The Green Hotel

My name is Anika. I am nine years old.

During the summer vacation my family wanted to go somewhere together so

we decided to go to Mysore. We stayed at a place called The Green Hotel. It was very nice because it had a very big and pretty garden. The food is also very nice here and they have a library with very nice books. There is also a craft shop where there are many pretty things to buy. Over all it is a very good place. 

Write-up and Photo by Anika Gururaj - Bangalore

Melghat September 2009

As we drove into the forest, I wondered what good deeds I had done in my previous birth to be this lucky. Wandering through this verdure is now my “job”! Physically tiring at times, but mentally it is fantastic – I guess this is what LSD must be like. An early stint of volunteering in a drug deaddiction camp meant that I never made the mistake of trying drugs. I guess now I am old enough to, but with the highs I get through my travels, do I really want to?

And I am rambling.

I am in Melghat, just a little South of Bharat ka Dil. Last I came here in March, when winter was over and summer was setting in. While there is a lot of talk and festivity around Basant, I really don’t think we have spring in the true sense. Before Holi it is cool and cold, while after it is hot. Of course, in Madras it is just hot all the time, but that is not relevant.

So summer was just starting and the days were still bearable. As this was a dry deciduous forest, all the leaves were brown and ready to fall. From somewhere, a memory popped in from my school geography class – I actually learnt what a dry deciduous forest was. Our teacher was quite firm and I had no option but to listen to her and imbibe all that knowledge. Suddenly what I had learnt 20 years (ok – 27 years really!) ago was all around me. A completely brown forest and as we drove on, whole hill sides covered with brown trees. For me, it was surreal like I had stepped on Mars or the area had just been bombed by one of those bombs that just make trees brown (I am sure some crazy has made one such). In March I had spent three days going through that shades of brown forest and even the increasing heat each day had not dimmed my wonder. I clicked away till I ran out of memory cards and batteries. And finally settled down to just being amazed and wondering at the magic that is this earth.

Now here I am again after the rains – a failed monsoon to be sure, but still rains. And now it was a rich green bordering on the vulgar in its abundance. No brown – the tree trunks were covered in this verdant growth. I had thought that only in Kerala would I have this confusion over how many shades of green there are, but here in Central India was the same chaos in my head. I simply surrendered this time. No need to understand this or count the shades – just rejoice in it and be. Hmmmm! I guess old age makes Zen philosophy easier.

Our first stop was Wan (vaan – as in monkey). Perched on a hill top was the Forest Rest House. Down below on one side is the Wan River and on the other, the railway station. Eight trains go up and down on this metre gauge line every day. Once it connected the royal kingdoms of Hyderabad and Ajmer. Today it connects Indore with Akola. A train came by – quite a long one; the reserved coaches were empty. The rest of the train was full up and more than a dozen people got down at Wan.

However first we had to enjoy the sight of the river. A check dam had been built across more than a century ago and the British used the railway line to lug water from here to the town of Akot below. The mind boggles at the thought. Today, the dam contains enough water through the year to bring in the smaller animals of the forest for a drink. Sitting in the verandah of the Forest Rest House we got an eyeful of rolling hills, green green green and the river at the edge. As if on cue, a bunch of langurs came to the edge of the check dam and stopped. They looked around carefully and then slowly, one by one began to cross the dam. Each would wait for the previous one to cross almost fully before setting out. The rear was brought up by a mother with her child struggling to keep pace.

Later in the afternoon, we walked down the railway line – I have always wanted to do that! We walked up to a lone soul sitting on the platform - an elderly man in a dhoti and a blue jubba carrying an old umbrella. The lines on his face were like the furrows on the fields in the plains and his skin was a chocolate colour. He sat and watched us steadily as we approached him – not blinking or turning away. Why should he? This was his turf. We asked him what time the train would come. He answered with a smile, “It will come some time and then I will board it.” The sheer luxury of just sitting; not knowing when the train would come and in no hurry to board it all, but sure that you do want to go when it does come. I would have gladly exchanged places with him just then!

