by Ajay Das
Greetings,a little about myself . My name is Ajay Aas (of Simra) s/o Late Sunder Lal Das.
I graduated from Roorkee university in 1992, and currently work as a CEO of a Noida based
consulting company. Among various similar groups (e.g. old boys association of my school 'Netarhat' or Roorkee)
the common thread running across various initiatives or discussions when we talk about 'what we can do',
as per my observation, is the feeling of owing something to give back to 'our' society, where we have been lucky
enough to get where we are today, and, based on our experience, we understand that with a focussed
effort we can make a difference, in various segments of life where others may not be as
fortunate. the feeling of 'everything is possible' coupled with the strong desire to be
a part of something more meaningful makes us think of ways in which we can contribute.
So far so good. Bottlenecks that come in way of achieving what is desired is manyfold,
and one would do well to understand the importance of these factors.
Some of these are
Diversity of opinion on what is desired
(an example would be that some people when meaning well for Karnagoshthi
would mean investing in panji system, while others may think of it as reinforcing
Caste feelings when more important issues are to be addressed using the same, limited,
resources. it is never a choice between good vs bad, it is always 'good vs better' that
we face everyday, and it is difficult to resolve. we must be ready to handle such conflicts.
The deeprooted scepticism cultivated in long years of experience in india where almost
nothing works, not at least as well as is expected.
This can't be wished away, or taken lightly. do so and be sure of the failure of the
cause. This scepticism is to be understood and expected, indeed appreciated so that it
can be addressed with adequate resolve and efforts.Underestimating or unsure of ground
realities. Best of ideas and intentions do not count, if we do not know what it would
cost and are ready to take that. to give you an idea of how much it would take to do an
electirification project for a small village (bio energy based) of say fifty-sixty
houses-- a plot of land (at least one kaththa) (price - 30 to 70k inr)-- cost of
construction / equipment ( 5 lacs plus)-- maintenance cost (1500 - 3000 per month)
plus enough supply of dung (or a replacement of dung) which would need at least 50
cows/buffalowsthis would ensure power of about 4-6 hours everyday for two
connections (one tube and a fan, or two tubes) in 50-75 houses.(this is googled info,
please share if you have more accurate estimates).
Let us say we all want to do it
For our village. what would it mean then? even if we ignore the management or time
needed, the minimum money required is maybe 6lacs plus a way of making the unit viable.
Not many of us would be able to generate this fund ourselves. Let us say i do it in
my village and manage the funds through donations from this and other networks of
which i am a part. all the donors would probably donate for one such project,
maybe some for two, but most certainly not for fifty.i am not saying this to
discourage any efforts, indeed it is the opposite i want to. it is just that being
a little more sure of enormity and difficulties will minimize the chances of failure
of things we dearly wish to achieve. all of us have a number of ideas to be realized,
and they are all for the good, however we must be ready to accept that only a miniscule
of these would ever be successfully realized, and even that, if achieved, shall
be a great deal.best regards,
Ajay
(Ajay das , Noida/India , 2005-01-13.)