No instruction book came with it…
Now there is one outstandingly important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it wrote Buckminster Fuller. Spaceship Earth, I like the term! I like Mother Nature too! Today as I write these words millions around the world are...
The heat is on
The heat is on. Boy it is hot. 44 Celsius and climbing and it is only the ides of April! I should be complaining but I am not. Wonder why? Please read on...I decided to get my old rambling and falling apart house repaired this year after almost 2 decades. The idea was...
a tale of forgotten biscuits
The sight of beggar children is something that has always upset and pained me. It is the perhaps the most deafening and loudest why that came my way, and one that sadly I could never find an answer to. And yet, though many many not know it, it is the very first why...
I am just a housewife
For the past few months I have been receiving annoying calls from my bank each time we receive a donation, even a tiny one. The caller fires questions like: what is the money for? who is it from? (even of the said person has been sending money for years)? what does...
what is on my bucket list
What's on my bucket list? I must admit that till a few days I did not quite know what a bucket list was. Like everyone else I know what a bucket is - don't we all:) -, had heard the song there is a hole in my bucket and the expression kick the bucket. I actually came...
through her lens
Lorianne is a young photographer from France who came to volunteer for a few weeks. It is amazing how everyone sees project why through different eyes, and Lorianne saw it through her heart. She captured some very unique moments that are a pure delight. You see she...
education from 6 to 14
I have been perplexed, angry, confused, bewildered and even apoplectic at some of the aberrations of the much awaited, much delayed and still far from being implemented Right to Education Bill. The bill has many aberrations. And to the uninitiated they may seem...
soul mates
They are true soul mates and they have proved it more than once. And they are soul mates in more ways than one! Last Monday they took the road to the boarding school, Utpal a now 5 year pro and Meher the rookie. I was a little concerned about Meher as she tends to get...
medical nightmare.. another tale of 2 indias
A recent national magazine wrote extensively in its latest issue about the medical boom that India is experiencing these days. Super speciality hospitals with seven star luxuries and helicopter to cart you to and fro! Seems we are now at par with the most developed...
From five to seven
Seven kids now study in boarding school so from famous five we have now become secret seven. Meher and Yash andhave now joined their seniors aka Utpal, babli, Vicky, Nikhil and Aditya and taken their first step towards freedom as Epicteus decreed: only the educated...
To greet the happy boy!
The child comes toddling in, and young and old With smiling eyes its smiling eyes behold,And artless, babyish joy;A playful welcome greets it through the room, The saddest brow unfolds its wrinkled gloom, To greet the happy boy.Victor Hugo, Lorsque l'enfant paraitThis...
empowerment to ownership
Empowerment to ownership! I wrote the title of this blog some days back and then somehow writer's block or was it the God of lesser beings at play? I do not know. When I did write the title I was feeling a little saddened as my dream of going from empowerment to...
off with their heads….
Off with their heads.. says the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. Hide them away is what the Queen of Delhi has decreed for the beggars of Delhi during the Commonwealth Games. You cannot wish the dross away so you simply conceal them. Do read this article, it...
mehajabi.. the beautiful one
Wonder if you remember Mehajabi and her mom! The ones who lived in a room with a strange view. The one whose open heart surgery we sponsored some time back? Well she was back to visit and what a delightful girl she has become. But that is where the happy story ends....
a perfect siesta
My birthday was to be a quiet day after all the revelry on the previous night. For the past few weeks my life had been dictated by a little bundle of joy, my grandson, and moves like a clockwork orange: 1 pm lunch time, 2 pm siesta time and so on. And believe you me...
a very special birthday gift
It was a party. One you could never imagine in your wildest dream. Would beat the Mad Hatter's one hands down.The guest list was unique and could never have been drawn by even the best event planner. Only the magic of pwhy could conjure that one! Age was no bar. You...
The class of 2010 (cont)
There have been some interesting reactions to my previous post.One said: Spoken like a dedicated, bold and truly concerned teacher.Can feel the anguish and frustration beneth these words.Any thing given in the hands of these politicians has no future. This should be...
class of 2010
This our class of 2010! It is a matter of pride for me to write about them on the very day the children of India have finally got the right to education after waiting for sixty three long years. This class beat all odds and made it in spite of all those who took...
in the queue
Recently a friend wrote a short note in the memory of the loss of two of her dear friends. It was a touching note reminiscing about rites de passage that had always been shared and she reminded us that this one too awaited us all. The wisdom was in accepting it and...
of the terrorist, by the terrorist, for the terrorist
For the past few months many annoying things have occurred. First after years of placid relationship our bankers have suddenly jumped into mistrust mode. I now regularly get calls or mails asking inane questions, this in spite of due diligence having been undertaken...
every 8.7804 minute
An invitation card for a upmarket promotional do, landed on my desk yesterday. I do not know why such cards come my way! And as always it made me wince. The card looked like a cigar box and was made of outrageously expensive paper. Open the box and in lieu of cigars,...