The station office itself was placed above at a height above us and we climbed up to take a look. The station master was sitting in just a lungi chatting with someone. One look at us and he scrambled away. We saw the train timings on the notice board and the ticket prices next to it. Really? Is it that cheap to get around this country?

The Right to Information Act has obviously had a huge impact – a newly painted sign was hung up informing you who the RTI contact person for this railway division.

The Station Master came back with a shirt on, ready to talk to us. The village of Wan consists of a railway colony of seven families and two “local” families. The railway line needed a lot of maintenance up in the hills and so the gangmen were based in Wan.

We continued on to Gullarghat driving right through the Melghat forest. The core area of the forest is a Project Tiger Sanctuary – so it is out of bounds. This part of the forest was good enough for us. There are still three villages inside this part of the forest. So occasionally we would see a motorbike or a milk van. Else we had the whole forest to ourselves. It is impossible to see animals here – the topography doesn’t allow it. So all we saw was langurs and some sambhar. That’s all?? We saw a million varieties of birds and a zillion varieties of butterflies. Of course I don’t know the name of a single one – they were all new and fascinating for me. But that doesn’t make a good story right? “I saw a yellow and black butterfly” Or “I saw a yellow and black animal” – which would make you perk up. Sad though that may be, that is how we all are.

So it was a good thing that I wasn’t interested in telling tall tales – I was just soaking in all this colour with a green background. There were really these yellow and black butterflies. Bright yellow outlined carefully in black; is there someone up there doing the outlining so meticulously? I particularly noticed them because they were gathered all in clusters over the many damp patches along the road. As the car approached they would disperse in a cloud of yellow which of course my camera skills don’t allow me to capture. Do my word skills do any better? At each cloud I would sigh and wish I could be part of this mad yellow splutter. Finally we stopped at a point where there was a clear stream flowing reflecting some beautiful tree formations – but more importantly for me, where these butterflies were in extra abundance.

After some time the tarred road gave way to a red mud road adding to the beauty of the scene. Nature is the ultimate artist – playing with colours so splendidly that the oddest colours come together to create perfection.

At Gullarghat we stopped at the Forest guest house which is a cottage painted all over with pictures of the local flora and fauna, set on a stream. In March we had tasted the water from this stream – sweet and chilled, even in that heat. Today the stream was flowing, not wildly, but gently allowing me to sit with my feet dangling in the water. What I really wanted was to throw myself in. However, since I can’t swim and didn’t have a change of clothes, I resisted and tamely sat on the edge. I could feel all the tension of non-stop travel leave from my shoulders. Every time I see the scene in a movie where a heroine is singing in the stream, I wonder why I have never done it. Not sing (I might be arrested for noise pollution), but sit in the stream. After all I travel so much and cross so many streams. But that is the point – all I do is cross those streams, never stop in their midst. And finally I could do it. I could sit in this stream as long as I wished – or at least till it became dark – and it was my “job” I was doing. As I was saying, must have been one helluva lot of good deeds in the last birth!

Gouthami

11/Sep/09

Indian Railways for people with disabilities

It was going to be a train trip for me soon after a long time. I was traveling to Puttaparthi by Karnataka Express for darashan of Sri Satya Sai Baba along with my father who is a staunch devotee.  For a number of people train travels were something to look forward to and enjoyable. In fact they were enjoyable for me to till I became severely disabled having to use a wheelchair. Since I became disabled I tried to avoid train travels as much as possible but considering that it was the most affordable means of travel I was forced to use it on occasions.

My father made the bookings well in advance. The railways gave a considerably large concession on the ticket for the disabled traveller and one escort traveling with them making the travel very cheap. We had heard about a ‘Handicapped Coach’ that the railways had introduced in every train. But it was an unreserved coach so a disabled passenger could not reserve it and as a matter of safety and convenience a disabled person would rarely travels unreserved, therefore this coach was useless for us as it still remains to be for most disabled travellers.

