The dot you do not see on the picture, is our planet Earth viewed from the Martian sky. It is a beautiful reminder of who we truly are and takes care of any hubris we may be tempted to fall into. This is all 7 billion of us viewed from the heavens above. Makes one feel tiny doesn’t it?
Maybe it is not hubris we should aim for, but its opposite Sophrosyne which is the virtue of healthy-mindedness and from there self-control or moderation guided by knowledge and balance. Sophrosyne is a Greek Goddess considered to be one of the good spirit that escaped Pandora’s box. She is the spirit of moderation, self-control, temperance, restraint, and discretion. Whereas we humans have embraced Hubris with great haste, few of us even know of Sophrosyne.
If we accept that we are the dot you do not see, then we are forced to abandon Hubris and seek Sophrosyne and remember that we are an infinitesimal part of a Universe we have no control on. All we can aspire to is temperance and self control. But sadly that is not the case around us.
If you look around, you see only hubris.
What do you call the politician who once in power forgets all promises and loses all self control and gets busy lining his nest?
What about the one who builds ginormous statues of himself or the one who cuts a birthday cake in the shape of the Parliament House.
What about big brother who wants to gobble others as we are seeing today
Is it not hubris?
What about all the laws and ordinances passed to ensure vote banks are seduced while important ones that may have benefitted many lie gathering dust like the women’s reservation bill
Politicians the world over are devoured by hubris
But that is not all. It is not those in power only; everyone seems to have been seduced by hubris
The young and restless of today have forgotten patience and think Rome was built in a day
No one is satisfied with what they have, even those who have plenty. You always want MORE and hubris seems to blind us all.
Greed, ego and hamartia will ultimately bring us all down.
And everything has conjured to make this possible. When we started our lives Ranjan and I, we had a scooter, no TV and very little in the bank. Things came slowly and steadily as we worked towards getting them. It was the BC days – before credit – and you had to live within your means. Now you can get anything you want. You are even solicited to do so as is proved by the number of calls you get offering you loans and credit cards. Moderation, self-control, temperance, restraint, and discretion are all thrown out of the window.
Hubris breeds impatience. Hubris coaxes illusions of grandeur. And we all fall for it. I guess I did too when I thought I could build Planet Why and let myself be swayed by an impossible dream. And is it not hubris that makes me want to see Project Why live beyond me. Why can I not just accept the maxim: The King is dead, long live the king.
It is time to take a serious look at the dot you cannot see and temper one’s life. It is time we embraced Sophrosyne and accept what wen have been given with gratitude and grace.
The dot you cannot see reminds one of how infinitesimal we are and accept this reality with humility.
Maybe it is time to reintroduce Sophrosyne in our lexicon and with it moderation, self-control, temperance, restraint, and discretion
I start blogging in April 2005. That makes it 21 years and over 2000 blogs. It all started like this. It must have been circa 2003 when I realised that the proverbial ‘pockets’ I easily dug into whenever extra funds were needed were emptying at the speed of light or even faster. All the people one knew had been tapped and thus it was time to seek new pastures. At that time I was slowly discovering the magical word of the world wide web and it must have been around then that the first pwhy website went on line. Actually 2003 was quite a fateful year. It was the year when Utpal fell into the boiling cauldron and entered our lives; when two of our creche children died in strange circumstances and we discovered the apathy of the police who never wanted to register a case; when we were successful in raising funds for Raju’s open heart surgery. It was also the year when we were at the top of our page 3 days and the darling of many who organised stunning evenings and balls to help us raise funds. It was also a time when we were at the height of our fairy tale existence. It was also at the time when someone suggested I join a social network called Ryze. I must confess that I had a tough time building my page and it looked very puerile. But I managed to get quite a few contacts and thus began the pwhy network that is so precious to us today. We had a website that was not quite what I would have liked and I realised to my horror what the cost of maintaining would be. I had 2 options: not to have a site at all – not really an option -, or learn how to maintain it myself. I cannot remember how many nights it took to learn a new language – HTML – but I did. The other things I began doing was sending individual emails to all the people I knew. I had not yet discovered mass mailing or just BCC option. That is when a kind person – God bless him – suggested I start a blog. It would change my life forever.
