ANOU’S BLOG
Falling off the edge
Some of you may remember the story of a desperate mother of 8 children who lived on the edge. I guess everyone has her breaking point as last week she just took off abandoning her children. The humiliation and despair had reached the point of no return.Her children...
in the name of a mother
It is the time of the year when in India we are meant to remember the dears ones that have left us and gone to another world. Normally people feed the poor or give alms; some have elaborate pujas (religious ceremonies). For a few years after the death of my parents I...
women in charge
Amidst friendly quipping about choice of room and placement of things interspersed with exclamations of delight and horror so typical of women notwithstanding their age, the final shifting to our new premises was completed yesterday.Things settled and work began in...
a prayer for an princess
V is a beautiful autistic girl. I knew her when she was just a child some 8 years ago when her shrill voice used to echo in my home when she and her parents came visiting. Her repetitive blabber and her endearing ways touched many a heart and I use to call her...
social entreprise, sustainability and the funding saga
It has been 8 years since pwhy began and it has been 8 years since I have spent almost every waking moment worrying about funding and devising ways to meet the monthly requirement to keep project why alive.Right from day one I knew that we had to one day become self...
tender minds
The recent court decision to compress pre-primary classes - aka nursery and KG - into one year seems bewildering. True that they have raised the nursery age to 4 but knowing the pressure a child has to deal with once in class I, one year of preparation seems very...
a new journey begins
The recent demolition of the Lohar basti is a harbinger of days to come. We have, over the past five years, witnessed many a demolition drive of this very basti. Bulldozers came, tenements were brought down, but each time they were rebuilt as money changed hands and...
will it; won’t it
The will it; won't it game that has now been played for years at end came to a final closure for the Lohar camp next to the Kalkaji bus depot. Yesterday the small basti of thirty odd tenements was finally raised to the ground to make way for the much awaited...
more heart matters
In her bright school uniform and sporting a sparkling smile she looks just line another school girl. However if you look at her again you see her little chest rising at an unnatural pace and realise that she can barely breathe. She has a hole in her heart and was what...
a breath of fresh air
It was once again time to make the one hour car journey to Utpal's school for his PTM. And in spite of this being the nth time, the excitement was palpable.With little Kiran the true blue childhood pal, I had packed the proverbial bag of goodies that contained all...
when the heart takes over
S decided to sell his kidney because life had become unberable after his business failed. It must have been a pondered decision and one that must have taken a lot of grit and determination. What happened next is what heroic tales are made of. When S realised that the...
full circle
It was almost three years ago that two women of substance set up our Okhla school. The school was set up in a garbage dump for all the right reasons and much of what we set out to do was achieved and somehow we felt that nothing would or could disturb the pattern we...