Coach for disabled about 2 feet high and a feet away
from the platform without a ramp

I was happy for not having access to this ‘Handicapped Coach’ that the Railways had so generously provided. Firstly the coach was a second-class coach and considering in the scorching heat in May we were going to travel air-conditioned. Secondly the design of the coach was not exceptionally accessible – boarding the train was still going to be difficult and using the toilet was still going to be impossible. The most important reason why I was happy not using this ‘special’ facility was because I did not want to be singled out along with my family and placed separately. I found the entire concept discriminatory. In my mind it was like the British Raj where Indians were not allowed in the same compartment as the British, here the disabled travellers being same as the Indians.

State of the toilet in the coach for disabled people

One of the main preparations for me before a train travel apart from packing was organise my bladder and bowel as the toilets in the train are inaccessible to a disabled person like me. Just because the Railways have designed their coaches to be so inaccessible to the disabled most people with disabilities are faced with this challenge. Considering it was a two-day journey, I needed to stop my intake of food and liquids nearly two days before commencing the journey. It is not easy to do so because as dehydration sets in one begins to feel weak. Needless to say I needed to keep the intake to bare minimum throughout the journey.

Overflowing drinking water facility

This I must point out is just the beginning of the difficulties to travel be train. The Railways is proud of making its large stations accessible to disabled people, but here again there is much to be done. During a visit to the New and Old Delhi railway stations recently, I was amazed at the bizarre on ground implementation of these access features. The low drinking water sink was blocked and overflowing with water. The accessible restroom was located in the ladies waiting room making me wonder where a disabled man was supposed to go.  As for the condition of the special waiting room the lesser said the better.

crossing over tracks

In this entire thread of thought while making stations more disabled friendly there is no concern for the safety of disabled passengers. The basic issue of inter-platform transfer seems to have been entirely ignored. For instance, whenever I’ve travelled by train, I have always been taken as luggage over the railway tracks by a coolie, putting me as a passenger at a higher risk of accidents than anybody else. What disheartens me most is when I often read in news papers that the Railways in its understanding is sanctioning money to install escalators in various stations for the benefit of disabled people while it’s a internationally recognised norm that people using wheelchairs are not allowed to use escalators. A rule followed by the Delhi Metro and the Airports in India but happily ignored by the Railways. This again is an indication towards poor safety concern for the disabled.

The anxiety of travel does not subside even after reaching the platform well in time to board the train. The coolies that was hired to bring me over the tracks till the platform was engaged on the condition that he was going to board me in the train and leave me on my berth. Of course the cost of this is high therefore as a disabled traveller while the railways was generous in its concessions but because of inaccessibility the added cost to hire two coolies to board and de-board me compensates for the concession availed.

Once the train arrived and the initial frenzy subsided two coolies lift me like a sack of potatoes (one grabbing me from under my shoulders and the other from under my knees) and carry me in. There is no point in my feeling awkward or angry at the way I am physically handled as there are no other options in any case.  Train is about 50 cm higher from the platform and carrying me up is difficult, but the real challenge is taking me in through the extra narrow and extra heavy door of the air-conditioned compartment. There is a jam caused my getting in blocking the way for the rest.  In between all the confusion that is created the coolies struggle to squeeze in in through the door. There are always a few scratches or red finger marks of the coolies hand that remain as a memory of this experience. I take a deep breath of relief as I settle on my berth finally. One third of the journey is completed for me at that moment.

As the train rolls forward I stay happily perched on my berth enjoying the scenery outside as feeling bad about the way I am treated as a disabled person is of no use as in so many years of being disabled I have reconciled to this differential treatment, it is not something specific only to the railways in any case. My berth was my spot for the next two days as I am going to be able to get down for some fresh air at any of the stations neither was I going to be able to access the sink or the toilet. With a restricted intake there was nothing more that I could do to avert something as natural as natures call. All I hoped for now was for an eventless journey.