It was a hesitant beginning but I had a forum where I could share the life of pwhy, the stories of our kids, the little things that happened everyday. I thought of it like a sea captain’s logbook that would preserve the chronicles of pwhy. True it started being just that but somehow mutated almost insidiously into a record of happenings in India viewed through a different prism: that of someone passionately in love with her country and often at a loss in comprehending the stark inequalities between rich and poor, the hidden agendas and corrupt games of the powers that be, the dignified and touching survival modes of the poor. The project why stories took on a larger meaning and I found myself writing about issues I felt important. The tone became harsher, the criticism more acerbic and the mood somber.
Simply making a difference in the lives of the hundreds and more children who came to project why was not enough. True it was important as it was tangible and thus valorising but I felt the need to add my voice to those of others fighting for causes I empathised with. And slowly the fairy tale like stories of project why became far and few. There were more important issues to address.
For me this became a platform to share my thoughts, my anger, my distress, my anguish, my horror and my opinions to aberrations that seemed more the rule than the exception. I wanted to be heard.
In 2009 I began writing my second book. This one was about the project why story. Once I again I opted to write it in the form of letters to a child and entitled it Dear Popples II. The bye line was ‘the project why story’. I wrote about 100 pages without any problem in a very short time. And then one day I simply could not continue. The story stopped circa 2004. It was a strange writer’s block that refused to go. I tried many times to pick up the threads but to no avail. I decided to let it be till the time was right.
One day, maybe in 2013 I found myself opening the abandoned file and reread what I had written and see if I could move on or if not at least figure out what had happened. It took me some time to realise that my pen had stopped at what I call the fairy tale years and that somehow the approach that seemed right for the first 100 pages did not and would not work for the remainder of the story. The bye line could not be ‘the project why story’ but had to become something like ‘India song’. I had two choices either rewrite the whole book or make it in two parts. I opted for the later as only this way will the reader fully appreciate the dynamic and organic nature of project why but also share the changes such an experience has on a human soul. For I cannot shy from the fact that I am in no way the same person I was when it all began. Have I changed for the better? I do not know. I do miss the naive and trusting being I was then and something do not like the bitter and splenetic woman I sometimes seem to have become. Maybe the truth lies in between the two.
Even though I will have to sneak time to write the book, I will continue to blog, as blogging is an immense catharsis for me and I need to rant and rave or else I would blow a fuse, The blogs were not only an account of the trials and tribulations of project why, but also a personal journey where I too have learnt to shed my cynicism and look with my heart no matter what I saw.
But the writer’s block did not go away. Some difficult occurrences in my life saw to that. Be the heart wrenching decision to destroy my parent’s. home due to financial issues in 2017 or the terrible news that befell upon us in 2020 when I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. The following months were harrowing with chemo et al and then all side effects that robbed me of the ability to read and write.
It is only at the beginning of this year – 2026 – that I have picked up my virtual pen again, albeit hesitantly and am now busy going through all the blogs to refresh an ageing memory!
It is time to finish: Dear Popples II – an India Song.
Before I end I Ould like to share what a reader had written way back in 2013
Today I want to write about a blog which energize me each time I visit it. The blog, Projectwhy drowns my cynicism and taunts me too. I often lament about things but don’t do much about it, other than blog. But at projectwhy, one sees the other side of life and the way it is dealt with, in such a sincere manner. The author touches so many lives and continues to shine ever so brightly for them. I also love the way she deals with many of our current issues..
It is not what we GATHER but what we SCATTER, that tells what kind of life we have lived were the words on of the greatest athletes of our times began is speech at a red carpet gala function in Los Angeles in December 2025. He was to receive a life time achievement award. In a room. filled with unimaginable wealth he spoke with calm and intensity.
This is what he said: “We’re sitting here surrounded by comfort, success, and excess, while millions outside these walls are struggling just to survive. If you are blessed with influence and resources and choose not to act, then you are not neutral. You are complicit.” “Privilege is not something to enjoy privately. It’s a responsibility. When you have more than you need, it stops being just yours. Purpose must come before comfort.” “Legacy is not about titles or records,” he said. “It’s about how many lives you lift when no one is watching. Winning means nothing if it ends with you.”
