Spreading the Good News from India

[Guest guest]

Spreading the Good News from India

 

By K Venkatesh

Friday, 29 August , 2003, 15:14

 

Rajasthan could be a good idea for a holiday, what with its

monuments, palaces and the colour of history. But certainly not

during the hot Indian summer, with sunstrokes, and dehydration. But D

V Sridharan, who though past sixty is a bundle of energy, is not

someone who is deterred by anything leave alone something as trivial

as summer in Rajasthan.

"I have firmed up my plans for Rajasthan," he said, when I last met

him. I told him that it might be blazing hot, and he brushed aside my

suggestion. "I have a lot of people to meet, and many of them I

intend to track down. In some places I only have the name of the

tehsil, where they are located."

 

Sridharan, is all passion for tracking down the unsung heroes of the

Indian society. And they are all tucked away in inaccessible rural

areas and Sridharan features them on his Web site

http://www.goodnewsindia.com/

 

He is a one-man army, who edits, designs the site, meets the heroes

of India, writes about them, takes pictures with his digital camera,

and personally replies to all his fan mail.

 

"Media is full of negative stories, and if anything good gets done,

it is tucked away somewhere. I felt I had to do something and Good

News India is the outcome," he says with undiminshed pride.

 

So, how did Sridharan get the idea of a Web site? "It was on my first

journey to understand India that I stumbled upon this idea." Till his

real journey to understand India, Sridharan was a globe-trotting

marine engineer savouring the best of various countries.

 

"I came back to India, after a stint as a marine engineer and was

surprised at the prevalent cynicism, and the mute acceptance of how

India was a very corrupt country and how India could never progress,"

he said.

 

This struck Sridharan as odd.

 

"India had an ancient civilisation and things could not be so bad all

of a sudden, or is it that we don't see the other India where the

good exists," he asks.

 

His first destination was the Narmada valley and it was here that he

met two teenagers, a brother and a sister. The boy wanted to join the

Army and his sister did not even want to step out of her native

village. This got him thinking about the positive side of the Indian

psyche and led him on a journey to discover the 'good' in India.

 

"I do get many ideas from the newspapers that I scour for

information. But it is always scarce. And when anything worthwhile is

mentioned, it is tucked away in some corner," he pouts.

 

Sridharan goes all out to tell us how to meet the subjects that he

interviews. He also gives out driving directions to the village where

he has done the interview. Not only does this give great credibility

to the site, it also helps others to meet these rare achievers.

 

He talks with pride about the unsung heroes he has met during his

journeys mentioning in particular a girl from Indore, who went shop

to shop singing and collecting money for the Indian Army fighting

then in Kargil. He also recalls Thimmakka from Karnataka, who along

with her husband, planted 300 trees on a public road and took good

care of them for 45 years.

 

Sridharan is also happy at the response that his Web site and his

activities are getting from the NRIs. Many of them come to visit him

in Chennai and Sridharan spends time with them explaining the whole

concept of his website and what went behind it.

 

He has travelled over 40,000 km across India and has met hundreds of

under-reported acheivers and has narrated their stories on his Web

site. All his reports are well researched and have photographs to go

with them. Apart from driving directions, he also gives background

information and related history of the region and such activities in

many of his reports. He travels alone and as soon as he gets some

leads from a particular region, he packs his bags and heads for the

place.

 

What is his schedule? "I travel in a Qualis. I begin my day early and

then go on till evening. I never drive in the night... I also eat

light." He always travels by car to get to his story and as soon as

he reaches his destination he takes time to research on the person or

institution and then files his report. He is unhappy with what he

calls 'the quick-fix reportage' in the media. Surprisingly, he keeps

in touch with his unsung heroes and, if necesary, directs some funds

to help such good causes.

 

"I have learnt some PERL programming and it does help me," he

says. "But I am not happy with the number of persons I am meeting. I

need to meet more and there is so much of good activity which does

not get reported," he says as he plans to pack his bags soon to

Rajasthan.