There is always a difference between a dream and a reality... even if a dream comes true... the following is a critic's account on the work of GRID so far...
1st October, 2006 - I got this wonderful idea of starting a group for rural development and started working on its structure and functioning and less than a week later, I found my first few members (Idli, Kavya and Harsha)... The mood was upbeat, I didn't want friends in the group... I wanted people who talked about work first and then anything else, but I had no other go but to start with friends...
By the end of October, I had answers for almost every question that could be raised about its functioning... the only thing I didn't have was the support... I could already see signs of people losing confidence and interest in the whole idea... I have always believed in hand-picking my team but that was not the case here... then I asked my favorite 3 for their support... Uppi, Uday and Vijju... Uppi for his brilliant management skills and to handle people, he could win over anyone with his words... Uday and Vijay for their excellent ideas and Vijju especially for his expertise in computers for maintaining website and related stuff. Uppi agreed right away but Uday and Vijju agreed to stay out of any direct activity but assured all sorts of help they could...
Meanwhile few others joined and we decided upon the activities we would take up... B-Plans & Projects for a start... we then decided upon 5 topics... 2 of them to be started right away...
In Hyd in my bedroom talking to Uppi and Idli, I got these wonderful ideas of JaRID and the coconut business plan... over the next 3 nights I spent close to 10hrs making rough drafts of the proposals... in the next week I met Ravishankar, the best candidate to work as a team leader for JaRID... and I pulled in Satheesh, the most respectable GRID member for his invaluable comments... I was expecting other people to show some interest to do something about the coconut plan for the fast approaching Genesis Competition... but as the rule goes... no response!!
These were the first signs of myself getting irritated... I always liked the coconut business plan more than JaRID as I have been seeing the plight of the workers, the farmers (even my father) for over 15 years... that was something I could directly relate to... with other mounting pressures I decided to quit JaRID and concentrate more on this... then I started talking to Uday and Kavya about it... never informed anything to anyone else... finally we did something, it wasn't the best but decent enough...
By then I had understood that things were going to become really tough from then... a handful of other ideas had totally flopped... weekly online conferences, weekly discussion on social issues, the projects, proposed trips to ICRISAT and some villages... most of them were limited to the first proposal mail... then Idli came up with this idea of newsletter... it took us more than a month after the finalised deadline to get the first 3 articles... with the promises made by Kavya and Uppi ending up as un-kept ones, I really have no interest to take up another issue of it... effectively there was more work done by Vijay than any other GRID member...
My hatred for the members reached a new high and as a result 5 to 6 members were kicked out... but things never change... except for a new addition Praneeta who has loads of enthusiasm for this, I don't see any future for GRID as a group to exist...
But what was the dream... Where did I get it wrong?
activities... I was looking for a group on whom other Well I was looking for a group of people who would volunteer to do things they can see from the THINGS TO DO list in the website... I was looking for people who were willing to sacrifice some of their spare time for trying to help out fellow Indians... I was looking for a group whose activities would attract funds from outsiders (sufficient for our basic necessities)... I was looking for a hyper-active and huge group which would need a separate team to look after Internal activities... I was looking for a group to volunteer in other NGOs ... I was looking for a group on which NGOs could rely on for technical support... I was looking for a group which would constantly be on trips to some place or the other... I was looking for a group which could hire an agricultural expert for clarification of doubts raised by farmers...
May be I got it wrong everywhere... I just took people for granted...
but one thing remains as a truth... GRID has been my dream, will be in future... just a bunch of non-interested INDIANS can't get me off-track... it may not exist as a group but I will always be there...
--buddi
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29-11-2007
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