by Anuradha Bakshi | Mar 11, 2011 | Uncategorized
Being good is fraught with dangers in our day and age. I recently blogged about the danger of being good not realising that I was about to have to walk the talk and try and defend the right of being good.
Yesterday a young friend dropped by. He is a young man after my heart, one who decided to take the road less travelled and make a difference. A series of recent setbacks and mishaps were however making him question his decision. The general contempt that someone like me who walks a different path faces in our society, really made me question what all I have been up to and if it was worth anything at all. My heart went out to him and I knew that I had to muster all I could to renew his faith in being good. Not an easy task as much of what he wrote was true: people are not kind to those who take the road less travelled. And as we all know by now being good can land you up shit creek without a paddle. And yet some of us refuse to give up being good!
As I said this was no easy task because the young man in question has responsibilities and needs to build his morrows. He gave up a lucrative position in another land to come back home and make a difference. And he did try as hard as he could investing all he had and more. The end result was failure and even having your work appropriated by deceitful means. This young man was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He had to struggle hard to get where he did and somehow it is this very struggle that made him want to be different. So here I am having to defend the right of being good one again. And though I know deep inside that it is the only honourable way to go, I find myself at a loss as there are not many examples to proffer or successful role models to hold out.
Words fail me. I know the young man is contemplating packing his bags and leaving for greener and better pastures where hard work and honesty are still virtues to be extolled. I truly do not know what to tell him to defer his decision and give this land one more chance. I wonder what will make him stay.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Mar 10, 2011 | Uncategorized
I got a phone call last week. It was from a local ladies’ club who wanted to honour me as part of their women’s day celebrations. I asked them quite candidly how they had heard of me and the answer was as candid: one of their friends had met me at the boarding school and got quite impressed by the fact that we sponsored children in the school. At first I was a little hesitant as I have always been weary of people who want to lionize you without even seeing your work, but then remembering the dire straits we were in, I decided to accept. I must admit I had no idea what I was getting into as this was a world I had always shunned. Maybe time had come to get over my disquiet and take a peek over the fence.
So yesterday afternoon I donned by best attire and set off to be honoured! The meeting was happening in the home of one of the ladies and when I reached the appointed place, I was greeted by a dozen of upmarket ladies in their best attire that made mine look somewhat paltry. The ladies were all smiles and very warm and we were given a cold drink as we still had to wait for some arrivals. Then it was time for the meeting to begin and it did with a bang: a lamp was lit, a bell rung and everyone stood up to hold hands and sing a bollywood song of the yesteryears that extolled the virtues of walking together. I was to say the least a little bemused but there was a feeling of bonhomie that prevailed and made it all acceptable.
Then it was speech time, a little pompous as everyone was greeted by their club titles. Then it was my time to speak and I did from the heart, telling them simply how pwhy had begun and what it meant to me. Everyone listened and some ladies wanted to know more. Then I was given a shawl and a gift. The President said they would come and visit us and help in whatever ways they could. A few more speeches and then the meeting closed with the singing of the National Anthem and the ringing of the bell. We were then invited to a cup of tea, which turned out to be nothing less than a feast! I took my leave, leaving the bunch of ladies to their festivities and returning to my side the fence.
My peek into this world had been a welcome experience and I was glad I had accepted the invitation. Though I did remain a little skeptic as my past exposure to the likes of these ladies had not been happy. How could I forget the umpteen times when subsequent to a phone call we were have been landed time and again with heaps of rubbish in the guise of donations, how can I forget the outrage of two such ladies when they heard about our boarding school programme, how can I forget the broken toys delivered with great fanfare. All said and done my forays across the fence had not been pretty. And yet these ladies seemed honest and genuine when they said they would help us and somehow I believed them. True we would have to wait for the right time, for their social calendars to have an appropriate window and so on. But wait we will.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Mar 9, 2011 | Uncategorized
The appeal to save our women centre has not gone unheard. Of the 200 commitments needed we have 75. This is great but still not quite enough. It may give us some breathing time but not save the centre! We do need to reach the 200 mark. My decade and more long experience of panhandling has shown me that all appeals get a spontaneous response and people do come forward, often with more than solicited. This is indeed heartwarming but often not quite sufficient.
Let me explain why.
The money we seek from you this time is what is needed to run our women centre. This money is needed every month to pay our staff – all of which depend on this salary to live – to pay our rent, to pay our utilities bills – none of which will wait – to pay the material and educational aids that are needed to teach and so on. So to save the women centre long term we need to reach the magic figure of 200. Anything short of that would simply delay the inevitable closure. What has seen us through 11 years is the regular commitments, however tiny, that reach us every month and allow us to meet our needs. And this is what we are asking from you.
The amount we seek is one that can easily be spared. One movie outing, one coffee at a coffee house. It is not much and I know that we will be able to raise it. We just have to keep trying.
I got some very touching mails from people willing to walk instead of taking cars! Bless them.
