Hope

I have just returned from a meeting with the rest of the group and Dr Jayaranjan, our methodology adviser for the project. Traveling from Chennai this morning Dr. Jayaranjan met us to answer questions and clarify any doubts. In particular he talked to us on methodology and progress of the project. As a researcher he has worked with both academics and development organizations, and thus had concrete suggestions, where he acknowledged ground reality and scope for conducive change. We had met him a few weeks ago before starting our field research. Due to difficulty with his name I coined the sobriquet ‘JR’ which the group finds easier to remember and pronounce.

He has been encapsulated in our mind through one incident which I shall share. When attempting to focus our research during the first meet, we listed the various stakeholders ranging from children, parents, and government officials, that we hoped to talk to in Krishnagiri (place of research) to better understand the issue. His inability to understand why we would want to visit any and every place, prompted a question of why interview them all, when they do not concern the research paradigm? To this one member responded “because they are there”. JR quickly uttered his most famous words “suppose there is a lake there, will you visit that too!”. The laughter from that experience still fills my mind, as I remember his serious face while attempting to ask us about the mundane.

During this meeting with him I slightly placed my hand on his shoulder and said that we actually did visit the lake which prompted him to laugh in the middle of a serious discussion. The overall understanding of the project methodology became clearer after talking to him and he told us about the concept of ‘hope’ in development. It is this very concept that results in positive and hopeful faces in development work and pictures. Programs are not easily discounted and the focus is on repair and bringing forth change that can be realistically implemented on the grassroots level. Being someone who wants to work within the system and who tries to find positive side of various programmes, I was happy with his assessment.