Read the latest book by mitch albom that anup gave me. It’s name did not stick in my head. This book is about this person who realizes what his mom went to him when he lost her and luckily for him he gets another day with his mom and time to reconcile differences. What is weird is I was thinking about something on these lines a few days before.
How at bashir bagh papa was not very close to three of us and though mom was close her attention was divided between 9 of us. It’s is when we moved out of that protected shell of our joint family that we saw ma n dad are also vulnerable. In the 5-6 years of us away from the joint family was when we grew up together. It was like a new beginning. We could not even have a family dinner without someone getting upset. I remember once sandy and sang couldn’t stop giggling and making noise and papa was like I can’t have dinner with this noise. We all were silent for the rest of the dinner. But one time finally three of us said we can’t have dinner in such silence and took our plates upstairs. That’s when we began having noisy family dinners. The time sandy was away studying and then sang was when I got both papa and ma’s undivided attention. Though I missed both sang and sandy like crazy.
We all got a second chance of revisiting our relationships with sang and my wedding. That taught me how any place where ma, papa, sang, sandy and ross belong will be home for me forever.
Finally when I went off to Worcester to study and be around jayesh is when I learned how much Hyderabad is also a part of my identity. Though I love loa, little niko, iye, miriam, and the people at stone soup at Worcester….but Hyderabad is a part of me and makes me feel home. During this stay all the time so far in Hyderabad I would be at home at every chance I get. I do not want to be away from ma, papa, sandy and rossie. This line about how when your are miserable you make lives of people around yourself miserable. Anup said it’s cos you love yourselves more than others. I dissented cos I think sometimes when you are feeling low you can’t see the impact of that on your loved once. I know that because I have made sang and ma cry in the past but never intended to. If ever in my life id have to choose between me and the one’s I care for. I would not choose me.
Jun 28, 2007
at makthal
Im doing an offline blog because I am at Makthal and there is no internet connection in this town.
I have been in Makthal since 11th morning. The first day we stayed at the Yugantar office. It is nicely located away from the noises, traffic and pollution of the town. There is Mahila Samatha office under Yugantar office. The best part of that place was the girls who stay there. They are rescues child-laborers who stay at Mahila Samatha and are taught and fed there. There were close to 30 girls who are taught at Makthal the curriculum from 1st till 5th class in a year. One women who was a jogini is now employed by Mahila Samatha to cook and feed these girls. She also made coffee for us in the morning and evening and has amazing patience to take care of these 30 girls. These girls were very curious about us and would come up and speak to us every time they got a chance to. They initially thought I was a French person because some French people had visited them earlier and because of my telugu skills. When Padma was around she would translate. The fun thing was when Padma was not around and I would communicate with them in my broken Telugu. On the first day we just went to the bank to do the account transfer done. Then we stayed at the office and Padma slept till the evening and I was busy hanging out with these girls. In the night I went to sleep at around 11 and in 15 minutes I felt something bite m left arm that hurt a lot and left my hand swollen and red where it bit. Then I changed my position and slept and was bitten again and I changed my position, used a second sheet to cover my selves and washed my arms. After getting bitten a third time I got up and sat on a chair for two hours and tried sleeping. Around two the insects crawling on the ground seemed lesser in number and then I sweeped the floor and slept. I woke up again at 6 because of a power cut.
The second day we went to three villages, Anugonda, Muslaipally and Karni to see how the community kitchens are running. We saw the feeding happening in Anugonda and Karni. In Muslaipally they had already fed before we got there. Was sad in Kaini that some of the people who are destitute and eligible to eat in the community kitchen do not go and eat because the person who cooks in a sc woman. The people in Karni who had come to be fed were thanking us and falling at our feet saying that they were weak and starving before the community kitchen started and now they are feeling better. Two very old women who we spoke to had no family and some other’s family had migrated to work in cities. Some of them receive a pension of 200 Rs a month or free rice on Anthyodhaya card. After that we went to Makthal had lunch rested at the office for a bit and then went to Karni to interview a retired head master whose name is Lingappa who presently does agricultural work. We also took a walk to see his farm. In a small patch where he grows mangoes he has 7-8 types of mango trees. He even had blue mangoes (Neelam) that I had not seen before. From him we got leads about who are the other people we could speak to in the village the next day. We went back and this time we moved to a hotel because I did not intend to get bitten again. Felt sad moving out belongings because I would miss conversations with the girls at Mahila Samatha.
The third day we started with going to Karni at 8:30 to attend a fisher community meeting. We had gone there because we had heard that when they bid for fishing at the tank the money that gets collected goes towards development of the village. The community organizer had told us that he wanted to speak to the fisher community and the Panchayat so a part of that could be used for funding the community kitchen. It wasn’t that Yugantar is unwilling to put in the money (we have already put it in the bank account and do not plan to withdraw it) but the idea was to find means to sustain it beyond the one year project period and just check if people in this community wanted to contribute to feeing vulnerable, destitute people from there own village. They were speaking at the top of their voices to bid for an amount for the tank but were quiet and ignored when the question of contributing to the kitchen came up. Someone whispered to us that most of the money collected really goes for funding liquor at village festivals! That was it then we went back to the town. Returned in the evening to interview farmers for my study.
The last day was uneventful. We waited till noon for two sarpanches when they were to come to the bank at 10 A.M. One said at noon that he will take another two hours and we asked him not to come. The other came by half past noon. Then we left for another village from where we had to pick ‘sapota picker’ and then had lunch and got back home by evening.
