MakerYatra was an enlightening journey to explore, connect and learn from the rural India.The first MakerYatra, one of its kind, happened in Idar, a town surrounded by rocky mountains of Aravali range in North Gujarat. In 5 days, we visited more than 15 villages. We explored amazing talents in agriculture, robotics, aviation, engineering and education which will be a life-changing experience. From going to an organic farm to visiting a man who created his own parahelicopter, from visiting an ayurvedic medicine production facility to taking a walk in the first village of that area to bring on the drip irrigation system, we had a huge spectrum of experiences. It was a journey to get together to feel what talent is lying unidentified by the world by being a connecting link to take them for scaling up their insight for a larger good by making a connection with the right people at the right time. Participants were from a very diverse background from all walks of life to get insights into the growing rural community thinking for the betterment of rural India. Ranging from a Grade 6 student to a scientist from IPR(Institute of Plasma Research), the participants brought with them their diverse perspectives. We were received warmly everywhere we went. The things we experienced, the people we met, the sights we beholded, would stay with us a very very long time ahead. Day 1 We started our journey on 19 th of December, 2018 from UniqYOU International School, Idar in a tractor. Yes, all the Yatris (the participants),
"We can't change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust our sails to always reach our destination"
Day 1
We started our journey on 19 th of December, 2018 from UniqYOU International School, Idar in a tractor. Yes, all the Yatris (the participants), would be to travel in the trolley of the tractor all the 5 days, carrying their own beddings and utensils.
Place 1: Swagat Organic Farm
h3>Swagat Organic Farm, headed by a farmer named Mr. Vinod Patel, was one of the first places in Gujarat where organic farming was started. We were graciously welcomed by him. Organic farming is Organic farming is an alternative agricultural system which originated early in the 20th century in reaction to rapidly changing farming practices. It relies on fertilizers of organic origin and places emphasis on environment friendly techniques. In general, organic standards are designed to allow the use of naturally occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances. This visit made me aware of what type of food I should be eating. As it turned out, organic farming required lots of paperwork and the certification period is of almost 3 years. The ground has to be detoxified was a period of 3 years, in which you cannot grow anything useful on it. It is a big gamble for a farmer, because even after detoxifying his field, there is no surety of certification from the government. It also requires skilled labour, which is costly as compared to normal, unskilled labour. Therefore, many farmers are vary of organic farming today. But Vinodbhai braved all these odds and started his dream project. He knew that adapting new technology always brings its challenges. Vinodbhai says that the wait for 3 years taught him something we all have forgotten in our busy day to day lives - patience. Bill Gates once famously said that “Great thing take time“. Today, Vinodbhai’s fields yield much more than they earlier used to, plus now they are making more than double per quintal as compared to what they were earning before, and the crops are medically superior in quality.
Oveshbhai Dodiya
A resident of the village Mangarh in Gujarat, this 9th class failed man made his own paramotor (a helicopter of sorts). This man had a simple dream: “I want to fly”. But a scarcely very few of us do follow our dreams, often mixed in the hustle bustle of our private and professional life. Through his strong grit and determination and years of persistence, he has achieved this dream. After attending his shop every day from 9 to 5, he took time everyday for his passion. He took apart his bike’s engine system and further redeveloped it. Oveshbahi possesses an understanding for machines comparable to the best automobile engineering professors. It is said that the first time he flew, almost all the villagers were on their roof to witness this. We were invited to his house, were he had displayed all his previous attempts. Oveshbhai proudly states that he has crash landed 7 times, sometimes even in lush green crop fields, but even the farmer, whose field was partially destroyed, said that he was more concerned about Oveshbhai’s safety than his own field. Learning, not hiding, from failures is something we all should learn from him. A very humble man, he answered all our fanboy questions with particular delight. We were lucky, as it was one of his “fly days”. The sight of him taking off, with those thundering roar of motors, amidst a huge appaulding assemble, was a sight to behold. Though we didn’t actually fly with him, nobody can say we didn’t feel it. It seemed that Oveshbhai wasn’t flying alone, we too were there. Seeing him fly instilled, or rather reinstilled a sense of purpose in ourselves
