by Anuradha Bakshi | Feb 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
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 support network till he decided to move away. My friend seemed a little disturbed at this. At the time I let it pass and we moved on to other matters.
It is only much later that I pondered about the whole matter and wondered why someone would make such a change. I guess the answer is simply because activism has greater impact and is more visible. Or is because working on the field makes you more aware of wrongs that need to be righted? Be it the skewed education system or the non-existent child protection laws. Or one is tempted to go even further: the possibility to change social systems. It is true that when you are engaged in imparting education to a handful of children, as no matter how many you reach it out, it only remains a handful in a land as large as ours, your vision is limited and your scope restricted. And its is also true that when you have done this for years, your desire to redress torts becomes more acute. So for many the time comes to move on to a place where you feel you can make a real difference. And the sphere of activism beckons you.
I wondered whether after 10 years of battling grass root issues I too could one day be so tempted. The answer was a loud and clear NO! I have my reasons and the one that stands foremost in my mind is that children cannot wait and need to be helped now as they sadly do not have time on their side. For them tomorrow is already too late. So no matter how small the handful, for them you are the only chance they have and for me each and every child has a right to that chance.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Feb 25, 2010 | Uncategorized
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 and bottled to beat on, or paint to splash with.
Yesterday they were gifted a bounce ball and though they had never seen one before, it did not take them time to figure it out and get going, and everyone had her or his turn. It did not matter if you could walk or hear, you indeed could bounce. And bounce they did! And for a few minutes time again stood still, everything was forgotten as they bounced to their hearts content.
These precious and unique moments were caught on camera by our photographer volunteer Lorraine. So come bounce with them and have a .. ball!
by Anuradha Bakshi | Feb 22, 2010 | Uncategorized
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 interpreted with the wisdom only children have. For them dreams and reality coalesce and the yet impossible becomes very real. Or is it that they have the gift of seeing in the future? I do not know. To me Naomi’s words are blessed; perhaps a message from my friends the God of small beings at a time when I needed to be reassured.
Below is a transcription of Naomi’s leaflet..
Hello, we are project why the charity that helps children In India.
Did you know that over 11 million children are homeless in India. Did you also know that families of 6-7 live in slums which are not much bigger than the back of a small van.
How we help
When a poor child can walk they are sent to beg on the streets until they reach the age of six when they are sent to school where most pupils would have learnt to write because they had gone to private kindergarten school. For those who are poor and cannot afford kindergarten do not understand school as they have not learnt the basics. So we at project why started running free kindergartens and have also been helping children with their homework.
Once they finish school they come and work at the new hotel we have built and when they are ready we move them to work in other hotels. So children can have a good start in life. The children of India need project why and we need money to help them...
by Anuradha Bakshi | Feb 16, 2010 | Uncategorized
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 that. These are the same rulers who take but a day to vote an increase in their own salaries! And let me set the record straight: the right to education bill has been passed, but its implementation is still a long way coming.
But let us talk of the ground reality and here I am not talking about the underprivileged child. Nursery admissions in up market schools have just closed and once again an innumerable number of children are left in the lurch as they have not made it! In a land where education is a right, children are rejected at the tender age of three. You see they do not live on the right street, or have parents who have not been to the right school, or are the wrong gender, or have no siblings. Maybe they need to petition to God to give them the right credentials before they are sent to be born in a land called India!
Oops I forgot to add one thing: their parents do not have the right bank balance as this year again slammed doors could be opened if a fat cheque was handed out. I know of one case where a parent was asked 10 lacs (on million) by a well known school! In many cases a real mission impossible.
The writing is on the wall: there are too many children and not enough schools, an ideal situation for commercial enterprise and a quick buck. But hold on. If you look around the city, in every nook and corner you will find what is know as a sarkari school (government run school). Prime space that far too often houses a ramshackle single storied building. Imagine if each of these could be transformed into a state of the art multi storied building that was run to perfection. Utopia? Not quite. Actually the real answer to education woes. However there is one small hitch. The likes of us would have to accept to have one’s child rub shoulders and share benches with the children of a lesser God.
It may not happen willingly but maybe as force majeure. When there are no more up market schools to take our kids or when the money needed becomes far beyond our shrinking pockets. Is the common neighborhood school slowly becoming an inevitable reality?
by Anuradha Bakshi | Feb 13, 2010 | Uncategorized
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 of someone who had just discovered us.
I sat a long while pondering over them. How true they were. In my now almost ten years of soliciting and panhandling I have never wanted to shock anyone. I remember how upset I always felt when anyone dared suggest that we use sad pictures to showcase our work. I was anathema to me. Pwhy could and would never be a sad place. It is true that people tend to loosen their purse strings more easily when faced with pathos but that was never the way we wanted to go. We were in the business of crafting smiles and creating joy and that is what we always sought to share with one and all and what we asked was help to continue to do so!
I would, I must admit, never have thought of using the words permission to continue our work but come to think about it that is exactly what it amounted to. Every time we requested help in any form it was simply to allow us to carry on what we were doing: ensuring that one more batch of students complete their studies or move into the next class, ensuring that a group of little souls are able to acquire the skills needed to enter the portals of a school, ensuring that a bunch of very special kids spend one more day of their lives in laughter and joy. Simple things that should ordinarily happen without much ado, but that often come at a price for children of a lesser God. Every penny we sought and continue to seek is to do just that. No more, no less.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Feb 7, 2010 | Uncategorized
Heaven grant that the burden you carry may have as easy an exit as it had an entrance wrote Erasmus. A graceful exit and the appropriate time is undoubtedly something we all aspire and hope for. And yet when we charge into an open door we seldom think of how we will exit it when the need arises. New doors beckon us with promises of news and uncharted journeys and far too often follow our heart and sink deeper into unknown land. This is what happened to me exactly 10 years ago. The door in question was the one that had project why written on it.
I must admit that it was a lot like Alice in her Wonderland. One road led to another. And as I stepped into each one of them wonders greeted me and engulfed me. Soon I found myself surrounded by little souls egging me to act and fulfill their hopes. I did to the best of my ability. And as time passed, I found myself in the middle of a complex labyrinth from where the entrance door was no more visible. In the initial years that was not important as optimism and passion clouded all rational vision. But then slowly I found myself looking for that elusive exit door. It could of course not be the one I entered through as that would mean going back and I knew that that was no more an option. I had to find one that allowed a graceful exit, one that would ensure that all that I had been lovingly and patiently crafter remained intact and even thrived after I had quietly tiptoed away.
For the past few months I have been looking for that exit door. There have been many I knocked on but then had to abandon as they lead to nowhere. But then one day a tiny door beckoned me: it had the words planet why written on it. I opened it hesitantly and was awestruck. What met my eye seemed far too colossal for me to fathom. How could I make what I was seeing ever happen? And yet as I looked deeper I saw a tiny door marked Exit at the other side. To reach it I knew I had to make planet why happen.
Note: Planet Why is our sustainability vision. It is a guest house the proceeds of which would enable us to continue the work we have been engaged in for the past ten years
