Monday, March 11, 2013

The Survey!


Day:1
The morning of that day (7am) started with me trying to get my carcass out of bed due to the last day's stress. I cursed the moment i wrote in Facebook page that i will go to camp for 2 days. It was unbelievingly tough to get out of bed. At last the will succeeded and finally we went to the camp.
               Our NSS chapter of NIT Durgapur hosted a medical camp in which doctors come and do free check-up to the residents of that locality. Let me mention that we did a great deal of work in convincing doctors to take out some time and attend our camp. Medicine samples were also collected the previous weekends and graded out according to their compositions.(yes,we are busy bees and work even during our mid semester exams and i take pride in saying that!).
                          
             THE Camp started with few teams' division for surveying the whole area and finding out the population and the general problems they face in that region that could be solved by the government. I were to assist the volunteers in workshop for making  a teddy bear(believe me..i was not at all into it and decided to switch into surveying committee); and since it would start after noon we were to go for surveying the region.I felt relived as soon as that was assigned to me and we set out for surveying.

      
  
The scenario was completely different at the moment i set foot in the assigned area of survey. The people there know just Bengali and can't understand Hindi. Since it was Ranchi Colony, i took a logic that the people residing over there might me knowing Hindi properly. But i was wrong and thankfully my friend started investigating that barefooted  woman dressed in a traditional sari which she tied a bit above her waist and a pot full of  water which she intended to carry inside for cooking. I understood that their financial status is not at all good and she did say that she is an illiterate( my friend tick marked the 'illiteracy' point in the questionnaire and hence i knew). Even her husband is illiterate. And that look on her face while my friend was asking questions! It was like her hopes rose since we started asking about electricity supply and monthly income as that some help would be coming to save them. Standing in the hot sun and not knowing what to do other than staring at those painful and hopeful eyes...i wandered there and found out there are few people who can understand Hindi.I enthusiastically ran back to collect the other questionnaires and do my NEW job. SURVEYING.



                                The moment i took the paper, the utter truth dawned upon me that i can't speak Hindi fluently!! As they say-'if you can't explain something as simple as it can be, then you don't completely about it'; i felt that i may not even explain them my questions even in my mother tongue. That was a big revelation to me!!And so, with my broken Hindi i managed to complete the questionnaire for one family. While fumbling with the words about how to describe something, they enjoyed our freakish behavior and  laughed out.  The housewife greeted us with a warm and shy smile as we explained why we came to her house. And there was this one moment when i asked about the income of the family(of course it was in the questionnaire)...
         
           Me: "aapki aamdani kitna hoga?"
(meaning-what is your monthly salary)
         Woman:(she started laughing out loud)
 Meanwhile i wondered if there was any grammar mistake in my question which made her laugh so much. Everyone started smiling at me owing to the situation i was in.And i....I showed my teeth as in acknowledgment of her joke.
          Me: "toh aapki monthly income kitna hoga?"(this time desperately trying to get answer to my question)
          Woman:"aamdani matlab ab hum kya kahe madam,kuch hota nahi....aaj kaam        milta hai to kal kaam milne ka guarantee nahi hota"....."mera aadmi bahut kaam karta hai..majduri bahut kam milta hai...haath bhi uska toota tha
....hum gareeb log hai madam"
(meaning: we don't have any salary.there's no guarantee that we get work the next day. our daily wages are too low and even my husband's hand was fractured recently)
   
                   I didn't utter a word after that. Silently gulped in and proceeded to the next question.
Knowing is different from experiencing. I have heard,read about the critical situation of people under low poverty line.But experiencing it and trying to digest it is an altogether a different story.



We proceeded to different houses and there were hearty welcomes with warm smiles (they offered chairs and water too)and  irritated looks from a man who just consumed liquor. 

        The rest of the day was spent in boring ourselves(me and my Bengali friend from surveying) for long hours in medical camp by fetching the prescribed medicines by the presiding doctor.

                                      Day : 2
This was the second day and pretty much the same and that day, i could have had my jaw thrashed. Thanks to my survival instincts, it didn't happen.
     While we were asking questions about basic hygiene and trying to tick off the symptoms of the various diseases listed, we had to ask if they "wash their hands before eating" or not. And the bewildered public over there first passes looks to each other and said "Yes" with a nonchalant and obvious look.
   And then the most controversial question of rural India has come. My friend was bothered suddenly as how to pose this question and i took to her aid.

           Me: "Aapke parivaar mein kisi ko AIDS hain?"
( shocked looks from the public.)
Definitely they must have thought i am a devil who has come to slander their family's name in the public!!
        And the fattest woman among them came forward .
       Woman: "haan, pucho kya puch rahi thi.... phir se puch ke dekho!!!!"
She was a belligerent woman i have seen in the recent past and i couldn't even utter another word.I silently prayed to God,looked at my friend gesturing that the work is done...and we slipped off from there.

I was saved finally!phew!
     I did enjoy going for surveying. Played with the goat cubs, talked with people over there and understood vividly what's their lifestyle.I reckoned that there are greater worries and problems out there in the society and i should stop bothering for petty things like my professor barking at me for not doing graphs of some experiment properly and being "insincere" and "dishonest".

Finally, at the end of the camp, i felt content and there was bliss altogether in spite of the body cramps. Only can wish and pray that the survey report goes to the government and suitable measures are taken.