Novak Djokovic announced that he will commit all future earnings from select endorsements, post-career projects, and a significant portion of his business ventures – estimated to exceed $160 million – toward global humanitarian efforts, including children’s education, access to healthcare, food security, and support for families living in extreme hardship.
The effect was immediate. The room fell silent. People were stunned, then everyone stood up and applauded with reverence.
I too was at first stunned when I read these words and then my heart filled with gratitude as here was a man who said what I had always felt at a gathering of the world’s most rich and famous. A chance I would never get’
Nevertheless I have been saying just that for the past 25 years to whoever is willing to listen notwithstanding the fact that many or actually most believed the it was an old woman rambling. I continued to walk the talk and over the past quarter of a century have reached out to thousands in need and will continue to do so till my last breath. I will also pray that Djokovic’s words will resonate and open the hearts of many. It is all about seeing with your heart.
Thank you Novak Djokovic for restoring my faith in humanity and setting a standard. God bless you.
PS. We wrote to the Novak Djokovic foundation and were humbles and elated to receive a prompt reply promising that they would consider our appeal when they start reaching out to other countries. We wait with bated breath.
Memories are the footprints we leave in the sands of time
For the past few days I have been travelling down memory lane and that for a very special reason. In 2015 if my memory serves me right I decided to write the Project Why story. It was time when the elephant in the room ie what happens to Project Why after I go, loomed large and we were looking at diverse options. I somehow intuitively felt that Project Why as I had seeded and nurtured would soon become a thing of the past. It would take on a whole new avatar as it had to be freed from the tender clutches of an ageing lady who had somewhat kept it hidden from the world. A whole new chapter had to be written. I had mixed feelings as every parent whose child is about to leave the nest.
It was also the time whenI realised that the project why story till then was in great part in my head. It was time that I put it on paper. So I began writing in earnest and must have written about 150 pages when a series of unforeseeable events hit me and turned my life on its head. The house that had been my haven after the death of my parents needed to be broken down as it was falling apart. Emptying the house was heart breaking and left me rudderless. That was also the time when I started getting pain in my bones. The next three years were difficult as the pains grew and nothing helped. We moved back in early 2020 to a sparkling new house but to me it felt soulless. The pains were now excruciating. In May 2020 I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, another shock and then underwent chemo. For a long time I found myself unable to read more so write, It was frustrating as writing had somewhat defined me in more ways than one. It would take five long years for me to pick up my virtual pen again and when I dd I felt alive!
Now picking up something you wrote a decade ago is not easy specially when you are dealing with what is called chemo brain. My memory was mush; I. needed an anchor.That is when I remembered the over 1500 blogs I had written and decided to visit them again. A herculean task to say the least but one that proved a heartwarming and incredible experience.
What I thought would be a tedious task turned out to be a wonderful journey down memory lane.When I had written those 1500 blogs it was always subsequent to some occurrence or the other, some good, some disturbing and some even infuriating. As I read through those posts I realised that they were in no ways a linear account of Project Why’s happenings but more a personal reflection of what came my. way and many a times they influenced our journey, made us make course corrections, take on new challenges and steer us on the right path. Just going through 500 posts showed me how amazing our journey has been, a journey one should be proud of. So I am now rearing to finish the Project Why story so that everyone can share this amazing India Song as I recall the footprints we have left on the sands of time.
PS: I rarely put my picture on a blog but decided to share an old snapshot of Utpal, Kiran and me just to remember the good old days!
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” wrote Frederick Douglass. At Project Why we strive to instill the love of reading in all our students.
That is why we have a library period where children can go look at books, feel them, browse hem and be motivated to read them
Our dearest friend and President of Enfances Indiennes is back for a visit. Today he spent quality tie with our special needs children. Shalini and Munna were thrilled to see their very special friend.
Xavier will be with us for a week and will spend time at all our centres,
Welcome back dearest Xavier Sir!
It is Diwali time and once again our very special souls created some beautiful divas for sale. Last week a sale was organised at CSKM school and Azure Hospitality.
