Rediscover Aug '2014

Looks like Rediscover is becoming a series of it's own.

What Google sent me today was one of my trips from SELCO, a visit to Udipi and surrounding villages. 

That's Uday next to a hut, actually shack, not even a hut. You see the pole which supports the solar panel. It's a single light bulb panel, and the only source of electricity for that family.

And the longer picture was my view from the lodge I was staying in. Yes, lodge, which is why it was better looking out the window than in the room. My first experience in a lodge, and have to admit, it wasn't easy. The one thing that came closest to breaking my resolve was the lodges I've stayed in.

But then..... the rest of it. The rest of it exists. After all we had objective of providing electricity to those who weren't connected to the grid, which would have to be the most interior of villages. So how would it work if I expected to stay in fancy hotels and yet needed to keep objective in focus. This is when conflicting wants surface and mess up, and it takes clarity to know what really matters and what will be sacrificed for what.

I owe it to the SELCO experience to having learnt how some of those resolutions are so romanticized when spoken, but the reality, the stark naked truth of all that it involves becomes  visible only when the rubber hits the road, so to say.

The nicer parts. Udipi is the famed space from which 'Udipi food' originates. This is a further specialized menu of the tulunadu region. Look at this menu. Loved the neer dosa.

A couple more pictures from that visit. You see the solar panel on the roof. Plus I loved the clothes drying in the umbrella.

Us in one of the the more impoverished villages we visited

Yet another hut electrified by SELCO

Gosh, nostalgia can be intoxicating (was going to say overwhelming, but found a more appropriate word :)