Coconut Climbers- upwardly mobile Indian women!

The Hindu Feb.26, 2012:

Women of Kerala are scaling new heights. Meet Reena, who has been trained to pluck coconuts.

Those crossing the Pallikkara railway gate in Kasaragod cannot but notice this entrepreneur, surrounded by heaps of tender nuts, most of which she herself plucks. She sells about 200 nuts daily and earns around Rs. 1,000.
“After attending the coconut-climbing programme, I'm able to pluck nuts myself and save on the harvesting cost of Rs.3 apiece,” the mother of two, who has studied up to Class X, says. She plans to form a women's self-help group to make coconut-based, value-added products such as tender coconut lassi.
Secure & independent
“Apart from making me financially secure and independent, this helps me gain self-confidence and self-esteem,” she says. Her average work-day lasts 12 hours. Whenever she gets the opportunity, she works as a bus driver as well.
Indeed, with traditional coconut-pluckers turning a vanishing tribe in the State, getting the nut down from atop had in recent years turned out to be a headache. There have been efforts by individual inventors, aided by government agencies, to design and commercialise mechanical climbers that would enable virtually anyone to go up the trunk. And some models have indeed proved themselves up to the task.
The tougher part was to get people interested in acquiring the skill. The Coconut Development Board, working through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) of the Kerala Agricultural University and Krishi Bhavans, recently came up with a scheme to train groups of people, including women, to use the devices to climb and pluck the nuts.
Women are better
And, belying expectations, women have proved to be quite good at it. In recent months, a large number of women, primarily in the northern parts of the State, have been trained in going up the tree using the mechanised climbing devices.
Women who complete the programme have also been trained and encouraged to take up coconut-related small businesses that they can run on their own. Several of them have started tender coconut parlours – confident and competent enough to harvest the nuts themselves and sell them from roadside units, often with some value-addition.
The KVK in Kasaragod, attached to the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), has organised nine training programmes in which 180 rural youth have participated. The fifth batch of the programme gained media attention as it was an all-woman batch.

Emmae Swami

I was sitting next to a large, bushy mustached, Kannadiga on my flight to Detroit. For me it was a routine boring trip, but this man was obviously having the time of his life and it seemed this was his first flight abroad. We struck up a conversation as soon as the lunch trays had been cleared, and when I asked him what he was going to America for, he produced a flashy business card. The card had a large picture as above, and the words, Emmae Swami. On the back was a Mysore address and a long title, which said:

Abhinava Mahisha Chakravarthy, Shastraartha Visharada, Jyothishvarenya

Emmae Swami, M.A.,

23, Palace Agrahara, Mysore 570013, India

I was curious. My sister-in-law had told me how there was a steady stream of spiritualists and temple-mongers to India's culture-hungry American diaspora-agglomerations, in Toronto, Chicago, Pittsburgh, LA and so on. But this guy was even more extraordinary than I had imagined. I asked him how long he had been active as a swami.

He told me his story: His parents had named him Swami, and as a boy, he had little interest in books or degrees. He chose to join Hanuman Akhada and became a successful wrestler, and earned some money carrying drinking water uphill to Chamundi temple. After he grew that smart mustache and hung around Chamundi temple, looking for tourists, he was often complimented for his resemblance to the hero whose statue welcomes visitors to the hill temple. Soon, he was advised by the temple priest that if only he could get to talk smartly about mythological stories and stuff, he could start earning a fortune as a tour guide. So he did a correspondence course in MA Indology, and promptly printed a card Swami, MA.

But fate had bigger plans. One charming white lady tourist asked him to narrate the story of Mahishasura, and when he concluded the story of how Durga Ma had vanquished the demon, the lady had remarked, "is it true, that all these demons were in fact great saints, born to take part in a mythical drama that showed the victory of good over evil, and they would then return to heaven?"

Eureka! Well, why not become Emmae Swami? And so was born the new Swami. That lady had sponsored his trip to US of A and he was going to start a Emmae movement there.

(By the way Emmae in Kannada means a buffalo).

I asked Emmae Swami what was his spiritual teaching? His words had profound insight:

You see, Mahisha (means the same as Emmae) was no ordinary hero. Goddess Durga, with infused energies of Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva, was needed to deal with him. Even the buffalo who carries Yama, the God of Death, is a saint. He is constantly in the presence of Death, and such intimacy confers deep spiritual insight. Of all the animals in creation, the only animal who has conquered all the six enemies- Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada and Matsarya is Mahisha. He can withstand any attack, rain and storm, or fire and flood. He can face any raging bull or even an escaped Mysore Zoo tiger or elephant. He will not move off the road even when KSRTC buses honk like crazy. He will not mind raiding any garden and eating up all the tender leaves and flowers. Such equanimity is possible only for a realized master.

The moral is very simple. Live like a buffalo, be impervious to worldly worries, and you shall reach heaven.

I was truly moved. I asked Swami what was the day of consecration of the Emmae temple in Detroit. He said it was on the next New Moon, and the temple had the biggest statue of Mahisha in the world.. a 100 ft. fibre glass marvel.

Glory to Emmae Swami!!