training in wandoor...
by the time we reached wandoor via g b pant hospital and a medical check up, we were a good 2 hours late and sunita was pacing up and down... several people had left and we were left with around 15,20 people... gulping the lump of guilt... i started... plastered hand gets sympathy, gives health related ideas and everyone wants to do everything for you! so all in all an ok deal!
anyway, panchayat secretary and pradhan were both interested and so were other 4,5 members... they were quick to suggest ideas, which were not tsunami related (surprise surprise!) and were receptive to the livelihood programme... we discussed ponnalagu's story... how she and her husband rebuilt their chai-naashta shop out of nothing... impressive story impresses everyone... no exceptions here...
five groups have been formed... sukhada recorded some mock interviews (another benefit of being plastered... everyone learning super fast...) some goof up in playing and some candid conversations were played... good fun...
most of them are bengalis... they asked if they could make programmes in bengali... i said of course they could but perhaps broken hindi would reach more... tourism related employment, women's options, infrastructure, fisheries, were some of the subjects...
then an interview session with me - marriage, work, marathi, malayalam, cooking, hospital, hand, hmmm... inquisitive, i say... and of course they arm twisted (ouch!) me into speaking bengali (and of course had a good laugh!) kintu tumi amake jani na.. ami bangla khoob jani...
i visited one intermediate shelter... heard about their past glory of house with 4 bedrooms, cows, poultry, coconut, fishing... sitting in the oven-like tin box house... it had a fancy tv with cable but no fan... people swat flies literally as they watch remix videos... perhaps representative of the way "development" is developing...
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