In spite of the terrible pollution and primary schools being closed, We had quite a crowd at the CSKM sale as the boarders were there. The primary children came first and bought divas and earthen painted piggy banks adorned with popular cartoon characters. Soon the display table was almost empty and order books came out. The sale of the day was over 10K with 10K worth of orders, We were over the moon.
As always and as part of the vocational training we try and have students participate in such events and this time it was Shalini who went to CSKM and Anurag to Azure Hospitality. They were stellar and a huge help and enjoyed themselves too.
The class X and XII results were declared this week. ALL our students from all our centres have passed with respectable marks. We are so proud of them. We wish class XII all the best in their future endeavours.
2022 turned out to be a rewarding year after many months spent wondering how we would carry on. The pandemic had been a huge blow though we managed to stay the course even on choppy seas. Thanks to all our well-wishers, friends and supporters who never stopped believing in us, we continued our work in spite of all the challenges, with Project Why looking a far cry from the vibrant space it was packed with children and replete with smiles and laughter. The small masked groups of children sitting far from each other, the sanitization between each class, the online classes for the few who had the resources to take them, in no way reflected the spirit of Project Why. To say the least, these were sad times.
But the clouds lifted slowly in the beginning of 2022 and by April 2022 we were almost back on course. At the end of 2022 classes were again jam packed with long waiting lists! But the pandemic had taken its toll on the education graph of our children. Two long years without proper studies, when children got promoted without any teaching having been done. Suddenly a student who was in class VI in 2020 was now in class VII! Needless to say, she was completely lost. It was a huge challenge for our teachers but Project Why teachers are one of a kind and took on the challenge head on. A lot of planning had to be done, but in no time new methods of teaching were adopted, new groups made according to the level of the children and work began in earnest. By the end of 2022, the teachers were pleased to see that most of the gaps had been bridged and were confident that the remaining would be by the close of the academic year in March 2022.
By the end of 2022, the Project Why family was back to its strength of 1200 and we were all happy and relieved. It was not all studies. We resumed our fun activities too. The children went for outings to different places: the crafts museum, the rail museum, the garden of five senses and the Red Fort. On children’s day 45 children were treated to lunch by Azure Hospitality at several outlets of their Dhaba restaurant chain. It was a unique experience. The staff were treated to a day long outing at Pratapgarh Farms courtesy Enfances Indiennes. A wonderful day of fun and bonding.
As always, the children did us proud. Everyone passed their school and Board examinations and two of our students from Okhla got into Delhi University cracking the new All India Entrance Examination. This motivated us to look at beyond class XII. We decided to begin career counselling and also started Spoken English classes and coaching for competitive examinations for Government jobs. These classes are taken by a Project Why alumni and are open to Project Why alumni and the community. The classes are free of cost.
We celebrated all festivals with fervor and fun. The children sang and danced, made posters and wrote slogans and sweets were distributed to all. 2022 was also the return of our volunteers, with Felix, a young volunteer from Germany spending six weeks at the Yamuna centre. We are expecting more volunteers in the coming year.
It was a year when the Gods were kind to us.
In January 2022 we were in a precarious situation on the funding issue. Things looked gloomy as we were short of funds and did not know where to go. But then the Universe sprung into action. The better half introduced us to the Trivedi Foundation who generously accepted to support the Khader and Yamuna centres for a year. Meenal Madhukar, one of our board members brought Mr. Adish Jain into the picture. He and his wife Asha visited the Okhla centre and decided to adopt it for ‘as long as it existed’! That was a huge moment for us. Another board member introduced us to Avantika Chopra who decided to help us full on. She led a crowdfunding initiative with the Fuel-a-Dream platform and managed to raise over 24 lacs. She also helped us increase our visibility in India something we were always wanting to do. She brought in the Max India Foundation who decided to adopt our Giri Nagar centre. We have now inducted Avantika to our Board as an Advisor.
Our regular donors continued their unstinted and generous support be it Enfances Indiennes, Project Why UK or Asha for Education. And to our utmost delight Project Why Germany came back after a short break during the pandemic. We are grateful to each and everyone of them. Their valued contributions allowed us to fill in the gaps and at times undertake much needed repairs. They are the ones who have allowed us to continue our work for over two decades now.