As the train jolted to a halt at the Puttaparti Station where the stop was just for a couple of minutes, my father was already at the compartment door trying to hail to coolies to help us out. He had already spoken to the ticket conductor explaining him our problem in de-boarding the train and requesting him to ensure that the train didn’t move ahead without letting us off. The TC assured him and told him not to worry and get of comfortably. In spite of hurrying frantically to expedite our de-boarding, the train jolted ahead with me in the hands of two coolies with one of them on the platform and the other still in the train. I thought this was the end of me but my father ran forward and grab me and put me on the platform. From the moving train the coolies unloaded my wheelchair and other luggage, it was clear that the TC had not bothered to ensure my safety as he had promised to.

This was a journey that is etched in my mind forever. Today as I have become older and broader physically I know that there is no way I can make a train journey ever again. The only mode of travel available to me is to travel by air. Since it is not something that is very affordable to me I am very restricted in my travel not able to take as may holidays I would like to.  I am discriminated and excluded because of only one reason and that reason is ‘inaccessibility’. As a disabled person only the more expensive services are accessible to me such as air travel instead of rail travel, using taxis instead of public transport, five star hotels instead of cheaper guest houses. It is as though I am being charged a tax for being disabled!

The concession provided by the railways is useless unless they provide accessibility and providing accessibility is not rocket science, it only required that the railways consider inclusion, safety and comfort of disabled travellers as one of their main objectives and then work towards it in a phased and an inclusive manner. It is not charity that a disabled person needs in the form of concessions rather we want inclusion and the right to use the service with the same dignity and convenience as anybody else.  

By
Shivani Gupta

From AccessAbility - http://accessability-india.blogspot.in/2012/02/indian-railways-for-disabled.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/NEgfY+%28Accessability%29
 

TAI Parternship Offer

Dear Friend,

I invite you to partner with Travel Another India in setting up Responsible Tourism Ventures across India.

Simply put, a Responsible Tourism Venture is one which ensures maximum benefit to the host community while having a minimum impact on the environment.

Travel Another India was registered as a Private Limited Company in April 2009. My experience with the Hodka Rural Tourism Project led to the forming of the company. Currently we offer a holiday package designed for guests using wheelchairs in Ladakh called Himalaya on Wheels and a stay in the village of Pranpur, Madhya Pradesh where guests have a choice of weaving, pottery or metalcraft to choose from and the rich cultural and natural heritage of the area to enjoy. We are in discussions with interested host communities and have plans to add several new destinations in the coming months.

You could choose to:

Ø  donate funds for which you will be eligible for a tax deduction,

Ø  or you could choose to invest in a specific venture. The return for each venture would vary based on a number of factors including location, weather conditions and commitment levels of the stakeholders.

At the Destination, we work with reputed NGOs to set up Responsible Tourism Ventures. Your donation or investment into a Destination will typically go into setting up a guest house, creating the experience for the guest, training the local team, marketing, meeting working capital needs and ensuring that it remains a Responsible Tourism venture. We will keep you informed as new ventures come up.

Your donation or investment into Travel Another India will help put together the team that supports the destinations and ensures that they offer the right experience to guests while earning a reasonable income for the hosts.

Else you could allow us to choose where to deploy your donation or investment.

Our next destination

Currently we are looking for investments into a guest house that we are setting up jointly with The Banyan at Kovalam, 30 km outside Chennai.

Here is a 4-minute video that explains Travel Another India as well as the venture with The Banyan. Click here...

The Banyan is a voluntary organization that reaches out to women with a mental illness and supports them to a fulfilling life beyond. They have a protected community in Kovalam or Covelong, about 30 km south of Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

Here, about 60 women are provided shelter and all support in continuing their lives. These are women who have been treated or continue to be treated for mental illness and whose families do not want them back. They are trained to look after their daily life needs and also to maintain the campus in which they stay.

The Banyan set up a guesthouse with four rooms in 2009, to encourage guests to visit and stay with the community and better understand mental health issues. The guesthouse was named 1498, after the year in which Vasco Da Gama first landed on the West Coast of India in his quest for spices. A shop was attached to the guesthouse, which sold products made by the women who live in or have passed through The Banyan. However, the venture did not run for long as hospitality is not the core competence of The Banyan.