I have been in Makthal since 11th morning. The first day we stayed at the Yugantar office. It is nicely located away from the noises, traffic and pollution of the town. There is Mahila Samatha office under Yugantar office. The best part of that place was the girls who stay there. They are rescues child-laborers who stay at Mahila Samatha and are taught and fed there. There were close to 30 girls who are taught at Makthal the curriculum from 1st till 5th class in a year. One women who was a jogini is now employed by Mahila Samatha to cook and feed these girls. She also made coffee for us in the morning and evening and has amazing patience to take care of these 30 girls. These girls were very curious about us and would come up and speak to us every time they got a chance to. They initially thought I was a French person because some French people had visited them earlier and because of my telugu skills. When Padma was around she would translate. The fun thing was when Padma was not around and I would communicate with them in my broken Telugu. On the first day we just went to the bank to do the account transfer done. Then we stayed at the office and Padma slept till the evening and I was busy hanging out with these girls. In the night I went to sleep at around 11 and in 15 minutes I felt something bite m left arm that hurt a lot and left my hand swollen and red where it bit. Then I changed my position and slept and was bitten again and I changed my position, used a second sheet to cover my selves and washed my arms. After getting bitten a third time I got up and sat on a chair for two hours and tried sleeping. Around two the insects crawling on the ground seemed lesser in number and then I sweeped the floor and slept. I woke up again at 6 because of a power cut.
The second day we went to three villages, Anugonda, Muslaipally and Karni to see how the community kitchens are running. We saw the feeding happening in Anugonda and Karni. In Muslaipally they had already fed before we got there. Was sad in Kaini that some of the people who are destitute and eligible to eat in the community kitchen do not go and eat because the person who cooks in a sc woman. The people in Karni who had come to be fed were thanking us and falling at our feet saying that they were weak and starving before the community kitchen started and now they are feeling better. Two very old women who we spoke to had no family and some other’s family had migrated to work in cities. Some of them receive a pension of 200 Rs a month or free rice on Anthyodhaya card. After that we went to Makthal had lunch rested at the office for a bit and then went to Karni to interview a retired head master whose name is Lingappa who presently does agricultural work. We also took a walk to see his farm. In a small patch where he grows mangoes he has 7-8 types of mango trees. He even had blue mangoes (Neelam) that I had not seen before. From him we got leads about who are the other people we could speak to in the village the next day. We went back and this time we moved to a hotel because I did not intend to get bitten again. Felt sad moving out belongings because I would miss conversations with the girls at Mahila Samatha.
The third day we started with going to Karni at 8:30 to attend a fisher community meeting. We had gone there because we had heard that when they bid for fishing at the tank the money that gets collected goes towards development of the village. The community organizer had told us that he wanted to speak to the fisher community and the Panchayat so a part of that could be used for funding the community kitchen. It wasn’t that Yugantar is unwilling to put in the money (we have already put it in the bank account and do not plan to withdraw it) but the idea was to find means to sustain it beyond the one year project period and just check if people in this community wanted to contribute to feeing vulnerable, destitute people from there own village. They were speaking at the top of their voices to bid for an amount for the tank but were quiet and ignored when the question of contributing to the kitchen came up. Someone whispered to us that most of the money collected really goes for funding liquor at village festivals! That was it then we went back to the town. Returned in the evening to interview farmers for my study.
The last day was uneventful. We waited till noon for two sarpanches when they were to come to the bank at 10 A.M. One said at noon that he will take another two hours and we asked him not to come. The other came by half past noon. Then we left for another village from where we had to pick ‘sapota picker’ and then had lunch and got back home by evening.
Jun 6, 2007
blogging from home
Been a long time since I’ve blogged. The gap was not cos of a lack of bloggable things but general laziness. I faired pretty well this term with two As (in land use and environmental policy) and one A- (in project management). Then I had a wonderful time traveling with sang, jayesh and manoj from Raleigh to DC to Worcester to Vermont to New York ending at Hyderabad. I am already feeling bad that at the end of three months I will have to go back.
As soon as I arrived at Hyderabad I got this welcome from Cookie and Tannu who climbed over the railing and ran to us. Then the drama began with ross getting knocked in a car accident and sandy getting bitten. That’s when I thought there is so much happening out here every minute….compared to this life in Worcester is so slow…..there I had to force my selves outta the bed because I had no motivation to wake up….here I wake up early, sleep late and yet feel the day isn’t enough to do all that I mean to.
I will be going off to makthal on 9th for a week. I am not sure if I am ready with my research design yet. I am hoping that staying in Makthal will help me figure out the direction I need to take my research in. Sad I wouldn’t be spending this weekend with cherry and coca. Cherry’s here for another weekend and coca will be here the whole time.
As soon as I arrived at Hyderabad I got this welcome from Cookie and Tannu who climbed over the railing and ran to us. Then the drama began with ross getting knocked in a car accident and sandy getting bitten. That’s when I thought there is so much happening out here every minute….compared to this life in Worcester is so slow…..there I had to force my selves outta the bed because I had no motivation to wake up….here I wake up early, sleep late and yet feel the day isn’t enough to do all that I mean to.
I will be going off to makthal on 9th for a week. I am not sure if I am ready with my research design yet. I am hoping that staying in Makthal will help me figure out the direction I need to take my research in. Sad I wouldn’t be spending this weekend with cherry and coca. Cherry’s here for another weekend and coca will be here the whole time.