Timbaktu/anniversary with Priya

Pic: Sari we bought for Priya


As I said in a previous post, I and Priya went down last weekend to Timbaktu. It was a pretty nice trip. Photos are on my phone and not downloadable until I get my laptop, unfortunately. We drove down, a 4.5-ish hours drive (for me). We took a short detour on the way to the "Lepakshi" temple. This is not a temple I had heard much about previously, but it turned out to be a minor gem. Its set on top of a rock hillock and is constructed with a large compound and gorgeous sculptures and a very good feeling to it. We spent an hour or so there, I'll upload some photos later. I am getting somewhat frustrated nowadays with sightseeing, as I wish I could just sit at the spot and reflect for as long as it feels appropriate, but that never seems to happen. I tend to get very reflective/meditative/broody at good tourist spots.

Priya got along well with the people at Timbaktu. We had a memorable 2 1/2 hour conversation with Bablu and Mary, co-founders of Timbaktu, after dinner on Saturday night, that was pretty much the highlight. I think Priya also somewhat felt the magic of Timbaktu, which I feel strongly. However she had a headache, probably from the heat which she is not used to, for pretty much the entire trip, which spoiled the fun somewhat for her. An amusing tidbit: I have taken her to a couple of other NGO places and her impression was that NGOs were basically serious austere places. Timbaktu is a more earthy, human place where people try to have a good time ( for eg. chicken, booze, movies etc. are all part of the game here). She got quite a surprise from Timbaktu.

There was an edgy moment when we were discussing Vinayaka Chaturthi and Priya said she wouldn't eat non-veg on that day, and Mary asked, with a bit of sarcasm, "Why, will Ganesha be unhappy if you do that?". Mary tends to do that kind of thing.

The anniversary imploded a little bit after the trip with an argument between us, but we ended up sorting it out. We did some clothes shopping for Priya and went to an upscale (average main course dish: 200/-) Chinese restaurant, Mainland China. The place was packed even though it was a weekday. There is so much money flowing in Bangalore.

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The annual report for Timbaktu is finished, and we are getting the paper version soon. I will also be putting up the soft version on the website. I 'project managed' this thing, and I am quite happy that it was a useful contribution on my part. Apparently last year, Mary spend a stressful 1-2 weeks on this. This year we were able to work it so that with effort from several people, and co-ordination from me, there was little input required from Mary. So the way I look at it, I might have saved her 1 week to 2 weeks of time and considerable stress. That's like a 2-5% saving of time this year for the most senior person in the NGO, so that's quite a cool thing right ?

My next task at Timbaktu is also pretty interesting. Timbaktu is going to be part of a fairly high-profile "NREGA Padyatra". Okay now backtrack and give all the background. NREGA is National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. This is a pathbreaking act passed last year (or early this year), that guarantees 100 days of labour work for any person asking for it. Its a social security thing, and all NGOs feel that its a hugely positive thing. This first year its being implemented in 200 districts and will be extended to covert the entire country in the succeeding years. So the government has decided to do a 'social audit' in Anantapur district to check on how well the program is running, since these kinds of programs are usually misused and the money does not always go to the person it was meant for. They way they want to do this, is have people from the local NGOs and some outsiders to fan out across the district and have meetings in lots of villages where they compare what the government records say happened with what actually happened. When the data is all put together it gives a good overall sense of how well the program is running. So what Mary would like for me to do while this project is going on, is park at the 'nerve center' in Anantapur,where all the data will come in from the field and help to put together the daily english press releases for this (they have difficulty in finding people with good english language skills). This is a really cool thing for me in a number of ways. I get to go to Anantapur town itself, so far I've always been in the Timbaktu office and not ventured out. I get to interact with the other NGOs invovled with the padayatra including a very interesting one called Rural Development Trust which I may write more about later. Perhaps in putting out the press releases, I'll get to interact with the local journalists which will be cool. And finally, I'm told I'll be working with one Mr. Malla Reddy, one of the top dudes at the above-mentioned RDT and I always like hobnobbing with head honchos :-).

I'm supposed to take off in a couple of days (on the coming Sunday) to Anantapur to do this. Wish me the best.