The seeker
As a ten-year old child, Dhanua of Koylala was taken to the johad to obtain the blessing of the residing deity. The water in the johad was still and blue. When he got married at the age of 20, he accompanied his bride to make a parikrama of the johad. "It was buried in pebbles. The forests had vanished. In all probability, the residing god also deserted the johad,' remembers Dhanua, now at a ripe old age of 80.
"The god did not bless me, so I had to migrate for work,' he says. He was in Delhi, transporting gunny bags 12 hours a day when Mahatma Gandhi was killed in 1948. "My agricultural land was barren within 10 years of the disappearance of forests on the Aravalli,' Dhanua explains. "When I left my village my father was crying. He told me that we had become naukar (servants) from landlords. He also asked me to search for a solution for the problem in Delhi.'
In 1986, he decided not to migrate anymore. "Because people from the Tarun Bharat Sangh told us the story of Gopalpura and the wisdom of johads. I decided to work to secure water in the village,' he says.
He, along with another villagers, convinced the village to volunteer labour in restoring an old johad. "His dedication helped the villagers to dream of a better life,' says Kanheyalal of Bhaonta.
"When Mahatma Gandhi was killed, I remember somebody saying that the slogan of Swaraj (self-rule) was also killed with him,' says Dhanua. When the late Indira Gandhi was married, he was still a daily-wage labourer. "Time did not change for me. So I started thinking
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