We hope that the Trivedi Foundation and the Max India Foundation will continue their support in 2023.
We will continue to work towards sustainability as only then can I be sure that Project Why will live beyond me. With each passing day my team is taking on more responsibilities and is now communicating with donors. I wait with bated breath for the day I become redundant.
We move into 2023 with renewed fervor and faith.
My eternal gratitude to my team, my Board and all our donors, well-wishers and supporters who stay the course. Without them Project Why would not exist.
Miracles are again waiting to happen in 2023.
Dipika Mukherjee, a well known writer from Chicago was in India recently. She was kind enough to find the time and run a small poetry workshop for the children of our Giri Nagar centre. The children were a little perplexed at first but Dipika soon broke the ice by asking them a simple question: what are you scared of?
The children were hesitant at first but came up with answers in no time: dogs, lizards, snakes, ghosts, the Sanskrit teacher, mom and dad and son, each answer greeted with peals of laughter.
In no time the children were comfortable and Dipika steered them gently into the world of poetry. We were amazed to read what some of the children wrote!
We thank Dipika for giving our children this wonderful opportunity and unleashing the creative juices of these amazing kids.
This is what Dipika wrote about her experience:
Spent a magical afternoon at Project WHY, teaching a poetry workshop. Project Why provides after school remedial education to over 1200 underprivileged children through its five South Delhi centres, located in different slum areas, and the children were an absolute delight, speaking poetry in English and Hindi and drawing pictures when words failed them.
The Yamuna centre children had their very first sports ‘day’ with different and fun games. They really had great fun as this was something new for them. We hope that we can do more sports activities and maybe even organize a real Sports Day event in the center.
Project Why provides after school remedial education to over 1200 underpriveleged children through its five South Delhi centres, located in different slum areas. Project Why also works with women from within the same slum communities to provide them with skills to make them financially independent. With this aim in mind, a sewing unit was inaugurated for women in the Govindpuri Slum Area on May 16,2022 with just twenty women. In this centre, women are being taught basic sewing skills, embroidery, hemming and frock design. The strength of the class has grown to fifty ever since. To begin with, the women are offered a six month basic training course, free of cost and have the option of extending it to a year for advanced training. At the end of the course, these women are given a certificate for their qualification. Our sewing teachers are all qualified in sewing and design training.
On Saturday, our Giri Nagar Primary students from classes 4th to 6th went for an outing to the Nehru Place Fire Station. There they saw Fire engines, and were told basic knowledge of what happens in the station and how every thing works and also had a ride in the truck. Soon, we would like to take our secondary children also to the Fire station, they will enjoy and understand more.
After a long break of more than two years lunches have resumed at Yamuna centre much to he delight of the children and their parents. These scrumptious lunches are provided by Azure hospitality a staunch supporter of Project Why. Thank you Kabir for this wonderful gift.
On the menu: dal, potato and peas curry, rotis and rice!
Bon appetit!
After more than two years Project Why welcomed four volunteers from France. Tancrede, Ahmed, Candide and Cyril belong to the prestigious business school ESSEC in France. Their association Sari has been sending us volunteers for many years. We are delighted to welcome them to Project Why and hope they will have a meaningful stay.
I have a lot to be grateful for! We survived the pandemic almost unscathed. Thanks to our die hard supporters we were able to ride the storm and find our way back to days gone by after two years of uncertainty.
Schools have now reopened and we are inching back to a new normal. The children are back and the centres are once again humming with activity. The sound of children laughing albeit behind masks is nothing short of heart warming. New patterns have emerged with smaller groups and longer hours but that is a small price to pay. Everyone is thrilled and ready to go.
The gods too are smiling and showering us with their choicest blessings. After years of a hand to mouth existence, where every end of month found me gnawing at my nails wondering how we would meet the expenses of yet another month, we finally were able to secure some long term funding. Two of our centres, namely Khader and Yamuna were adopted for at least a year and Okhla was adopted for as long as it would exist. And to crown it all, a crowdfunding initiative yielded far more than anticipated. Our long term funders continue to be by our side. We can breathe easy, at least for some time. This is a first for Project Why. I am enjoying every minute, at least for the time being. I know that the search for funds will have to resume and we are ready for that when the time comes.
