Shodh yatra occupies a special place in my heart. It is one of those experiences which I will cherish through out my life.
To start off, first let me tell you what it is. It is an event, organized twice in a year by the organization Sristi, in which the participants cover a certain no. of villages by walking. The objective of this yatra is best described in the words of Prof. Anil Gupta who says ‘Phoolon ko shikayat na honi chahiye jab unka paraag le liya jaaye’ meaning the villagers should get the recognition for the innovations made by them and taken away by businessmen. So here are they searching(shodh) for hidden innovations at the grassroot level. They collect the innovations from the different villages, give the innovators recognition for it, properly document it and then they try to bring it to life. There have been more than thousands of innovations in their database so far collected from different parts of India. Some of them being a cycle which can run on both water and land, a silencer which reduces the volume of sound eminating from a generator, a folding cycle which can be carried anywhere and many more.
22 shodh yatra have been conducted so far in different states of India and anybody can be a part of it. I was one of the fortunates to be a part of 22nd shodh yatra which was conducted in champaran district of Bihar last year. We were supposed to cover 111 km in 6 days. Two biggest challenges I faced were the chilling weather with temperature being 5-10 degree celcius in the mornings and the other one being the task of packing and unpacking everyday. But it was fun walking in the lap of nature with different people from different parts of the world( jammu, germany, delhi, coimbatore etc), knowing their mindset, interacting with villagers, gaining knowledge, having fresh tasty foods etc.
Walking was also not easy for some of the first timers(including me) who gave up on the second day itself but from the next time we need to remember the tonic given by the prof. who says ‘kabhi kabhi dard hi dard ki davaa ban jati hai’……
Sourav..
P.S: 1) Prof. Anil Gupta is a faculty of IIM, Ahemdabad and is the mind behind all these,
2) Its much more than what I have mentioned. Further details are available on the site https://sristi.org
3) Next shodh yatra is in Gujarat during may end
