Teach a child to dare ask his whys
Over the past seven years now one has been faced with innumerable questions that scream for answers. Questions about the abysmal state of environment awareness, about the total lack of information about policies and programmes, questions about how an ordinary ca...
Love is an endless mystery
Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it, says a quote. And yet everyone is talking about love today.Markets are replete with hearts and flowers. Mobile networks are jammed as SMS's are exchanged and love is in the air. The detractors are out...
the story of manoj’s mom
When manoj's mom came to us a year back carrying her tiny awkward child, we knew she was a woman in need of help so not only did we take her son in our creche, but gave her a part time job at home.Madhu is a tiny chit of a woman with a strong spirit and she quickly...
happy St V’s
Today being the much and over hyped St V's day, I decided to give my acerbic pen a rest and write about love, albeit a different kind from the one flaunted at every corner!This post is not about red roses and heart shaped cards, but about Amit Bhaiyya whose unwavering...
who will take up the cudgels on their behalf
I had recently written about the professor Sabharwal case and the hostile witnesses. Actually it was just yesterday. I somehow knew that it would not be long before a campaign of sorts would be launched and civil society would be shaken for its slumber. Hence i was...
another tale of two Indias
Two young ladies age 6 and 11 visited project why last week. Their mom a high executive in the hospitality industry had brought them along as she felt it would be a good experience for them.We went hopped from one part of pwhy to the other: from a building in a narrow...
not at any price
A journalist from a leading western newspaper dropped by last week. She was researching an article on the impact of globalisation on the other side of India. She had visited some of the slum resettlement sites and expressed her indignation at the state of these...
a fallen hero
One will spend life in jail, the other is waiting for the gallows. They both thought that their political connections could give them licence to kill and get away with murder. But they did not. Public opinion ensured that and Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Matoo got...
bye bye hot samosas..
Many years back, when the first fast food outlet opened in Delhi - I think it was a pizza something - I told many friends that they would never be able to compete with our own desi brand of fast foods: the zingy chats, piping hot samosas, delectable and sinful poories...
muted musings..
I cannot remember when I last stepped off the whirling world to take a breath and muse over days gone by. Life went on at a frenzied pace and there never seemed to be time to take a pause and cast the much needed critical look.One may wonder what set off these...
a bed and a class
I have always hoped that some day we will have lots of little primary extensions so that more and more children remain in school. And it has been my dream to do this by drawing all resources from the community.Our little Nehru Nagar class is a step in that direction...
Where the mind is without fear
Yesterday I dropped by my Lohar (gypsy)friends. My conditioned being expected to be greeted by long and sad faces as their homes had been raised to the ground just a few hours before that.My heart did miss a beat as I alighted from my three wheeler and saw them all...
a samosa and a jig…
In today's world many of us have mastered the art of living according to rules and regulations, our lives carefully divided into little boxes and our reactions dictated by directives that are proved and tested by scientific means.So when in this world a doctor and a...
helter shelter
A class is in progress in the Lohar camp. The camp has over 40 shanties along a main road. It has been in existence for over 25 years and even has a name and postal address. Most of its 250 odd inhabitants, all gadiya lohars - iron smith gypsies - have voter ID cards....
morning after…
This is a picture of the morning after a wedding party in our street. Yesterday as is customary in our city, tents came up, the street was blocked and the paraphernalia needed, set in place.This morning we saw the aftermath: large quantities of wasted food, and mounds...
Looking ahead from ground zero..
One is often so engrossed in the now, that one forgets to delve into the realm of the after. Yet unless we take time to do that, we may remain frozen in time.Spiritual masters often ask us to visualise the future if we want to see it realised. I guess there is some...
one more tale of two Indias
A short news item aired yesterday showed relatives of children killed in Noida by serial killers blocking a road and protesting the slow pace of the probe.My mind travels back to the week where the whole nation watched the nightmare of NOIDA unfold. Rewind to a few...
The return of the buddy!
Nanhe is back. And the smile too!Everyone was stunned as he entered the class in Sitaram's arms. Moments later a palpable excitement prevailed in the classroom as his little buddies set about to greet their long lost pal.All else was forgotten: Anurag stopped jumping,...
What will you be tomorrow…
When Utpal walked into the gate of his brand new school he was making a tryst with destiny.He would one day walk out of that gate and take on the world. I have often let my imagination run wild and imagine what he would become: a conventional doctor or a hot shot...
