look at them... they are something these three.. dark glasses and all.. our very own genX..this morning I decided to take a class.. and as we sat I realised that all was not quite as it should be.. most of the bacchas slumped and it took me some time to get everyone...

An incident occured today that set me on a strain of thoughts about matters that one often brushes away with great words...It began with a call from an acquaintance who runs an upmarket nursery school with her mother a lucrative entreprise where fees rose from 300...

Class is over.. the climb down the rickety ladder will take them back to their day-to-day existence .. but today has been different.. the children have stars in their eyes..no metaphor here..Today's class was about the earth, and the plantets, and the milky away all...

a mail dropped by in mailbox this morning. it was from someone i did not know..It began woth the words: "I've heard a lot about you from A. I'm skeptical, as always, about all good things. And yet, I wish I could meet you and be involved in what you are doing."Many...

Jeetu is not yet 5.. but he has experienced in his short life more than many would imagine.. He came to us two years ago.. a frail child with huge sad eyes who clung to a man that we thought was his grandfather..We learnt that it was actually Jeetu's dad and that his...

Some of you know her, some of you have read about her.. she is real and she is Preeti.. the one whose granny wants us to give her rat poison, the childwoman the family wants to wish away.. she is also the one that eats insects because she is micro-nutrient...

it was a big day for me... as today for the very first time i saw the light at the end of the tunnel...or to to use the terminology of the hour..the first step towards project why's disinvestement was taken..yes disinvestment is what it should be called... as the...

pNagar.. as we call it.. could be Tnagar in chennai!Sudhar Camp is waht it is known as.. a tiny slum tucked away behind the electricity department somewhere in Kalkaji, in the south of India's capital city.. 500 families living in precarious box like hutments where...

n's article is out. it was published today in the Asian Age .It was great that it appeared on teacher's day when all roles were reversed.We sat down to read it with some of the kids and imagine Vicky's pride when he heard the opening words " Vicky Kumar, 12, is...

There is something about India that never ceases to amaze me and that is her ability to contradict everything negative that you may think about her.She does play games with you, wears you down, makes you angry or even sad, but then when you are just about to lose all...

asiya and fatima, the two year old twins sleep reaching out to each other for comfort... while rabiya takes a much needed break.. like any mom would.. only rabiya is four, just two years older than the siblings she looks after with great care and maturity..rabiya is...

last week I decided to take a class..this decision was prompted by the constant complaints of some of the primary teachers who felt the kids were getting difficult to handle...some not doing their work and disturbing others..as all the advise meted had not worked, I...

Look at the picture.. what do you see?three little girls playing, the way all children that age should, three children savouring what is know as the best part of one's life: early childhood, when others take care of your creature comforts and everyday needs, when you...

till we can get a picture of the young couple, this is what a bonboniere looks like "Barbara and me will get married next September 24th and we decided to donate to you the money we were to spend to buy bonbonnieres"I have never met Barbara or Massimo, they are...

Jonathan Blake Wade1950 - 2005If ever there was a man who epitomized all that project why stands for it would be Jon..A human being par excellence..A man who was first a man, before being white, or brown, british, or indian..He transcended the usual tags and...

the door bell rang and for once it was not the impatient courier man, but Ram Lakhan, our good old postman!Strange it had been a long time since one had seen him. I had almost forgotten the days when one waited for the postman at given times, .. how he had been part...

In many parts of our country and in many lands across our planet, shoes are left outside the homes.. a custom that makes a lot of sense which ever way you look at itif one were to take the image a little further, one could also think of it as a way to leave problems...

let me tell you a tale.once upon not so long ago there lay an unused palace in south delhi district.. it had been a labour court, but then as it lost occupants and soul, it lay empty sometimes utilised for noisy and messy marriage functions that left their plastic...

he who plants a tree, plants a hopesaid Lucy Larcom (1824 - 1893)..never were words written as true as in the case of Preeti and our new aloe vera project...Stop a moment to look at Preeti's smile before your read on...Preeti is 19 though she looks 12.. she suffers...

it was a special day at project why...we had a special guest, one that has been a friend even before he saw our world or met any one of us.rabin came all the way from chennai and spent the whole day with us.his smile won eveyone over and the magic of project why...

As Nutan's story unfolds, India comes to light, with its hard realities and softer truths. Nutan is 30 and is suffering from a severe heart malfunction.Years of ignorance laced with neglect, years of living the life of a woman in a society where women are lesser...

Nutan a mother of four was diagnosed having a severe cardiac malfunction in a district hospital in Bihar and advised immediate corrective surgery. Doctors were optimist.That was two years ago...For two years, Nutan suffered, her condition deteriorating day by day. You...

as children we have all dreamt of what we would want to be when we grow up... i remember wanting to be an air hostess, a nuclear scientist, an astronaut and god knows what else..even slum kids have dreams: they often want to be teachers, doctors.. even actors.. and...

I did not get to see matrubhoomi, young Manish Jha's much acclaimed film...I left for chennai the week of its release and thought I would see it on my return.matrubhhomi did not run for a second week in India's capital city. it got good reviews and was awarded in...

the little fellow in red singing his heart out is Aman a little gypsy child.last wednesday, his mom made him wear his smartest clothes, scrubbed squeaky clean in spite of the paucity of water in the camp where they live and sent him to project why.in days gone by, i...

just got back from chennai and will write about my visit soon ...but today i want to share the joy I felt returning..home!yes this little planet as i like to call it, has become 'home' as isn't home the place you feel wanted, loved, cared for... was it the little...

when the tsunami - a word none of us knew post 26/12 - waves hit the shores of India on a fateful sunday morning, I did not know that it would create ripples in a little planet tucked away in a small delhi slum.we set about collecting money for a boat, and we managed...

Dear Nida,Thank you for your lovely mail and of course you can call me Anu!I chose to answer your mail in this weblog, because much of what I would like to write to you, is what I would like to say to the young women of a land I love with deep passion. I must confess...

I am an Indian expat - living in San Diego, California now. I was born & raised in Delhi, and, like so many others, had become immune to sights and sounds of abject poverty surrounding me everyday. I came across your project while doing some random net surfing during...

If you look at the picture you will see a little tear that is about to fall... why is aditya crying as he clutches his pink bag?Some of you may remeber a post in the June archives of this very blog entitled 'the other WHY', and the same little aditya asking questions...

this week we made it to outlook and for once the article conveyed the reality of project why and its hopes and dreams. For once readers are spared the 'ambassador's daughter' walking the slums, a cliche that makes me mad and has been used ad nauseum...project why came...