the art of learning
These little children sit on a wind swept terrace, on top of a tiny jhuggi overlooking a sea of slum dwellings in India's capital city. A few days back they use to spend their times, roaming filthy lanes. Copy or slate in hand they wait for today's lesson. A palpable...
pencil box to simply jometry
Where did I buy my last jometry quipped little Kiran.For a few moments I was perplexed then it dawned on me: she was referring to a pencil box a.k.a. geometry box. I am sure many remember the rather ungainly tin box that we carried to school many years back and that...
I sat on the edge of my bed and cried
Every morning before I set out for the day, I watch the news on TV. A old habit become more relevant since pwhy began as one has to be anchored in the reality that surrounds us.One is prepared for news about violence and bombs. one is even resigned to the fact that a...
children will be children
I had to share this picture with you! This is a Kodak moment of the afternoon session of our bran new Govindpuri primary extension. the room we have is so tiny that it is only sufficient to lock up the meagre resources we have. Classes are held on the roof as the...
welcome back our world !
Deepak has a brand new heart or rather has got his broken heart fixed. A huge T shaped scars is ample proof of that.We first met Deepak almost 5 months ago when he was 8 months old. He needed heart surgery but his family did not have the required money. We raised it...
That is all it takes!
We have a new primary extension in the back and beyond of the Govindpuri slums!Sophiya and Israel were given the task of finding space and kids! Many may wonder why the need to add on a new primary centre. Once again it is all about comfort zones!One could feel...
orange juice revisited
I have always held that the poor emulate the rich! This is apparent in more ways than one: urban slums weddings for instance now look like upmarket ones: food stalls, decorative thrones, DJs and smoky dance floors.This is also apparent in the proliferation of cell...
how many deaths..
Seeing the aftermath of the Bhandara tragedy cannot but bring to mind what bob Dylan wrote more than 40 years agoYes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knowsThat too many people have died?I will not write about the horror of that night, the shattered dreams of...
Locked in silence
Sometimes you wonder why children are made to suffer! I wrote about Himanshu locked in his world and who had found a pal in Nanhe. Well someone got jealous or cast a spell and the next day nanhe found suffered acute renal colic and had an epileptic fit that send him...
an unsung mother courage
I have always loved the Greek word 'hubris'. The dictionary gives many meanings to it: from arrogance, to pride to cockiness.According to me there is only one being who has the right to be hubristic and that is God him/herself, in whatever shade or colour you may...
dil deke dekho.. dilli!
A few weeks back we were contacted by a organisation asking us to participate in a national effort whereby young bankers of a leading multinational bank would come and spend a day at pwhy as part of the CSR effort.A draft programme was sent to us and we were asked to...
a promotion for nanhe
It has been along time since one has written a blog about pwhy children. Somehow the sombre mood and events of the past few weeks had hijacked much of these posts.But while the city was being held to ransom by the sealing saga and numerous bhands, life did not stop...
thirty four to one
I asked my old acquaintance Mishraji why our local DDA market had so many cars parked in front. Mishraji and I go back a long time, when he worked at a provision store in M block market GK1 and I shopped there for my daily needs. That was about 25 years ago!Today...
get one free
She is 11, goes to school but there is a catch; she has been married to a man more than twice her age who is also the husband of her handicapped sister.The future of children and particularly girls with disabilities has always been a source of concern.Often their...
serious musings
One of the devious ways to disrupt pwhy in the (mistaken) hope of wishing it away that local politicos have adopted is to first get some simple minded staff to commit a serious lapse that forces us to take action and then edge that person to take us to labour...
a matter of the heart…
When Sitaram came to us three years ago seeking monetary help for his son's cardiac surgery we never knew that he was heralding a new avatar for pwhy, that of fixing hearts quite literally.It took us two months to get the needed funds and raju today is a strapping...
where small is not beautiful…
Welcome to the land where small is not beautiful..Wonder what I am getting at?Two recent news items caught my eye. One pertains to sealing and its effect of small traders, and the other on the proposed amendment to regulate foreign donation to NGOs. In both cases the...
when cars land in slums
Over the past six years I have had to fight many battles. Lost some, won some. Sometimes the adversary is too formidable as was the case of the MLM people who came with their rehearsed pitches, their alluring promises and their fast track to riches!They came, saw and...