Miracles happen everyday…
Last week nanhe was discharged from hospital. The discharge slip read: hemoglogin:3.2, BP not detecteable, chronic renal failure. A dismal prognostic to say the least.When consulted all medico friends confirmed our fears.Nanhe is special and his smile has made us...
a slap in lieu of a result
Final exams are just little over a month away and all pwhy kids are busy revising. Government schools held their usual end of term exams in December and we all waited for the results to help us structure our revision programme.When no result was forthcoming by mid...
happy republic day
All over India celebrations are on today. Flag hoisting and parades, people cheering and waving flags everything is on cue to mark the 57th anniversary of our Republic. How many of us are truly aware of the meaning of this day?Somehow the essence of the constitution...
where is the India of our dreams…
50 odd years ago a group of people huddled together to draft a constitution whereby every Indian that had been freed from its colonial master would be protected and given equal opportunities and access to resources. Its preamble resolved to secure for all its...
It is walking towards him…
"Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk.It is walking toward me, without hurrying."Jean CocteauNanhe lies on a hospital bed, his body wasted, his smile lost forever, his searing pain now borne with a silence more deafening than any cry. The men in white...
proverbial carper
I have been holding to my 'pen' for the last few days for fear of being branded the proverbial carper. But doing so longer would be going against my own grain.For the past few days or more we have been subjected to a string of national news headlines about celebrities...
renal malfunction in a venal world
It is amazing how the micro and the macro level of every occurrence appear almost simultaneously.In a recent blog, I had recounted the trials and tribulations of our very own Nanhe's mom who had been told by some hassled medico to go get a kidney if she wanted to save...
The writing on the wall
A candlelight vigil was held last night for the Nithari children.It was held at the same place where just a few months back the tout delhi was present in force, led by the urban middle class and the youth fuelled by images of Rang de Basanti, to fight for justice for...
corporator for a day
Bharti Dhondge is a name that rings no bells and yet she will go down in history as the woman who became corporator for a day in the Municipal Corporation of Bombay! It took this woman five years to fight and win a legal battle whereby she challenged the validity of...
missing children- just statistics
On April 13 the 2003, little Rohan and Puja never went back home. They had gone to the nearby temple as they did every evening. That day some predator was lurking with his diabolical agenda.Two days later their bodies were found in the sluice gate of the okhla...
golu and his sweaters- a mom’s recipe to beat the winter chill
The mercury has dipped to 2 degrees and delhi is freezing. But our kids turned up as usual in the morning chill.As they filed into the room, we were a little baffled to see little Golu who seemed to have difficulties walking and waddled through arms stretched at an...
where broken hearts get fixed
Little anisha will have her heart fixed. Hers is the 10th broken heart that has come our way for fixing! Each with its own story, each with the hopes and prayers of the ones that gave it life. Each came from across the invisible barriers that divide our society with...
whoops of pure joy
Who said that some things have to be learnt to be experienced? Who said you had to be born on the right side of the fence to experience certain moments? Who said you had to be normal to know the how and when of appropriate behaviour?Certain things just happen...
a one rupee fix
I have been worried about the proliferation of what I call the pouch invasion in urban slums. We decided to do a survey and maybe try and initiate a campaign to raise awreness on the matter.We been busy collecting pouches to and one of the stops was Nanhe's mom's cart...
amrika se ayega..
Our battle to make nanhe's mom see sense is taking on disturbing dimensions. In order to ensure that little nanhe is well taken care of and in the face of our total failure in making the desperate mom see sense we decided to play the game and follow her search for...
The times they are changing.
Two Dylan songs struck a chord in me when I was a young and someone remained with me all through they years well into my old age. That was way back in the early sixties.The Nithari tragedy brought them back as it seemed as if they had been written yesterday:How many...
soup spoons and fish knives
A recent news item about the introduction of savoir-faire classes caught my attention. Apparently B schools like IIMs now have classes to ensure that you don't attack the custard with a soup spoon!True that the world is shrinking with host of new opportunities for...
whose right is it anyway
Remember the ghaziabad girls? Some of us may have forgotten them as so many other horror stories have come our way and they have become yesterday's news.Yet somewhere in the dead of winter they await justice.Their case came for hearing at the Supreme Court yesterday....
a little bit of hope
The past week has been marked by the terrible plight of children in India, something we can in no way be proud of. The horror of the NOIDA missing kids seemed to be a catalyst of sorts.Yesterday a nine year old Nayan was found dead, his parents still busy trying to...