kokilaben

kokilaben in the sumo for hire

on a sunday samira and me left for gujarat. regarding projects in the tribal areas near vapi- working on a library and a school building possibility.

samira had met kokilaben the diva of the mountains in the area through her association with the rotary club.. now this kokilaben is some character. living in a small hut in the hills with her husband she is around 65 years old and has taken complete charge of the upgradation of the area through education, water harvesting programmes, etc. she runs a series of schools in the middle of these barren inaccessible mountains and teaches the villagers to build dams to contain the water that pours down the hills of hard rock in the torrential rains that the area gets in the monsoon. it is admirable the energy and effort she put into the work, the way she presided over the area, the authority that she had by the way she moved over the land.. it was hers.. she knew it and loved it..

throughout the day we gave ‘inputs’ to the locals on how to build the buildings themselves- the library, the dams- we went from site to site looking at dams and giving our advice over their construction, suggesting new ways of doing small things, we learnt about kokilaben’s aspirations for the area, the reason she stays away from politics, the new money coming to the organization from a jain trust, their desire to rename the organization, her acceptance of that clause, the colleagues disheartened by this decision, the kind of food that is eaten in the area, etc etc.. with samira, paras (structural engineer from ahmedabad)

too many experiences for one mere posting- can i now fit in the trees that gave us goosebumps, th canework on the houses, the strange feeling of alienation and belonging that came over me, the figurines of birds on the edge of the verandah of the school made by the kids, the pattern of the cow dung plastering on the walls and the plinth, the invasion of georgette and plastic into our imagination of the 'village', the disjunctions between our idea of progress and the ideas of progress that they have, wood joists or rcc joists?


the structure for the roof of the library being put into place



one of the check dams in the hills