But today I want to express my gratitude to those who ensured that this year will be an easy one. Khader and Yamuna was adopted by the Trivedi Foundation thanks to the unrelenting efforts of my life partner. Okhla was adopted by the Jain Foundation thanks to our dear board member Meenal and the fundraising effort was made possible by the dynamism and never say die attitude of Avantika and her band of friends. To all of them I say ‘Chapeau Bas’!
We may have to face another upheaval as Delhi schools may shift to a single shift mode thus making our present model of boys in the morning and girls in the afternoon redundant. Children will only be free post lunch and the team is busy working out a new pattern. We may have to change timings and run the centres till late evening. But we are ready for that too.
We will also have to find new activities for the mornings where the centres, barring Yamuna, will be empty. Many ideas are being mooted: sewing classes, spoken English classes, adult literacy classes etc. This will take a little time to set up but I am sure that by the end of the summer vacation we will be ready to go.
New and exciting times await us and I am looking forward to them.
For now I am simply busy being grateful.
The children, staff and management of Project Why wish you a very happy 2022!
In April 2022 I turn 70. A milestone in any life. A time when you feel the need to pause and look back at the years gone by. A time to look at your life with utmost honesty: the ups and downs, the successes and failures, the joy and sadness. Seven decades is a long time and I do not intend to subject you to life long reminiscences. Today I just intend to look back at the last two decades.
2000 is a watershed moment in my life as that is when Project Why began its work on the field. Project Why is undoubtedly the sum of my existence as I poured into it all that I had learnt and experienced over half a century as well as my hope and dreams: be it the lessons learnt at my parents’ knee, the joy of becoming a parent, the challenges faced at the workplace, the anger felt at all injustice, the desire to change things and so much more.
Project Why became the new challenge I embraced in my 50thyear. As my thoughts travel back I remember the little street and tiny mud house where it all began. I remember how Manu’s plight seared my soul and compelled me to find the first answer to that very resounding why. That was the beginning of an exhilarating journey where the sky was the limit. From a mere 20 we became 40 then 100 and reached 1000 in no time. We opened new centres in different locations, each to answer yet another why. Our enthusiasm was almost hubristic but somehow the Universe helped us in extraordinary ways bringing us support from the world over.
I look back at the wonderful family we became: the children, the teachers but also a plethora of people from many lands who came and volunteered with us and left an indelible mark in our hearts. Some even came back many times! Very precious legacy.
But it was not just a fairy tale. Project Why brought to the fore the many social inequities, the injustices and the ever growing gap between the privileged and underprivileged. This compelled me to raise my voice. This is how I began to blog. The attitude of the powers that be was nothing short of incomprehensible leading to ugly spats. But we overcame all.
This walk down memory lane is meant to be honest and I would be failing if I did not look at the failures, the biggest one being our inability to seed a proper sustainability option. It is not that we did not try. Our biggest attempt was Planet Why. Alas we were unable to raise the funds needed. If I look back with brutal honesty one would have to admit that the ‘success’ of our hand to mouth existence clouded our ability to see the writing one the wall. What we resorted to was crisis management. Not the best way to go.
Once again we face a crisis. True we will need to go into crisis management mode, but it is time we looked beyond. It is time to build our sustainability model. That is what I pledge to do as Project Why deserves to live beyond me.
So much for reminiscences. Time to look at the year gone by. In a nutshell 2021 was the year we seeded Project Why 2.0. It took a while as the situation on the ground kept changing. Schools barely opened and online teaching was here to stay. However the past year had taken its toll on the education of children from underprivileged homes and it became imperative for us to work a hybrid model that would address the situation. Project Why 2.0 aimed at bringing back children to school. That is what we are in the process of doing.
It was not an easy year. I end it with abundant gratitude to my team, the Board, and our supporters and funders who stayed with us in these harrowing times. Without them Project Why would not be.
I do not know what 2022 will bring us. I just know miracles are waiting to happen.
With love
Anou
In March 2020 Project Why as we knew it for twenty long and exciting years had to shut its doors. Somehow we all knew that things would never be the same again. For months we battled the new challenges and slowly crafted Project Why 2.0.
