the art of cheating

the art of cheating

Sometimes one needs to take a break from the work that one does sitting like an automaton in the artifically lit confines of ones office. As a part of the drive towards this end, I had been last weekend to a beautiful place - ICRISAT, The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. It is a nonprofit, non-political organization that does innovative agricultural research and capacity building for sustainable development with a wide array of partners across the globe. ICRISATs mission is to help empower 600 million poor people to overcome hunger, poverty and a degraded environment in the dry tropics through better agriculture. ICRISAT focusses on 5 crops predominant in the semi arid tropics, which around 60 percent of the world population is dependent on.

 

Set up in 1972, with the help of the state govt. of Andhra Pradesh and the United Nations, this place does truly present a picture of ideal collaboration between various agencies. The place is so quiet, so serene, so peaceful that one cannot help but fall in love with it. How I wished I didnt have to come back! And now that I think of it, I wasnt even prepared to go there in the first place. And after a stay of 2 days and 2 nights, I still cant get over it.

 

I had last seen a place like this perhaps some 10-12 years back, when Id been to my village last. I havent been there ever since and from what Ive heard, its no longer the same village that I used to know. It has changed drastically and dramatically. No more can be seen the dusty roads in summer or muddy ones in rains. They have been replaced by shiny black roads. And its no longer as green as it used to be. More houses have come up in their place.

But coming here, I felt as if I was back in my village, amid the green fields and the small forests. Of course, we didnt have the animals and birds that abounded this place.

 

I went cycling to the lake inside the campus. On the way, I came across a petrol pump, which was ridiculously small and looked like a part of a movie set. The lake was at a distance of around 2-3 kms from our place of stay. It was not a big lake nor very well kept, but at least it was natural. And there was a small castle near the lake that now serves as a conference room. And there was a small fishing lake too. And add to it a mosque, a temple, a bird sanctuary, a golf course and a swinmming pool.

This is the picture of a Ganesha idol which is believed to a 1000 years old. It was beautifully decorated on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi.

Some path breaking research is going on in the place and I even set my eyes on a couple of white robed people hunched over a plant with some instruments, just like the ones, one sees in the movies. The glass houses, the gene stores, the qurantined houses, the resource centres and the agri-parks impressed me very much. As a person, who hated Biology in school and just about managed to pass in the subject (solely by the art of cheating of course), I was actually surprised that I wanted to know more about this place.
And we had a guide, a gentleman scientist Mr. Kutty (sadly, his name I longer remember) who was only enthusiastic to explain in great detail  what work were they doing and what their goals were.

I am not a person too much into games, but it was indeed fun to take part in group activities with another 24 people who I hardly knew. And by the time the programme ended, Id already begun to like some of them. It was sad that the programme couldnt be extended any further. It was an experience which I might not forget any time soon.

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Post je objavljen 04.12.2007. u 15:38 sati.