I had planned to be present at the start of the function for the release of kannada book "ಬರ ಅಂದ್ರೆ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಇಷ್ಟ " translation of the seminal work everybody loves a good drought by sainath p published in the ninetees. I had read the book, and wanted to meet the person in flesh and blood, who through his unbiased and hard hitting reporting had bought national as wellas international attention on the plight of rural indian. by the time i reached gandhi bhavan, the crowd had spilled out of the hall probably seating around 300ppl; I took a vantage spot on the side ledge of a window, where in I could view the proceedings inside without hitch. two free lance journalists were honored on the occasion 1st jul 2012,by counter media awards. one is the person speaking in the photo with sri sainath, sri tk dayanand, who had reported in the media about the ramapant practice of carrying of night soil in kgf which had drawn media attention. other journo honored was smt gayatri, who is propagating the rural agri practices with a periodical from the past ten years.
In the morning session, sainath had only given an appetiser of a speach while congratulating the winners and the main course was to follow in the afternoon. sri devanoor mahadeva, who had revolutionised the poetry with his rich imagery and coarse words from the humble background to carve a niche for himself in the kannada literature circles also spoke at length on the need for education for the rural masses. in the lunch break that followed, i had the opportunity to accost sri sainath for 10-15 minutes on the topic close to my heart. sanitation has become an unending problem from the day human waste ie., urine and fecus were isolated from the earth and sent on a separate course where it will not become earth. while i was espousing the need to create that scene where u can again, regain that control on the human waste by circulating it back to earth, by having urine and fecus separated at the starting point itself, sainath avoided the issue by stating that it was a different issue and needs to be looked at differently. by then, others had gathered around and luch got over. we went back to hall, to have our main course.
It was a listeners delight, with sainath talking straight through for about an hour. trying to desribe that whole speech is beyond me. it was like a ride in the torrents of ganga, u go smoothly for a minute, u jump a boulder, then crash a few hundred feet, then climb up the rocks, then smoothly glide for a while, then with great roar fall down the gorge. the speech was about the journos being the conscience keepers of the nation, and how are we faring at it, with ample examples from around it was a talk the journalism students would give them right ear for. glimpses of the same would be available in you tubes. next almost an hours inter active session with questions thrown in from eager audience was deftly handled by him.
For a long time, i had religiously used sundays only for roaming in search of second hand b ooks, but jul 1st proved to be a bonus where i could get the first hand book and the man behind it for chatting.
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