Thought Overflow

I intended to post this post much sooner, so I apologise for the delay. And without further ado, we continue with our coverage of the XLRI sponsored Village Exposure Programme, July 2009. As I had said in my previous post, we were on our way to a village called Jamadoba near coal mine city of Dhanbad, Jharkhand.

On day two, we woke up a little later than we intended to, and decided to nobly skip breakfast in order to keep our appointment with Mr. Sanjeev Mahapatra, the unit head of TSRDS, Jamadoba. (Un)fortunately, our driver was very late, giving us time to have breakfast at the same nearby hotel at which he had had dinner the previous night. We also had time to take a few pictures in front of the hotel entrance/exit. Anyhow, we left at about 9:30 AM (thus making us one hour late before we even started), and reached the Jamadoba office of the Tata Steel Rural Development Society at a little beyond 10:00 AM. We were taken to the office of Mr. Mahapatra, the aforementioned unit head, who introduced us to TSRDS and what it does.

At this point, I should mention that some teams that embark on the Village Exposure Programme are given assignments by the NGO that is responsible for them. The driver had informed us that the strike in Bengal was to continue over the weekend, and to add to this, there was to be a Naxalite bandh in Jharkhand as well. Our plan, therefore, was to leave very early the next morning and be back in XLRI by breakfast-time. Therefore, keeping the obvious time constraints in mind, we were given the assignment to talk to the staff of the staff of TSRDS and make a report with any suggestions so as to improve the overall efficiency or motivation of the staff. Ah, we hadn’t expected to become consultants just one month into our MBA programme, but I guess XLRI carries its reputation ahead proudly.

The ‘interviews’ took the rest of the morning (and I shall not go into any of the details), and for lunch, we were taken to the Tata Steel Guest House, where a scrumptious meal awaited us. After lunch, we checked into the rooms, deposited our belongings, took a few minutes to freshen up, and then left towards the village, where we were to conduct a couple of events.

The first was a painting competition, to be conducted in order to help Parichay, a social entrepreneurship venture born out of XLRI, find some talented artisans to employ. Parichay is an organisation that has been set up by two XLRI graduates with the aim of bringing the rural and tribal artisans and their art into the mainstream culture/market. They held their first exhibition in Jamshedpur recently. The painting competition was a great success, and the level of skill displayed by some of the participants (whose enthusiasm is best testified by the fact that many of them came equipped with their own paints and drawing material) came as a pleasant surprise to us.

The second was to conduct a survey for Swavalamban, another social entrepreneurship venture supported by XLRI, which aims to bring electricity to those villages which lie outside the national power grid by using an ox-driven generator to charge a battery, which in turn can be used to provide power for a fixed amount of time each day to a certain number of households. However, the villages we went to were generally quite well-equipped, thanks to Tata Steel’s interest in the upliftment of the people of this region, who consisted, to quite some extent, of workers at the Tata Steel Coal Mine. They had almost uninterrupted power supply, irrigation facilities which were highly efficient and hardly any complaints. In fact, we were told that all children attend school, at least up to middle school. We spoke to some of the villagers while the painting competition was going on alongside.

After we were done with the painting and discussions with the villagers, the nice folks at TSRDS had arranged for us to be taken down one of the many Tata coal mines. Needless to say, we were quite excited. We got to the mine around 7:00 PM, but the time didn’t really matter much, because the mine runs 24×7. We were made to strap up in a traditional hard hat and put on rubber workers’ boots. We also had to carry along torches that ran off battery packs that in hung off some leather belts that we had to tie around our waists. Obviously, plenty of photographs were taken, and a controlled amount of tomfoolery ensued. However, in a short course of time, we were all suited…er…buckled up, and we followed one of the safety officers to the entrance of the tunnel. We took a lift in the …er… elevator, which took us down to approximately 350m. The thing about coal mines is that it always appears like it’s raining inside, because perennial water sources are breached while mining, and the water has to be continuously pumped out, but it trickles back in slowly. We were walking in a fair amount of slush. Thank god for those boots. The inside of the mine is unlit, save for the lights attached to our helmets (well, some of us held them in our hands). We even switched off our lights twice to get an idea of what the term “absolute darkness” means. Unfortunately, I had to leave my camera outside the mine, but I doubt I could have captured it on film anyway.

We continued walking down the mine some more, and finally reached a depth of around 530-550m before deciding to turn back. The safety manager who guided us was quite knowledgeable (duh), and we learnt quite a bit about how mining is done. I even took a pretty big piece of coal as a souvenir, though I now begin to wonder exactly how I plan to put it in a place of pride on a mantelpiece in my future home. Hmm…

The mine ‘trek’ had pretty much sapped our energies, and we were very happy to go back to the guest-house and have another fulfilling meal. The hospitality was top-notch, because they offered to wake up at 3:30 AM the next morning and make us some sandwiches for our drive back to XLRI…which is exactly what they did. The drive back to XLRI was uneventful, save for that one time when we were surrounded by gun-wielding Naxals demanding that I give them my beard in exchange for my life. I have a sneaking suspicion that was just a dream though.

Oh, and before I forget…as a reward for reading right through the end, here’s a link to THE PHOTOS!