Travel Another India (TAI), a social enterprise that supports organisations and communities in developing Responsible Tourism Ventures in another India, approached The Banyan to offer support in re-opening the guesthouse.

This would involve renovating the four rooms available for the guest house, refurbishing the interiors, training the team, creating the experience for guests and then doing the marketing.

The financial benefits to the protected community are calculated to amount to Rs.10.26 lakhs as salaries and Rs.5.25 lakhs as rent over a period of 5 years.

The total amount of investment needed for the venture is Rs.10 lakhs. Of this Rs.6.31 lakhs will be for the renovation and refurbishment of the guest house. Rs.3.69 lakhs will be used as working capital over the first two years primarily to cover salaries and training costs.

A detailed Business Plan is available and can be shared with you on request.

Some pictures of 1498, before the needed renovation and refurbishment:

 

  1The entrance to the rooms

2 The driveway to the Guest House

 

3 An overview of the campus ->

Terms

If you would like to donate money toward this venture, you could do so directly to The Banyan. Those making a donation greater than Rs.10,000 will receive a half-yearly update on how the Guest House is faring along with the financial report. All donations are 100% tax exempt under Section 35 AC of the Income Tax Act of 1961.

If you would like to invest, TAI will accept amounts equal to or greater than `50,000/- (Rupees Fifty thousand only) from each individual.

Your investment will be tentatively[1] treated as preferred capital. You can choose to withdraw your funds in 2018 or in 2021 as per the current plan. Your maximum return could be:

Invested Amount	In 2018	In 2021
`50,000	`70,000	`1,00,000
Annualised Return	6.67%	11.11%

This is subject to market risks.

The sole owner of the Guest House will continue to remain The Banyan.

In addition, you will get a 20% discount for 15 nights for one room in 2012, 2013 and 2014. And for 8 nights for a room for the remaining period of your investment at the Guest House.

By April 2013, a separate legal entity will be set up for the Guest House and all funds will be transferred to its account. The Governing Body will have representatives from The Banyan, TAI and all investors. The nature of this entity will be finalised over the next six months and communicated with all investors.

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, please do write to me.

Thank you.

With Regards

Gouthami

gou@travelanotherindia.com

+91 9940 559 513

Payment Details

The Banyan

The Banyan is legally registered as a Trust.

Online payment can be made at http://donate.thebanyan.org/donate.

Cheques or Demand Drafts favouring 'The Banyan' and with “Kovalam Guest House” written behind can be made payable in Chennai and sent to:

The Banyan,

6th Main Road,  Mogapair Eri Scheme, Mogapair West,

Chennai - 600 037, India

Bank transfers can be made through ICICI Bank. Please follow all payments with an email to gou@travelanotherindia.com with the details so that the amount can be attributed to the Guest House.

ICICI Bank

Address:	Anna Nagar Branch A78, Plot No 3211 3rd Avenue, Anna Nagar Chennai - 600 102 Tamil Nadu, India
Tel:	91-44-2626 2334
Email:	annanagar@icicibank.com
Accounts:	Corpus A/C No: 602701202072 Recurring Costs A/C No: 602701209343

Travel Another India

Travel Another India is legally registered as a private limited company under the name TAI Responsible Tourism Consultants Private Limited. The two Directors are Ms kv Gouthami and Ms K Ramalakshmi.

Name: TAI Responsible Tourism Consultants PLTD

Bank: HDFC

Branch: Anna Nagar Main, Chennai

A/C No.: 00 172 0000 32510

Type: Current

IFSC: HDFC0000017

Cheques or Demand Drafts favouring the name above, payable at Chennai, may be sent to:

Ms Gouthami

Travel Another India

AB 50, Anna Nagar, Chennai – 600 040, India

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[1] The exact nature of capital will be defined based on the legal status of the entity by April 2013.