by Anuradha Bakshi | Dec 6, 2009 | Uncategorized
I recently sent a mail to a dear friend, staunch supporter and incredible human being informing him about amongst other things my recent award. I his usual gentle and unassuming manner he sent his heartfelt congratulations and a link stating simply: In fact I’ve been getting some press lately as well–In fact I’ve been getting some press lately as well! When I opened the link I feel off my chair: Willy has been selected for the Rhodes Scholarship!
If anyone ever deserved if it Willy.
I have know Willy for two years now but it seems I always knew him as he is what I would like every young person in the world to be like. He slipped into our lives via an email offering help. It sounded like no big deal. But Willy Oppenheim is one of a kind. When I first interacted with him via emails, I never would have imagined Willy was what we call just a kid, the kind who go pubbing and hand around with friends and have just barely grown out of GI Joes and Ben Tens! At the age when young people actually do that, Willy and his friends were busy finding ways to make a difference and boy they did. They set up the omprakash foundation and began reaching out to the less privileged the world over.
When I first met Willy in the very early hours of a summer morning in Delhi, when I had just woken up and he was still not asleep having just landed, I was deeply moved. Though we had never met and though almost 3 decades separated us in age, we hugged as old friends would. It seemed just right as we both knew how to see with our hearts.
Today Willy is not only a friend, but someone I turn to when I need a sounding board for new ideas, when I need reassurance, when I feel a little low and need to be uplifted and also when I need help and he has always been there for me. Thanks to the omprakash foundation we at pwhy have weathered many a storm and also own a great library with thousands of books.
I will end this post by quoting the opening para of Willy’s application essay for the Rhodes Scholarship: I spent my adolescent years idolising the men with whom I worked in construction in rural Maine. The chasm between this environment and my affluent Connecticut hometown made me self-conscious of my privilege and determined to forgo college until I felt that my elite education could benefit someone other than myself. As an eighteen year old volunteer teacher in India, I was suddenly invigorated by the idea that i could use my relationships with local educators to amplify their voice before a global audience an d help avid the tendency of development efforts to patronize and disempower those they intend to serve…
Willy has already done more than that! The children of project why join me in sending their congratulations to their Willy Bhaiya!
by Anuradha Bakshi | Dec 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
I proud to be Indian was the strange title of a Bollywood potboiler and in spite of the wrong syntax of the title, it somehow stuck in my mind. Yesterday we took little Sohil to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. We had known for some time that he needed surgery to treat his hydrocephalus but it was the visit of Jeff that made us realise the urgency of the matter. Jeff had seen a child wit hydrocephalus turn into a vegetable in a remote village in Afghanistan as he has not received the simple surgery that would have made all the difference.
This set us into action. Old diaries were perused and the phone number of an eminent neurosurgeon was retrieved. I am sure the God of lesser beings decided to play his past as the doctor normally quite difficult to track down was available and yesterday we took Sohil to meet him. For those of you who have never been to an AIIMS OPD let me try and give you a description. Imagine a crowded railway station hall and multiply the numbers. In it place four doors on opposite corners, each having a doctor and in front of the door imagine the kind of queue you would have in front of a ticket sales counter on opening day of a long awaited movie and multiply it by four. The crowd is a medley of young and old, rich and poor and you can even add a prisoner chained to a gun holding cop. Voila! The stage is set. Now because you know the doctor you have been told to break the queue but that in itself is a herculean task. You somehow manage and though at that time you do not understand how you did, you realise later that unlike movie halls and railway platforms, there is no aggressive behaviour, no anger, no resentment. Actually people make way and even smile at the little child you are holding in your arms.
You reach the doctor’s room which is tiny and also overcrowded. You sit in a corner and wait while the doctor informs a family that has come all the way from a village in Orissa that there young son has a brain tumour. This is done gently. The family is told that there is hope. Then your turn comes.
Doctor Suri takes time to examine Sohil and then tells us to get the tests done in private labs as the waiting list is too long. He reassures us that Sohil will be well and that he will operate on him personally. And as we hear those words we are moved to tears. In that tiny overcrowded room here is only hope and life. And the man doling this in ample measure is one of the finest doctr you can find as not only is he a good doctor, but he is one that has not been lured by the outside world and has stood by the oath he once took. My heart fills with pride and the funny title comes to my mind: I proud to be Indian!
But the story does not end there. The tests and operation will require funds. Two young volunteers, Cat and Lukas, have accompanied me and they both decide without batting an eye lid to sponsor the tests and want them done immediately. They will be done today and on Friday we will return to the doctor and get the final diagnosis and surgery date.
In the evening I call Jeff and tell him about our visit and the need to find funds for the surgery. He will sponsor it! Jeff is my son-in-law and the money is the Xmas budget of my little family.
So today I proud to be Indian, grandmom, mom, mom-in-law and proud of project why!
Thank you Jeff, Parul, Agastya, Cat, Lukas, Benoit and Doc Suri for giving Sohil many bright morrows.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Nov 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
Dear Papa,
It has been exactly 17 years since you left and there has not been a single day that you have not been on my mind. Our journey began almost 58 years ago when I clutched your finger as I saw the first light of day and breathed my first whiff of air. It is your hand I held as I took my fist step and you I looked up to each time I needed to be reassured or praised. And even though you are gone I still feel your presence. Somehow I never let got of that finger.
