Some Special Memories
http://www.developmentoutlook.org/2012/10/some-special-memories.html
It’s been ten exciting
months at CMF for me so far and I feel I have learnt something new
everyday. One of the aspects that I like
most about my job is the fact that I get to interact and meet so many different
kinds of people as part of work and also on the field visits. Each of my
interactions/experiences have been ones that I will always remember.
When I joined last
December there were 3 Surveyors on our Project and 1 Project Assistant. We
spent close to four months piloting before starting our main experiment. We did four Pilots in order to understand how
to make things work best for our project. Our Project involves conducting
village meetings in all our 60 Study Villages. Initially this proved to be a bit
of a challenge. The 5 of us – our 3 Surveyors, Project Assistant and I, would
spend a lot of time particularly after our Pilots to see how we could improve
things. I will always have very fond
memories of us sitting in an empty school in a village after classes were over
and discussing things. While we would
walk in the villages to administer the surveys, I would literally jump whenever
I saw a dog or a monkey and they would always find it amusing and would tell
themselves in Kannada – “Madam is so scared of animals”.
I was immensely touched
when the first text message I received on my birthday was from them at the
stroke of 12. Their calls as well in the morning kept me smiling the whole day.
Another thing I enjoy the
most about my field visits are the children I get to meet when I’m there. Most of our meetings happen in schools. After
the meeting and reviewing things with my team, there are usually a bunch of
children all excited to know what was happening in some empty classrooms in
their school. They are always fascinated
to know what has been going on and most of them call me “Miss”. One or two of
them would come up shyly and ask me what my name is and then all of them would
giggle! They keep asking if I’m a teacher who has come to teach in their
school. One little boy told me I can come and teach them English to which I
replied he could also perhaps teach me Kannada. He laughed and so did the
others around. Another time I was practically
sneezing the whole time, I came out of the classroom after a meeting and saw
one of the cutest babies I have ever seen. His name was Rehan and his face
looked moon shaped.
A lot of people I interact
with are bank managers. As a part of our Project we open No Frill Bank Accounts
/ Post Office Accounts for people who don’t have one. Visiting these small
banks and interacting with these people has taught me a lot. It has also opened
my eyes to the fact that that there is still much more that has to be done in
the area of Financial Inclusion in our country. While some banks are very cooperative,
the others are more difficult to approach. I have also come across a few
instances of women who ask for help in filling up forms in the banks not knowing
how to go about things. The Post Offices are small and the Post Master and Post
Man have usually been very friendly. They also know their customers very well
and always seem happy to talk and share information.
It feels nice that today
we have completed Mini Baselines and Village Meetings in all our 60 Villages with
a field staff of close to 45 people. There is a lot one experiences while
travelling and interacting with people. Development as a subject fascinates me
and the field experience over these months has exposed me to a lot of realities
on the ground.A lot of these instances have made me look at my life more
closely and introspect more. I have learnt how a lot of people can be happy
with so little, how generous many of our villagers are in offering us something
to eat or drink when we visit and how little children have so much fun playing
with the simplest of things. It is these little incidents which will always
hold a special place in my heart.
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