A journey to Badoli(Gujrat) - Part 2

Part 1

Day 2:

As we were tired of yesterday’s journey, we decided to wake up a little late. But we had forgot one thing. We were sleeping in a room in Dooth Mandli. By 6 am, there was a big queue infront of our building, all waiting to give their milk to Society. Mahendra Bhai, a worker in cooperative society gave a class to us on how the price of milk is decided. Price of milk is decided according to the fat content in milk. In cowmilk it will vary from 4 -7 where as for buffaloes it is between 6 -10. If fat content is 10, farmers will get Rs. 45 per litre. Mahendrabhai was doing the test to check the fat content and price was decided accordingly.After watching the process for some time, we went back to our room.

By 8.30 am, we got ready and went to R H Jani Semi government Higher Secondary school in Badoli. It is the main Higher Secondary School in village. We asked them about the educational facilities about village and was very happy to know that the village is blessed with an L P school, a UP School and a Higher Secondary School and no child in village can ‘escape’ without going to school!!!The school had a strength of 1158 students including 501 girls.

From R H Jani School, we went to village dispensary and enquired about the health situation of villagers.Though there was no hospital there, the doctor said that it was not an issue for them as they have 2-3 hospitals within a distance of 10 kilometers.From there we went to police station, but to our surprise, no one was there in that building!!! I guess the crime rates in Gujrat is very less that they don’t even need police!!! After waiting their for 20 minutes , we came back,without gathering any info about crime rates there. All we could see in the police station was an auto which had one tyre missing. 

 

Government Dispensary

While coming back, we went to Primary School 1 , which is under the control of Government. All the fund was provided by government . The school had a computer lab with 8 computers, a science lab, a library and special provision for teaching disabled students.I was very happy to hear this , as people here know the value of education and was trying to provide it to all irrespective of their physical capabilities. Even in highly educated states like Kerala, we cannot see much schools with this facilities. Another surprise for us was Vishlesha Madam, who is a teacher in the school. She is the only person that I met in the village who knew English. But the sad part is , she is blind!But she was not ready to give up . She fought against her disabilities , took graduation , listened to audios and learned English and now she is working in a government School!! A Lady , that everyone should respect. Hats off .

Aravalli mountain range

From Primary School, we went to Village office. The officer was very happy to see us and he gave all the data we need !!! No, I am not kidding. This is what happened in the office. How many of us can say the same will happen in village offices in our state.According to 2001 sensus ,Badoli has a population of around 6000.(lost the data sheet he provided. So I have to approximate values. I am sorry). The village has 99% literacy rate. But from the village office only we came to know about the other half of the story. Even after the education, people are not changing their jobs. A Patel will continue agriculture, Brahmin will remain as priest and a Harijan will be a labourer. Education never helped much to improve their income.

Idar Fort

In the evening (around 4pm) we went to see Idar Fort.Idar Fort is a very small fort build on the top of a mountain in Aravalli ranges. We took an auto to go to top of mountain as ‘trekking’ was not permitted by IRMA  and we do not want to disobey rules ;). The auto driver’s name was Samir Pathan. In the journey, we got a chance to listen to Muslim version of the ‘developments’ in the villages in Gujrat.

A plant in Jain temple

Fort was a very small construction, which was not maitained for years. I felt bad impression about the government for the first time after seeing the fort. It seems no one is interested in the fort, though it could be developed into a beautiful tourist spot, as it is on the top of mountain.As of now, all we can see in the building is the ‘scripts’ of some guys who had came there before and some gossips like ‘Salman loves Aishwarya’ .I really wish government will take some action to protect this fort. There is a Hindu temple , a Jain temple and a Mosque near the fort.We entered the Jain temple first . Thus I got a chance to visit a Jain temple for the first time in my life.


From Idar Fort , we can see a small building on the top of a huge rock.  It was very difficult to reach there. It was constructed by queen of Idar , when she got angry with the King! It is heard that she lived there for rest of her life as a revenge.It might have been a bad time for servants who lived at that time as it will take atleast 5-6 km walk from the top of that rock to come down to collect some water. ( We can't expect queen to come down and collect water, right? ) .

By 6.30 pm we came back to Badoli . Then we went to Raju Bhai’s home and then to mineral water plant. There is an auditorium near the plant. It is the auditorium made by Patels for their community marriage. By that time, Parimal ji also reached there and from there everything was an exact copy of day 1. This time Shailesh and me gave treat to them , same hotel, different menu. Then went to same the same shop where we sat last day. But this time we came back early. We slept around 1 am.

A snap taken on my way to Idar Fort


 

to be continued...

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