You taught me everything but above all Papa, you taught me to look with my heart, something I held on to and never let go. And that made the rest easy and possible.
If not for your my life would have remained barren and empty. You gave me the strength to walk the high road no matter how difficult the journey, you taught me not to give up on dreams how impossible they seemed and the belief that the morning always dawned no matter how long the night.
Yesterday I received an award recognising the work I had done for the last ten years. This one is for you as you are the one that made me worthy enough to get it. Today thanks to what you taught a little girl many little lives have changed and many children smile and believe in tomorrow. And I see you in each and everyone of them.
Today again I look up to you to be reassured. The journey is still long and I need your strength to ensure that my steps do not falter and that I reach the end of the road.
I miss you
Anou
by Anuradha Bakshi | Nov 28, 2009 | Uncategorized
The award ceremony is over. The lights have dimmed and the next morn dawned. There was no glitter or glamour. An informal press conference in a sunny garden, the actual award giving in congenial surroundings and a day long conclave on corruption. It was all in all a simple yet memorable event. And what made it so was not pomp and show or sheer numbers but the kind of people present. It is probably the first time I had the privilege to be with so many souls who saw with their hearts.
There was the special band of organisers that were undeterred by the fact that no sponsors had come forward and determined to make the event memorable and follow their dream and honour those who shared it: the remarkable young man who withstood months of detention and then celebrated his freedom by helping others regain theirs, the slum dweller who broke the circle of poverty and decided to help other children form slums do the same, there was a group of young men passionately fighting for the dreams of millions of marginalised children and a princess from a faraway land giving hope to little girls. And these are just a few. They came from all walks of life and all parts of India and other lands. They had come together to right every wrong in whatever way they could. The mind of people not deterred by obstacles big or small, not swayed by cynics or doomsayers. They believed that tomorrow existed and was just a night away. And that had all come together to proclaim this loud and clear.
It was wonderful to be in a space where only positive energies had right of way. The mood was upbeat and buoyant. True people shared their problems but the solution was a sentence away. And if one did not work, one knew there were many others that would be tried till the problem was overcome. What a gathering it was. One that spelt hope and promise.
For me it was a privilege to be there though I felt very small and humbled. Yet I came out of the experience a changed person. I realised how much more there was to do but for the first time nothing seemed daunting or impossible, I just knew I would reach the end my journey.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Nov 25, 2009 | Uncategorized
The field was barren, rocky, uneven, patchy and strewn with empty plastic cups and bags. The players: a bunch of slum kids, an eager young German football fan and a business school student from France. The day was sunny and spirits soared high.
Welcome to the project why secondary kids first football match of the season: an initiative of young Lukas, a volunteer from Koln who is with us for a couple of months. And there are more to come.
Unfortunately I was not there but the pictures and the excitement of young Lukas as he recounted the event were sufficient to know that it had been a great game. I was thrilled to learn that the children played extremely well and that some were good enough to be in a team. And yet I knew that these kids would never make it, not because they lacked talent or motivation, but simply because once again we as adults had failed them. The state of the field – actually the sports ground of the two local secondary schools – said it all. Barren, rocky, dirty. Such is the state of sports in state run schools in spite of hefty budgets. And slowly with time the enthusiasm and talent dwindle and vanish and with them the dreams of simple children.
And yet all is takes to reignite them is a young boy from another land who dreams football and comes from miles away to share his dream with children from a Delhi slum.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Nov 19, 2009 | Uncategorized
The children of the special section went for a picnic yesterday. For a whole week everyone had been busy planning the event. Lists were made, plans discussed. Everyone agreed on the menu: samosas of course and frootis to drink. Shamika and Cat our volunteer from the UK decided to bake a batch of brownies and some banana cake. Then it was time to decide about what else to take: mats of course but also hoola hoops, Frisbees, balls and the badminton set. Everything was retrieved and dusted and made ready. Notes were sent to the parents and everyone was ready to go. The excitement was palpable.
The picnic morning finally dawned and everyone was there on time, even the ones who usually come late and everyone was dressed in their best clothes. The star of the show was undoubtedly little Radha whose brittle bones and distorted legs were forgotten for the day as she turned up in a flouncy skirt trimmed with fake fur! Wonder where she ever got it from. Two big cars had been hired for the day and it was time to go. The chosen spot: the Lodi Garden.
For the next few hours these wonderful children of a lesser god forgot all their woes: their dark and stifling homes, the abuse and slander, the sadness and hurt. For the next few hours they were just like other children running on the grass, basking in the sun, playing games and laughing as they never had. Never mind if some could not walk, hear or talk. For those few hours they reclaimed their usurped right: that of being children. It was touching and heartwarming to watch them: a truly blessed moment. I wonder if the god of lesser being was also smiling.
You can share some of these very special moments:
I recently sent a mail to a dear friend, staunch supporter and incredible human being informing him about amongst other things my recent award. I his usual gentle and unassuming manner he sent his heartfelt congratulations and a link stating simply: In fact I’ve been getting some press lately as well–In fact I’ve been getting some press lately as well! When I opened the link I feel off my chair: Willy has been selected for the Rhodes Scholarship!