Jhola days around the corner
I watched the sealing drive yesterday. The targets were big fish be they showrooms, offices of even government institutions. The government suddenly took the rule of law very seriously.Later in the day I read an article ringing the death knell of small NGOs located in...
the rule of law…
that is the end of the rule of law and the breakdown of democracy were the harsh words the Chief Justice of India used yesterday while haring the pathetic excuses of a government caught red handed!Thanks heaven for the rule of law, no matter how tardy, it ultimately...
here we go again… to seal or not to seal
here we go again.. says the popular song.I have been watching the tos and fro's of the local authorities regarding the now existential question: to seal or not to seal!To take the Shakespeare reference further we could easily say; all is not well in the State of D.....
three step forward and two and half back
I am livid. Do you remember Babli? Here I was back in a comfort zone feeling smug like a proverbial Cheshire cat, thinking that with her brand new heart, Babli was sitting on a school bench making up for lost time when I was hit by another thunderbolt.R and S came...
the lure of comfort zones
I have always feared comfort zones. You fall prey to them unwittingly. When things look alright, when no untoward incident occurs, that is when comfort zones appear and you easily fall prey to their lure.This has happened time and again at pwhy though I have tried to...
chilling numbers
My limousine had not come so I decided to spend some time in the creche where the big section - all between 4 and 5 - sat in a circle for its daily activity. The past few weeks had been so hectic that I had barely found time to spend with the children as I was busy...
Come November…
Come November and it is time for me to get off the spinning earth and look at time gone by as a rank outsider...November never held much significance in the first for decades of my life. But the year 1992 changed it all. November took my father away and brought the...
hijacked by hubris
It was sad to watch Delhi come to a standstill. Whereas the big fish will remain unscathed, small shopkeepers will as usual suffer. I the days when gandhigiri is a la mode, one wonders whether bandhs are the right form of protest. Gone is the outsider, the foreign...
the three most beautiful words
I got a mail this morning from a friend of pwhy, who lives miles away, whom I have never met. I only know that he sees with his heart as he has always responded to my innumerable appeals with spontaneous generosity!This is what he writes in response to my wondering...
rite of passage
For most I should be elated and jumping with joy - age permitting - two monumental battles were actually won in the last few days. One with a huge bank vindicating the stand that no matter how big the adversary, if truth is on your side you ultimately come out on top,...
the toad in the well
Some of you may remember the little house of horrors.We have not forgotten the children and are in the process of trying to save them, but we need to tread carefully and ensure that all aspects are covered before the final kill. The adversary is formidable and has...
a tryst with hope
The past two months were the most difficult in my life as I almost saw pwhy slipping away for no fault of ours and though the battle was uneven, the adversary formidable, there was an imperceptible force that egged me not to give up as hope was waiting at the next...
a survivor par excellence
Utpal is back home for his diwali break. I went to fetch him ins school and was amazed by the survivor spirit this child has. As the road was being dug up we had a long walk before reaching the gates of the school. En route I was stopped by many big boys who asked him...
A tale of two diwalis
To the rich man's mall there is the poor man's weekly bazaar. A cornucopia of sight, sound and smells, an experience guaranteed to titillate all your senses.The dreary road comes alive one every week as people come from faraway places with their ware, tables are set,...
a banker who sees with his heart
The last few weeks have been harrowing as one found one's self in a soup for no fault of ours. A clerical error, a hurried decision and our bank closed our accounts. It was a David takes on goliath situation but I was I knew the god of lesser ones was on our side....
justice at last
The Priyadarshini Matoo case has come to an acceptable closure and maybe Priya's soul will finally be able to rest in peace.Eleven years or so to finally send the rapist and murderer behind bars. I cannot even being to fathom the agony of the last eleven minutes of...
david takes on goliath
Never explain - your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway, said Elbert Hubbard. Maybe that is why a blog written a few days back has been lying unpublished. Each time, my finger wanders towards the publish button, something holds me...
nursery blues
If all goes well tiny tots in Delhi will not have to face the dreaded interview to get admission in a school. However the procedure suggested seems rather complex. Whereas the 20 points given to proximity is a great one as it maybe be the harbinger of the still...
the little house of horrors
I have been battling many demons and what now looks like trivial problems, when my good friend mr god decided to call me to order in his inimitable way.We had been invited to talk about pwhy at a expat gathering when another 'project' was also presented by some of the...
r.i.p jatinder
A young class IX student, just 14 years old killed himself... the reason being his public humiliation by the principal.. the reason for that being his delay in paying his fees. Jatinder was the son of a driver who had dared dream huge dreams for his son and enrolled...