The Finale....

All good things must come to an end. So did Katai yesterday evening - there were two khets in morning of 16th - one at baharadurgarh (~ 10 acres) and another one at Krishi Shaala (Yamuna Banks ~ 28 acres). All General party male members were supposed to go to Bahadurgarh and the ladies + DEI staff and students were supposed to go to Kirshi Shaala. As it happened, all men folk except ones in Arz went to Bahadurgarh. This created a problem because as the wheat was being cut by ladies there werent enough bundle parties.

The Yamuna side khet is 1.5 KM long stretch along the Yamuna bank - it stretches about 0.4 km towards Yamuna. The land seems fertile enough - the khet close to Yamuna are on greyish sand - you dont really need to cut the wheat - it just gets pulled off - and you just dust the sand off it.

Eventually everyone realized the mistake, after cutting and bundling (but not loading ) the 10 acres in Bahadurgarh, men folk came to Krishi shala. GH gave instructions to load 40 trucks only after which the khet were supposed to be called off in the morning. I do remember seeing atleast 600 people claiming chyavanprash last evening with a promise to work till the end of the khet - however by 11 AM - there were porbably 300-400 of them left.

We started again at 2:30 AM - gents loaded off the Bahardurgarh katai first, Ladies did Binai in the Krishi shala - we loaded off all bundles into waiting trucks as GH sat in his scorpio and watched. All ladies left at 6:00 PM and gents soon afterwards for evening satsang. It was quite a site when ladies were making their way out, the dust which was being generated was like a huge cloud which seemed to have covered the door.

So there it is - 350+ acres cut from 9th to 16th of April. I couldnt get a chance to go and work at thresher this time - but probably next time. It has left quite a few marks on the body - but generally it wasnt as bad probably because you were just mentally prepared.

I think I will be back for Rice Plantations and Rice katai to write more on the blog. at least one of us (Ritu or me) will be there.

The 'Ideal' Sickle

Since the age of mechanized reapers is not going to dawn so soon in DB, I did some background research on what is the best sickle around. So far, using a traditional sickle (not the chinese ones - but the ones which have been in use since Bronze age), the ideal ergonomic design based on a study sponsored by ICMR but conducted by National Institute of Occupational Health in Ahmedabad seem to indicate that following is best specs for reducing biochemical stresses so that human performance can be improved

(i) sickle weight - 200 g;

(ii) total length of sickle - 33 cm;

(iii) handle length - 11 cm;

(iv) handle diameter - 3 c cm;

(v) radius of blade curvature - 15 cm;

(vi) blade concavity - 5 cm;

(vii) serrated sickle: tooth pitch - 0.20 cm and tooth angle - 60 degrees;

(viii) ratio of the length of cutting surface to chord length - 1.20.

Now I should try and grab two sickles from DB and try and benchmark against these numbers. Will be interesting to see how the new and old ones score.

Multiple Fronts

as mentioned in my previous posts, today 4 fronts were opened for katai - however GH decided to send 50 strong Katai folks to khet behind engineering college hostel. I also went in that - and we got a bit khet to cut on our own - took us about 1 hour to do the needful as all of the people who went were good at Katai. Punjab folks have also started coming in for part-II of Bhandara and that definitely helps. I wonder in the age of outsourcing their own khets to Bihari labourers on contract how come these folks maintain high level of fitness.

anyway, it is always an out of world experience to have GH standing next to you in Khet as he maintains oversight on what is going on. You work with trepedition that you dont do anything wrong but you also work either work at 3 times the normal pace or some people just drop their pace to 1/3 and dont seem to move at all (esp when they are at a vandage point).

all done today - loading still continuing - but 3 hours of Katai has left me sore and injured a bit - so I came back after having Mathri and Gud. It is incidentally quite nice to work without excessive supervision - i.e. not have too many volunteers barking left right and center at you. Thankfully most volunteers seem to have been put on duty on Ladies Khet - where their own experiences have not been very good to say the least.

New Pothis

Could not help writing this, but lets look at what new Pothis have appeared in last 2-3 years
1. Updated Discourses on Radhasoami Faith
2. Writings and Speeches of GH Sahabji Maharaj
3. Directory of Institutes in Dayalbagh
4. Discourses on Education
5. Rozzana Vakhyaat (Hindi Translation of Diaries of Sahabji maharaj)
6. Special souvenir for GH MB Laal Sahab
7. same above in Hindi

Apart from this, Publication department makes sure ***all pothees*** are available for sale in Bhandara - it is quite funny that a lot of them are not sold out even - dont know why. For example, when was in last time (and I came to senses and started observing when I was in class 6th) - did I see "Bhagwad Gita ke Updesh", or "Yatharth Prakash" being on sale......

all around environment of extreme dynamism, optimism, innovation, discpline and a sense of purpose...

Interesting article related to katai

Check out this link :
ergonomic evaluation of rural women while performing wheat harvesting activity - it has a few interesting things
1. what I refered to as master stroke is fairly prevelant activity in rural india - they do katai in morning time and bundles in evening
2. an average women squats and moves 2.2 kms/day (8 hours) harvesting - 1.7 Kms while tying Bundles over 2 hours.
3. They make approx 50 bundles in 2 hours.

I think in DB terms, the bundles they mention are fall smaller than what we make. But this points out the making bundles is more heavier exercise that cutting - quite rightly then this work is assigned to menfolk in our case.

2 days left to go?

For tomorrow's katai (15th Apr) - there will be parallel work in 4 locations - DB ladies will go to Premnagar line-1, General Party to Karyavir Nagar Khet, Haryana Brothers in front of Radha Nagar, all ladies to Pnjabi Bagh. I assume after this only one day of massive katai will be left on Jamuna banks - the land we aquired last year. That 150 acres is supposed to have provided excellent Daal, Wheat, Vegetables all year round.

Could not help noticing this major news item - - world Food and Agriculture head annoucing that world has just enough reserver stocks to survive for next 2-3 months. The situation is so much better in Dayalbagh. There is regular announements for DB residents that the "home delivery" of wheat is being done. all other 3 agra branches regular field workers are also being given abundant wheat supply.

Day after Bhandara

Today the work is near Kuan No 4, Again hordes of people - and some folks like me - who are there just for katai feel a bit lost as we have to give our Daranti to ladies and just make bundles. Get to load a single bundle per truck - rest of time we just do Binai - wonder if this is how it will continue. Today apart from Bhandara crowd, there is day off for DEI students and staff - so lot of work got done. will update the counts of acres cut in some time.