Prince will never study at Princeton
Prince will never study at Princeton - excuse the pun! But Prince is actually a very real human being and one that does us proud. He came to us many years ago as a primary student. A seemingly shy and withdrawn boy, Prince was nevertheless always first in class and a...
commonwealth.. and common woes revisited
OK Delhizens loosen your purse strings, your state needs you. You will have to pay your tithe for the honour of hosting the commonwealth games! So from now on everything will cost more: cooking gas, CNG, ghee, tea, coffee, utensils, mobile phones. VAT is being...
when tables flew and roses appeared
Christopher James is a magician, but a magician with a huge heart. A chance encounter in a pub with one of our volunteers, few words exchanged and voila, Chris was all set to come and spread some magic in the lives of our kids. He came this morning armed with his bag...
for all the wrong reasons
The case of Jennifer H is heart rendering. Imagine being adopted at the age of 8, abused by your adoptive father, moved to 50 foster homes and often abused in each of them and then when you finally have found a way out, had two kids and reclaimed your right to be...
sweet dreams are made of this…
I remember the day when I first met Sanjay. It must have been 8 years or so ago and he must have been 14. We had just begun teaching a primary class at the Lohar Bati, gypsy camp, located next to our first centre. Sanjay and some of his pals, who had all dropped out...
Little men…
Meet Agastya and Utpal the two little men of my life. Just like the Little Prince they landed into my existence when I least expected them and yet most needed them. One came when I was going dealing with personal demons and needed to rediscover myself and test my own...
a gift of knowledge
A few months ago I got a mail form a young friend.He wrote: I have recently started an ambitious project to create story books for children and more importantly to devise means to make them available to every child of the world. We are working on the first book right...
one one leg
Imagine a cow standing on one leg. Quite impossible isn't it. And yet that is what the cow that symbolises Dharma or, for want of a better word, righteousness, is meant to be doing in the Kaliyug, that is in our day and age.What it means is that Kaliyug is an age...
raise my salary
Our recent efforts to bring about qualitative change in our work call for some modifications and adjustment in our functioning and one of them is the transfer of some staff from one location to another. This of course has met with some resentment. Last week one...
no longer on your side
I have a friend who is also my star gazer. When things are not quite as they should be and I need to be reassured, I write to him and seek his advise. He always writes back giving me something to hold on, even if the planetary situation is not quite as it should be....
In her bright blue….
In her bright blue and red dress little Radha sits with her friends waiting for the party to begin. Yes, once again it is young Yashu's birthday and once again her mom has decided to bring the two Indias together. For the past 5 years now, the children of the special...
they cannot wait….
Yesterday, in the course of a conversation, a friend shared his concern about an eminent social activist having changed tracks and moved from education to rights activism. The person he was referring to had started and successfully steered a very dynamic education...
the very elusive english teacher
For the past few weeks we have been on a mission: find 2 good English teachers for our new focus on quality programme scheduled to begin on April 1st. To be on the safer side and ensure that all goes according to plan, we decided to begin our search way earlier and...
They had a … ball!
Over the past years I have come to realise that it is our special kids who have truly amstered the art of having a ball! It is in this class that I have, more than once, experienced pured unadulterated joy and it takes practically nothing to get them going: a few tins...
Hello, we are project why…
When Peter sat down to draft a leaflet to highlight project why's work, young Naomi, age 11, asked whether she too could make one. Naomi has never been to project why as she lives in Cranfield in the UK. Her vision of our work comes from what she has heard and...
school admissions… where are we heading
Once again I take my virtual pen to vent my fury over the sad state of education in India, the land that has finally deigned give its children the right to free and equitable education. It took the so called rulers over 60 years to loosen their purse strings and do...
permission to continue…
They tell me that "Project Why" is different because they are not trying to shock us, they are simply asking for permission to continue their work were the words that dropped in my mailbox this morning. They were from a friend and supporter who conveyed the feelings...