Pledgefive: Ranveri – The Road, the Ring and the Ringmaster!!!!

Note: Ranveri (Khurd), my native place is around 250kms from Mumbai and around 30kms from Billimora in the southern part of Gujarat. (http://village.org.in/Ranverikhurd )

Like most kids who were born in the pre-digital era, summer vacations usually meant spending April and May at your native place. Whilst it’s difficult to remember when I started to like the place and the rural lifestyle suffice to say it was from a very early age. So through the late 90’s and early 2000’s travel to Ranveri meant 1) Train travel from Mumbai to Billimora 2)Bus Travel from Billimora to Dholikuwa or Kharoli (3kms or 2kms from our house) and 3) Bullock Cart ride home or in later years bicycle ride. Train travel from Mumbai to Billimora was usually peaceful and people were far more considerate then they are today. Bus travel from Billimora to Dholikuwa could end up being erratic at times but was by and peaceful. However at most times for my Dad/Mom/Kaki it would be a task to manage 3 kids who were 3 years apart in term of age.

Once you got to the place there was nothing much to do. Most of the time was spent playing at home, games ranged from carom, cards, cycling and others. Once in a fortnight you got a chance to go to the nearby market (Dholikuwa) where bare essentials (pulses/grains/basic farsan items like Khaman etc) were available which were mostly unbranded/regional brands. As kids there was nothing pulling us to the market apart from may be salted peanuts or sugarcane juice. Electricity used to be extremely erratic in those times and if there was some issue, people would have to walk up 3-4kms to catch hold of an electrician or cycle towards in later years. Electrician would come and check the fault if there was a major issue, parts were available only 20kms in Chikhali which was a slightly bigger market/central place, just off NH8 (Mumbai-Delhi Highway). This meant a downtime of 3-4 days in some cases. This onetime I remember we had to get our bullock cart repaired; the place was around 15kms from our native. It was like a day picnic where-in we left at 7.00am only to return back at 06.30pm. I remember in the good old days around 2000-2001 when i went to my native place with my friends we had to work with clock perfection, Train has to reach at X hours, catch the bus at Y hours and ensure you reach of time. This onetime we reached Dholikuwa at 8.00pm after catching a late evening train from Mumbai; and true Mumbaikars were taken aback when the whole market had shut down and it dawned upon us that we would most likely have to sleep empty stomach that night. Luckily we had a Panipuri guy who was about to call it a day; he managed to give us some puris filled with whatever was left behind. Essentially life was slow, small issues would take days to get resolved; there was barely any form of entertainment.

Cut to 2003/2004 two major events started taking shape which would change India and its rural landscape forever. 1)NDA Government under Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayeeji started focusing very aggressively on infrastructure development (1998 to 2003) especially roads 2)Mobiles made their way into India with insanely high tariffs of Rs.32/minute or so. At the same-time there was an RSS Pracharak who mysteriously had survived vacating his Chief Ministers chair in the aftermath of Gujarat riots in 2002. Determined to change the face and catapult Gujarat to the next level, CM Narendra Modi got down to serious business. He worked tirelessly to fix the power situation, agri situation, roads and other infrastructure over the next 13 years or so that he remained Gujarat Chief Minister. However this blog is not about Narendra Modi but how his policies and work affected and changed the economic outcomes of the entire state. Ranveri could be any other rural place in Gujarat or for that matter any other place in a decently doing state in India. However I write about Ranveri because I have experienced it first hand over last 30 years or so.

By the middle of 2000-2010 decade things had started to move. Roads had started improving big-time in Gujarat and had started reaching the interiors (places which were 30-40kms away from National Highways). This meant 2 things 1) People were happy to travel longer distances in search of work and 2) it saved a lot of time. This just propelled the entire economic engine in my view – people could travel more, meant people could do more work in a day, could travel longer distances for more remunerative work, small standalone operators like Electricians, Carpenters, Construction workers all had more work. As mobiles became more affordable and calling more reliable it gave a massive fillip to this economic engine which has already started rolling. The economic engine could now propel at meter gauge pace v/s narrow gauge earlier (There is a narrow gauge line which still runs from Billimora to Waghai - http://indianexpress.com/article/india/bilimora-waghai-narrow-gauge-train-completes-104-years-all-you-need-to-know-about-it-4750130).

Just a small example on what a massive transition we have seen over last 10 years or so. We drove to Ranveri from Mumbai around 3 months back (this I end up doing around 15-20 times a year). When we reached my native place there was some issue with the electricity. Steps were simple 1) Call the electrician (mobile made it possible) 2) He zoomed his 2W and reached the place in 10mins (roads made this possible) and in next 20 minutes electricity was fixed. Efficiency of the electrician had gone up multi-fold – He doesn’t have to wait for state transport bus to come, he can be reached at any-place/any-time during the day on his mobile. And this electricity example can be virtually applicable to anything else car repair, caterer, trader, construction worker.

As I have mentioned earlier in the blog, this would be true about any part of this country. Why is the ringmaster so important? Whilst this could have happened in a lot of parts of this country the impact on Gujarat has been of a different magnitude altogether both in terms of its speed and its coverage. Over last 15 years or so I have had the privilege to travel across India either for work or for holidays and I can safely say there isn’t any state/region which has seen this rapid transformation ( if there are I havent been made aware of it till now). Roads are made keeping in mind the traffic situation 20-25 years down the line (so called state highways which cover internal roads operate at 10-15% of their capacity in my view and yet they are made today).Government departments have embraced technology much before rest of the country. Gujarat is one of the few states where Agri power is available only 8 hours a day despite being a power surplus state and farmers pay market rates without any subvention/cross-subsidisation.

There has been an entire metamorphosis and how. Road from Chikali to Ranveri which would take an hour to drive now takes around 15-20 minutes. You can continue zooming at 70-80kms/hour easily. Dholikuwa today is a much bigger market v/s what it was 10 years back. While it’s difficult to hazard a guess on how many people the market services, my guess is it won’t be more than 5-10k. Yet everything from Cheese to dressing sauces to fruit juices are available. There are 8-10 traders stocking goods worth 15-25 lakhs each (some would be even stocking worth a crore). Roads are broader and could match Mumbai city highways easily with around 10% the traffic. Commercial complexes have come up, Restaurants, 4-5 Petrol pumps (in vicinity of less than 5 kms or so). My dad tells me it’s reminiscent of how some smaller places like Virar/Vasai were in late 1990’s.

Given that most of my friends are in early to mid-30’s whenever we travel we Ranveri with kids along its always important for parents to be sure that milk, medicines, kids products are easily available. They are now available a plenty. Shops are open till 10.00pm. Life is a lot more happening in Ranveri/Dholikuwa then it was 15 years back. However people still find time for friends, family functions. Money is not the single motivator as yet. Bania/Money Lender Credit still runs deep in villages even today.

In my view there are anywhere between 1000 to 5000 Ranveri’s waiting to happen in India over next 10 years or so. Irrespective of which Government is in power the reform process is now going to be unwavering. People will demand it. The youth today is restless and they will ask questions to the political establishments.