

I was very happy that I volunteered for a great cause.

You came back to Janwaar only recently – how would you describe the vibes at the skatepark?

The second visit just blew my mind. It was two years later. It was just “wow” when I saw these kids shredding the park BAREFOOT. I can definitely say they are some of the gnarliest skaters in India. It’s a wonder what is happening in that village and so many people in India are not aware of it.

My gut feeling that I just wanted to go and shred the park was absolutely right. These kids can inspire anyone to skate.

Where are the kids standing in terms of skateboarding?

Some of gnarliest in the whole country. With a bit of guidance they’ll be ready to shred anything that comes their way.

What can Janwaar Castle do better?

It’s just awesome as it is. A camping site right next to the skatepark would be great. Skaters would love to wake up and have their morning chai at the park ... haha!

What was the biggest takeaway when you left this time?

Skateboarding can definitely change the life of people.

Page 160/161– Photo by Vicky Roy. Adivasi boy „diving“ into Janwaar Castle.

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Suman – A Flower Blooms In The Guwahati Rains Mannan Gupta

Suman, a ten-year-old Adivasi girl, was never seen talking to anyone. Many kids at the skatepark didn’t even know her name. They pointed at her and told me that she had started to skateboard. She always looked a bit shabby and lost in this new environment. Nevertheless I felt challenged so I asked her if she would like to travel with some other Janwaar kids and myself from Janwaar via Varanasi to Guwahati. We’ve had a pretty interesting mix of kids in the group, Adivasi and Yadav, only two girls, some “experienced" travelers and some of the kids who have never been outside Janwaar.

Of course Suman said no. What did I expect? But a few minutes later she returned and said: “My mother said I should go!” Wow, I was so surprised that I went to see her mother to confirm. It turned out that Suman is Ajay’s sister, who was anyhow part of the travel group, so the mother was really comfortable sending her. For whatever reason, I was happy she was coming, but also a bit worried – was she too young to be away from home? We were preparing a two-week journey. With Suman, I was almost sure, that at some point she would feel homesick, start crying and then …? I don’t know – I simply brushed my doubts aside and I was confident I’d figure out a way when needed.

Suman was mostly silent. She never spoke unless she was asked. “No” was her default answer. Even for food she would say no, but when the food was on the table, she ate 28

quietly and quite a lot :-) Jayanti, the other girl in our group, dominated Suman like a Yadav usually dominates an Adivasi. Still Suman would follow her, because these two were the only girls in our group. But I could sense Suman was having fun. In Varanasi she started to smile and laugh. That was a start. She participated in everything we did – roaming around on the ghats, cruising the Ganga on a boat or taking a dip in the holy river. No crying at all!

From Varanasi it’s a day’s journey by train to Guwahati. The further the train went, the more fun everyone had. By the time we reached our final destination, Parijat, a school close to Guwahati, I saw a sudden change in Suman – she spoke to me even without being asked. All the kids wanted to watch a movie except her. So – as usual – Jayanti was trying to push her to watch. But Suman came to me and said: “I don’t want to watch the movie, I want to hang out with my new friends in the hostel!” What a bliss! Readily I asked her to do what she likes most. From the next day onwards, Suman engaged with her new friends and did things even if Jayanti wasn’t interested in. She helped the Parijat kids carrying bricks to the site where the new girls hostel was being built. She hung out in the hostel or in the kitchen or in the playground.

A few times Jayanti was left alone, and sometimes Suman simply took the lead and Jayanti followed. They were now becoming more like friends. Jayanti who never touched Suman’s plate, was slowly freeing herself from the restrictions the society she was born into takes so much for granted.

The most beautiful change happened when Suman got a new haircut. Oh, she looked so cute! Many people made her compliments. The Janwaar boys – naughty as they are – were teasing Jayanti that Suman was more beautiful than her :-) Eventually, Suman started taking care of herself. She combed and oiled her hair and she washed her clothes. At school she was learning the alphabet. She showed me what she had learnt and promised to continue her studies back in Janwaar.

In just 15 days of travel, Suman changed from a shabby-looking, shy, silent, lost girl into a happy, aware, and confident girl who took care of herself.

The powers of travel and exploration!

Page 40/41 – Photo by Vicky Roy. Suman working at home.

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Ulrike Reinhard is a German publisher, author and futurist who has travelled more than 100 countries where she has spoken to Nobel Laureates, nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize, high ranking politicians, internationally acknowledged visionary thinkers, successful entrepreneurs, outstanding critics, activists and down-to-earth field practitioners.

All her work is related to network theory with the Internet at its core. On these grounds she started Janwaar Castle in 2014. It was a social experiment – a skatepark in a rural village in the heart of India. What unfolded then is an incredible story of change. Social, cultural and economic change. The children in this village became true changemakers. They took the lead and became role models for many others. Skateboarding has given them selfconfidence and self-esteem. Now they are on their way to take their future in their own hands. They’ve an identity they earlier couldn’t even think of.

In this book the changemakers themselves tell their stories of change. So do their parents and people Ulrike has worked with. www.rural-changemakers.org