I would simply like to reiterate what this small sacrifice would ensure. It would allow 300 children to remain in school and what is most important is that some of these have painstakingly reached class X after having been failures for long. It will allow batches of 60 women to learn a vocational skill in our six month courses. Many today are able to supplement their home budgets, it will allow 20 people to retain their jobs, jobs that have allowed them to feed their families. So is it not worth your sacrifice!
Please help us save our women centre.
And to all of you who have already done so, a big thank you!
by Anuradha Bakshi | Mar 1, 2011 | Uncategorized
My appeal for help did not yield the expected results. At this moment I do not want to begin wondering why. The situation is too critical to allow me that luxury. I simply need to conjure a miracle or take the dreaded decision about which part of pwhy will face the axe. In case of the former I can only pray. For the later I guess I will have to apply some logic that works. It is not easy to decide which part of you to amputate. After much thought and deliberation I have come to the conclusion that if we have to close some part of pwhy, then it should be the part that was the last to see the day of light and by that logic it would be the women centre.
This centre came into being way back in August 2007 and was dedicated to the memory of Kamala, my mother. I feel terrible of even thinking to close it. It is almost as if I was letting this incredible woman down. And yet I do not see any other way.
The women centre today is a vibrant and spirited centre where over 300 children, most of them girls study; where over 60 women are taking their first steps on the road of economic independence by learning new skills; where 20 persons from deprived homes are earning their livelihood. Closing the centre would mean shutting the door on the morrows of all of them. Sounds terrible but unless that miracle comes through, it seems to be the only option we have.
This post is my last ditch effort to save our women centre.
What would it take to save the centre. Well barring a miracle that would conjure a sponsor or benefactor that would take the centre over, we would need about 200 persons willing to part with five hundred rupees or ten dollars a month! This is not even the price of an outing or a movie. Now that should not be difficult to find for one who has hundreds of friends on social networks and mailing lists of over a thousand. But past experience has proved otherwise. You see, past appeals have never worked. And yet one does not give up. All I need to do is to see the pictures below. How can I let all these wonderful and innocent souls down.
So today more than ever, I need a miracle, or need to find 200 persons who can look with their hearts.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Mar 1, 2011 | Uncategorized
A leading TV channel and a mega multinational have launched a campaign called ‘support my school’. Do click on this link and you are greeted by titles such as girls dropping out of school because of lack of toilets or too many students all else to little. Click on the later. You will be told of a school in North Delhi, yes in our own capital city, where there are 1800 students, where roll calls are taken in the open and last for a whole hour, where teachers admit only being able to check the home work of 15 out of the 80 students in their class, where all students do not get a bench to sit own. It is nothing short of a nightmare and far from the enabling environment needed for children to bloom.
Yet all the children in this school and in hundreds like them have gained the right to education, albeit as late as 2010 when the said Act finally came into force. Children in free India had to wait sixty two years to gain this right. Speaks volumes, does it not! The state of schools is nothing short of abysmal. This is the enabling environment we give our children and hope they will bloom into great adults. But how can they, many will never finish school for no fault of theirs, and others will muddle through into mediocrity.
When will we realise that primary education is the cornerstone of any self respecting society?
Believe me, it does not take much to turn things around. We have done this at pwhy for the past 11 years. With unskilled staff and scant resources we have ensured that every child that walks into our premises remains in school and graduates with success. The magic potion if any was tons of love that would make every child believe in himself and oodles of patience to ensure that every child ultimately comes out a winner. No rocket science required. This translates into a sad reality: it seems he powers that be are not really interested in educating the poor.
Are the rich better off? Not quite if we are to go by the nightmare of recent nursery admissions. Toddlers are being rejected school after school for again not fault of theirs: no sibling in school, the wrong gender or address, no alumni parents and so on. So where is the right to education we so blatantly talk about. Every government school building carries a sign saying; no child can be denied admission. yet what is the point of stuffing schools till they strangulate and die. Classes of 80 plus is not an acceptable option. Is education is to be a constitutional right then it is time the State took matters in hand and loosened its purse strings. It is also time we all started accepting the idea of a neighborhood school for all. Government schools still have prime property often unused. Why not built spanking schools on them instead of the pitiful barracks in existence.
Private school fees are running berserk. A friend of mine recently told me that the school fees of her 5 year old amounted to 30 K a term! Primary education has become a lucrative business and the insidious privatisation of education will ring the death knell of education for the poor. True efforts like the one mentioned above are laudable, but that is not the answer. The real answer is a change in policy but we all know how high education ranks in the minds of those who rule us… our present education minister had been handed an added portfolio which seems to be taking all his time!
Millions of little children are waiting for a chance to excel, and many of them can do too! Look at our little boarding school stars who shine in their enabling school. When will all the children of India get a similar opportunity.
Being good is fraught with dangers in our day and age. I recently blogged about the danger of being good not realising that I was about to have to walk the talk and try and defend the right of being good.
