Few Pages from the India Pilot Diary

27 July 2008
We make our way from Delhi to Pune, for the India leadership pilot training, landing up in a ‘business’ hotel. A hotel which forgets to pick us up at the airport and Maha begins to feel like an orphan, a Pakistani orphan in the hustle bustle of India!
Swathi has arrived from Hyderabad early morning also to join Kapil for the delivery of the leadership training. It's raining here and we've been told that we've brought the rains with us. We meet over a piping hot South Indian meal to learn more about the pilot training and prepare for the week ahead.

28 July 2008
The next morning, after getting lost on our way to the training, possibly making it half way to Mahabaleswar or Lonavala (which could have been nice but we were here to attend the training), we arrived at the venue set on a short hill, amidst dense foliage. The special thing about the venue is that it is an eco-friendly building, built in sync with the landscape with a rustic charm, using materials from the location only. There is no air-conditioning as the rooms are built to take advantage of the natural direction of the wind. A cool breeze sweeps the conference room throughout the day.

30 July 2008
By the way, Maha is still not registered in Pune, and we have been here for a few days already. None seems keen to take an undertaking to take responsibility of her actions during her stay here (wonder why), so she is going to try and get an arrival and departure stamp on her permit at the same time (right before she leaves for the airport). Until then, who knows what she does! Actually I (Rad) do, she has spent a large chunk of coffee breaks and lunch time in calling customer care that really doesn’t care much about whether she is or is not able to use her phone.

01 August 2008
So much for getting an arrival and departure stamp on the same day! I went to see the registration officer today, (who was, picture this, a pan chewing, venom spewing, bitter (possibly battered) government officer who takes out is revenge on life against hapless citizens (like myself)). He denied to have made any such assertion to give me both stamps on the same day. He manipulated the situation to extract a late fee out of me, which he insinuated that I pay him instead of at the bank to make the registration process "faster". A bit taken aback by this suggestion, as in my innocence all this time I thought he was being kind to me by letting me get an arrival and departure stamp on the same day, as tactfully as possible I urged to pay the fee in the bank. Not so pleased with this outcome he pointed me to a bank on the other side of town, where I stood in queue for over an hour, battled chaotic Pune traffic, inhaling caustic fumes and dodging curious stares to pay the late fee. (In fact the late fee was completely unjustified as I had already reported my arrival in Pune in writing the first day I arrived!) When I was in queue to pay the late fee, I considered for a moment if I should have just paid him the “fee” instead of spending half a day going through the system! Anyway, after a few hours when I returned to his office, I witnessed something I have heard of but never seen myself. Another hapless citizen who needed the registration officer’s approval or stamp for his residential permit dropped a bundle of rupee notes in his drawer to expedite the request, after which the officer was very cordial to him. In fact, I don’t know if I can blame that man for dropping a bundle of notes in that drawer if it saves him the headache and time to at least get the job done! At the same time if everyone continues to placate such government officers with “private fees” the system will remain crippled? Any thoughts?

02 August 2008
The Natural Resource Module is running today. The participants seem to be sponges absorbing everything the resource person from CEE is talking about. This is a very important session for them as it introduces them to the legislations in place for tribal communities and the legal mechanisms they can harness to protect their communities and natural resources. A case demonstrating the successul use of recent legislations for tribal communities is analyzed. The day concludes with an overwhelming response from the participants. They share their apprehensions before coming to the course and also to a big city like Pune. For most participants it was the first time they had left even their sub-district. They appreciated the opporutnity to meet young leaders from other parts of the state and expressed their joy at having made some good friends! They were keen to take back the learnings to their organizations and community groups. Most shared that they always felt leadership was the role of politicians and thought that's what they would be trained for in Pune as well but they were pleasantly surprised by the approach of the leadership course and are taking back with them new conceptions and styles of leadership and new approaches to problem solving.

Congratulations to Kapil for making this a success!

Radhika and Maha

P.S More reflections on the course on the AYLG Network