Nobody who has the experience of visiting an isolated and dense forest without a recognisable route inside; giant trees forming dark chamber on ground with their branches forming an opaque canopy; malarial mosquitoes and water clad patches and most importantly, a fear accompanying you all along about being attacked by wild animals and snakes, would perhaps never be ready to repeat the experience.
But here is a school and an ashram in an equally dense and deep forest in the Maoist prone Kankadahad area in Dhenkanal district, where about 100 tiny tots are reading from class one to ten, with least fear of the surrounding and the creatures.
The school is run by a few self-dedicated youths, both men and women, to the life of a hermitage. They never mind if they do not get any remuneration for their work, nor do they care about what they have to take in their meal on a particular day. Their disciples too have a similar line of thinking and life style.
Called Iringa ashram and school, the institution speaks for itself a spirit of brotherhood and courage, a readiness to sacrifice mundane comfort and an ideology to live by income from manual labour driving the inmates and students staying there. To some extent, one can feel the impact of the Gandhian ideology on the entrepreneurs who are running the project.
Initially, a Baba had chosen this location for meditation and penance and had set up the ashram near a wiry flow of water from a nearby mountain. The flow is perennial and has formed fairly a large pool with crystal clear water and beautiful lilies and water hyacinths.
Though the Baba used to live on doles for some time, he hit upon an idea of starting agriculture and growing vegetable there in order that he becomes self sufficient. The idea clicked. He made clearings and raised land suitable for farming by making a lot of hard works. Since the soil was fertile and there was no dearth of water, the paddy and vegetable he grew were a great success.
The Baba then began to receive followers and with a few years the ashram huts grew large with members increasing in number. The Baba had long travails of staying in the forlorn and wild beast infested area.
There was no single route to the forest from the nearby human settlements. The Baba made sure that at least a small route is carved out through the forest to connect with the outside world. But after the route was ready, the Baba had to invite real troubles.
Thugs and browbeaters came to the ashram and robbed him of vegetables and paddy. Still undeterred, the Baba single-mindedly worked upon growing the ashram and setting up a school. His disciples agreed to volunteer teaching in the school and soon began a school on a small hut of thatched roof and muddy floor. But where are the students to be found and the money to run the schoolIJ The Baba and his followers had firm faith on a living of self- sustenance. They doubled up their efforts and increased the cultivable area for which they had to make hard toil. The ashram’s economy grew sound with good crop yield and a part of the income from it was earmarked to run the school expenses.
The serene atmosphere of the ashram and school attracted people nearby. The disciplined life and ideology of the ashram inmates impressed the outsiders who offered to send their kids to the school.
The Baba made arrangement for lodging and boarding of the students. If anybody fell sick, the Baba had his Ayurvedic medicines which he prepared from leaves, roots and herbs.
Once anybody got admitted into the school and became an inmate of the ashram, he or she has to follow the principles there. Austerity, simplicity, faith on God, self discipline and self sufficiency were what the Baba and the school teachers stressed upon and made their students to imbibe.
“The school has developed a pucca building now with tiled roof and cemented floor. There are nearly several dozens of boarders in the ashram, who have come here from various parts of the State. But still there is no motorable road to the school, nor has the ashram and school a permanent boundary, which is badly needed here to ward off the wild beasts, especially the elephants, boars and bears etc.
Besides, there is no electricity provision to the ashram, while the school has not received any Government grant yet,” said Chhabi Baba, chief of the ashram.
He added that the founder of the ashram and his Guru has already died but he has made sure that none of the ashram inmate violates the mentor’s principles. A tomb has been built on the place near the ashram where the body of the Baba has been buried, said Chhabi Baba.
Outlining the apathy of the authorities, he said though various top Government officials have visited the ashram at various points of time, none was interested to provide any assistance for its development.
Even, police officials had visited the ashram inquiring about the Maoist rebels, suspecting that the Red rebels might seek their hideout in the terrains but in vain, he said.
Notably, the ashram area is in the Mahabirod forest range having connection with the dense forest of Keonjhar which is Maoist infested.