Shishir ku.Sarangi.

Sodh yatra is the journey to explore knowledge. The explicit meaning is to find out traditional knowledge amongst the rural poor and make it popular. To bring up the utility of countryside knowledge. To recognise the traditional knowledge holders while walking past their village, and to inspire other around them to express their traditional knowledge.

Objective

According to me I think the objectives were as follows:
* To recognise traditional knowledge, know it and encourage the person who has it
* To emphasise on indigenous process
* Respect all traditional knowledge holders irrespective of age
* Exchange of knowledge among the sodhyatris of various states
* To utilise local resources to make the progress of the villages easier

My impression before and after Sodhyatra

This was my first padyatra. What I gathered from Mr Ranjan Mahapatra and from other materials that it is about exploring traditional knowledge while walking. I was not very enthusiastic. I was not intending to go either. At best, I wanted to visit Koraput as a tourist. This impression was there even after meeting all the sodhyatris. But I wanted to meet Prof Anil Gupta because the interaction with him could have given me some insight about my career and I was not particularly convinced about the Sodhyatra.

All that changed when I met Prof Anil Gupta at last. Whatever he told me gave me joy, encouragement and exhilaration. When I listened to the word like sympathy and Sambedana I was excited again.
I decided to have a successful journey out of the sodhyatra by learning something.

How I made it a success

Self-Courage, help from my friends and curiosity to learn - in brief, were the factors that helped me to learn. People who inspired me were Prof anil Gupta, Prof. Debiprasad Das, B.Arti, Meenati, Goutamjee,Vivekanandajee, Balramje,Zittu,Pallenvalujee, Krushak Laxman Das

My learning

* Learnt about the objective of sodhyatra
* Village knowledge register, child journalists
* Learnt that people do things without any personal benefit
* Village unity in contributing labour
* Some words like enthusiasm, curiosity, energy, excitement, sympathy, tolerance, respect, extension etc
* Village progress and development would be possible when the money in the village will remain here itself
* Many have completed the sodhyatra but the sodhyatra inside should not ever stop
* To reduce the use of plastic
* Learnt about 35 varieties of dishes
* Gain various knowledge & new grassroots level technology from slideshow. Out of various slide the AMPHIBIOUS BICYCLE & PADDLE SPRAYER vibrant my mind.

Prof. Anil Gupta told that the way we are creating dams to prevent wastage and destruction of water; we should build Knowledge Bridge to stem the erosion of traditional knowledge.

In Tribal museum more than 100 local rice variety was a memorable experience. I decided to build such types of seed banks in our locality (operational area in Keonjhar and Dhenkanal).

My dissatisfaction:
* Though there was the involvement of three villages in construction of dam in Mali Doliamba, but one of our Shodhyatris honoured only one of them. I could not understand the reason behind it.
* I am very much unhappy with the time & work management style (i.e. no proper planning to utilise the rest of the time when the meeting will be finished before time).
* The concluding ceremony of Shodh yatra was not so soul- touching because I expected more word from Professor.
* Required more number of roadside meeting & interaction among the Shodh yatries.

Last but not least, I decided to do the following things-

-Initiate village knowledge register in our village.
-Collect the traditional seed & form a seed bank.
-Respect the centurions & freedom fighters.
-Train child Journalists
-Always try & think about the development of the rural people.