Today, in this hedonistic lifestyle, Rashmi Sawant a young lady is passionate about exploring ‘Real India’. During her childhood they travel from ST bus to Karwar would turn round the corner to enter the Kumta bus stand as children, They would eagerly look out of the window, spot their grandfather standing at the door and wave out to him. Swollen feet, swollen eyes would not deter them from rushing eagerly into the house.(Nature)
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He would welcome and take them straight to the room where succulent jackfruit would be waiting to be devoured. Hmm! Delicious! The next 2 months of summer holidays would pass away in bliss. Their afternoons were spent in the Aangan, courtyard, helping grandmothers to make papads and in the evenings watching all their aunts who weave the aaboli garlands on banana fiber.
She realizes that if anything that keeps her grounded is those childhood days spent at her grandparents home running riot in the Aangan, getting muddy, climbing the mango trees to pluck raw mangoes, drawing water from the well, blowing into the funnel to light fire to the wood, the aromas of early morning, grandfather clearing the Aangan of fallen dry leaves.
Rasmi parents migrated to Mumbai in the early sixties. For her children, the grandparent’s home in another city home in Mumbai. She has often felt the anxiety within her to give those experiences as a child that she had, to her city-bred, mall driven kids. She knows, like her, many parents are aware of the pitfalls of city life and look for every small opportunity to ‘get away’.
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Her journey began in 2000 when she got the chance to showcase Indian folk arts in the Edinburgh festival. When she visited Edinburgh for the first time, she could understand the scale of the festival and the revenue this festival could generate for the city and its people. An estimated 5 million tourists are thronging the city in August. Every home gets converted into bed and breakfast. She realized the strength of the B&B concept.
When she returned to India, she launched the Stay with an Indian family concept in Sindhdurgh. This is a step beyond Bed and breakfast. This was the concept for homestays. Hence that was the birth of her company Culture Aangan.
Culture Aangan is a strong belief. For her, it’s a movement. She genuinely feels that rural India can be self-sustainable through tourism. Responsible tourism can pave the way for rural development. It can bring dignity to labour. Dignity to occupations like agriculture, fishing, pottery, stone cutter etc. which are essential elements of our social life. The city people have today, gone away from the earth. The earth, which feeds and sustains us. And we are seeing the repercussions. she always remembers, when the man had first landed on the moon, Maharashtra’s first Chief Minister, Shri Yashwant Rao Chavan’s had given a speech on the All India Radio. He had cautioned the citizens that it’s a good thing man has made progress in science, but even while on the moon he still needs food to sustain and that food only a farmer can grow. So let’s make our farmers strong.
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The base of Culture Aangan is to acknowledge everyone’s presence and rightful place on this earth. An ant and an elephant; both are important to nature.
Culture Aangan was launched in May 2005. For her everything was trial and error. There were no precedents. Every home in rural India has an Aangan i.e courtyard. Aangan plays a very significant role. Marriages are fixed, the child learns to write the first alphabet, Satyanarayan pooja is performed there, ladies make papads and pickles in the Aangan were it is a mini cultural hub. Hence the name Culture Aangan was given to their company.
Rural tourism, the word though sounding ominous, is very simple. It is nothing but “Staying with an Indian family”. It is creating an opportunity for the traveller to holiday in a different way. Rural tourism is connecting with our roots.
India, in the 21st century, is poised to take off. With a vibrant past, a pulsating present and a promising future, today it is good to be an Indian in a fast-shrinking world. For every westerner, easterner and the young NRI, India is an enigma to reconnect with and rediscover.
Thus, the tourism industry along with the entertainment industry will be the most thriving industries of 2020. Travel to India has come of age. From the mere Golden Triangle (Delhi-Jaipur-Agra) tourism in India has matured to niche interests like spiritual, health etc.
The tourist figures tell them that majority of tourists are still wanting the regular sightseeing locations; while the financial figures stand testimonial to the fact that tourism to any place cascades into churning the entire economy of that region. Every rupee spent on any tourism activity has a multiplier effect 9 times. In that sense developing rural tourism holds huge potential. Rural India is vast and exquisitely striking with immense tourism opportunities.
The tourist is now becoming more conscious of the impact of her travel on the environment and also the community at large. Increasingly, the tourist worldwide is looking for opportunities to offset the carbon emittance her travel to any region may have incurred. Development of rural tourism is the development of communities.
Many feel that building a resort modelled to look like a village in rural tourism. But in actual sense, rural tourism is direct interaction with the rural folk. It is developing homestays in rural homes, developing rural activities handled by local, rural people.
City travellers are hungry for something new. They have already been to popular destinations, seen all the possible hotels, casinos, swimming pools, malls, discotheques. They have partied on the beaches till hours. What is new?
It is to realize that a day can be spent without a PS or a visit to the mall or the internet or gaming.
Rural experiences can be simple experiences ranging from learning to weave garlands on banana fibre to go for fishing with the fishermen to donning the mask and performing in the folk theatre, to just aimlessly cycling, swimming in the river, swinging from the trees to just lazing on the chatai in the afternoon. It is gorging on the delicious traditional recipes and not feeling guilty about the calories. All this you can do while staying with the local family.
The recent pandemic has proven to us the devastation that has caused to nature in the last 60 years. It has also brought to the forefront of the humongous issue of migrants. Rural tourism if developed sustainably, can generate additional livelihoods, stem migration and conserve arts and crafts for future generations.
One successful example is their extensive work with the Pinguli tribal puppeteers. A dying art, with our sustained efforts, has not only been revived and also getting international status and today the entire village is involved in conserving the art.
Rural, sustainable tourism conserves communities, work traditions, art/ craft forms, nature and natural resources. The impact is deeper and wider.
Tags: #casinos, #development, #environment, #gergreengetgrowing, #gngagritech, #greenstories, #malls, #natural, #rural, #ruralpeople, #swimmingpools