Project Why 2.0
BRINGS BACK 800+ CHILDREN TO SCHOOL
ENSURES THAT EACH CHILD IS BACK TO HER/HIS CLASS LEVEL
IMPARTS CRITICAL LIFE SKILLS
GIVES EACH CHILD A VOICE
ENSURES THAT EACH CHILD COMPLETES HER/HIS SCHOOLING
Mataji breathed her last yesterday evening.
I met her for the first time in May 2000 when I had gone to her in the throes of the deep grief I had sunk in after the untimely death of both my parents. For years I had just lpcked myself up and lost the key. No doctor, or soothsayer had been able to help me get out of the hole I had sunk in. It was the young woman who came to do my nails that hesitantly told me about her as she feared I would not accept to go to a slum as that is where Mataji reigned. But my grief was so raw that I was willing to go every and anywhere I could find solace.
She lived in a temple, where Gods and humans lived side by side in perfect harmony. The tiny abode was a cornucopia of eclectic things that the senses took time to get used to, but notwithstanding the initial shock, it was the feeling of peace and love that embraced you as you stepped in the tiny door. I found myself going day after day to that haven of peace. Slowly I shared my grief and the loss I felt and she gently just kept telling me that it would all be OK. All I needed to do was to transform the negative energies I had let myself sink in to something that would make my parents proud.
I did not know how but as I spent time with her, the answer came. To all of you who have followed my journey the answer was Project Why!
It is Mataji who found us the first tiny slum tenement that we would buy and begin our work in. It is in a corner of her home that we set up our first office and it is with her blessings that became who we are today. She helped us weather every storm and fought with the community when detractors raised their ugly heads.
For almost two decades my day would begin with a stop at her temple and a lovely cup of tea shared with her. It was the highlight of my day. But with the pandemic and then my being diagnosed with multiple myeloma that lovely ritual stopped.
For the last year or so I hardly met her. With my immunity being at its nadir I gad to remain locked up in my home and got news of her ailing health from Shamika or Rani. Even today I will not be able to pay my respects. But Mataji and I have her heart connect and I know she knew that she was always in my heart.
For Project Why its is the end of an era. The only way we can honour Mataji is by continuing our work with renewed commitment with the hope that she continues showering our blessings on us.
I have lost a mentor, a guide, a friend….
May she rest in heavenly peace.
Meet Himanshu our class 12 topper!
We are proud to present our new monthly newsletter: The Project Why Family Gazette.
I has been months since I have not written a word. It is not that I did not want to write. I just could not. Each time I sat at my computer hoping to write something, my brain would go mushy. Thoughts would vanish or become incomprehensible and the ensuing frustration would make me shut my computer in anger. I had heard of ‘chemo brain’ but never knew that it would be so debilitating. My chemotherapy stopped way way back in October 2020, but the side effects are still here with me the biggest one being this d**** chemo brain!
But today, the head seemed lighter and the urge to write was strong. So here I am trying to string one word after the other in the hope that I come up with something coherent. I will just let my thoughts flow and try and remember the past few months.
The biggest joy that came into my life was little Inaya. She landed in my lap on a cold January morn looking at the me with big eyes filled with trust and hope. She was 7 months old. Inaya is my granddaughter, Shamika’s adopted child. A real gift from God! And as I looked into her eyes I too was filled with hope: hope that all will be well, that the clouds would lift, that I would heal from my terrible ailment, that Project Why would be safe for years to come. In short that all my dreams would come true.
Inaya brought with her the strong belief that nothing is impossible. You just have to hold on like she did for 7 long months in an orphanage waiting for someone to rescue her. What I learnt from that is that no matter how bleak things get, there is light at the end of all tunnels.
Inaya is 15 months now and has set the mood for our household. She is a feisty little person who has each one of us dancing to her tune. There is no room for sadness; only laughter and joy.
Since she has come my health has improved and I am now feeling well. I am out of the stranglehold of conventional treatments – chemo etc..- and into alternative therapies. My blood counts are holding and the myeloma seems to be in check. I hope I can sail this course steadily.
Project Why took a set back and is in the process of reinventing itself. Our teachers have met all challenges head on and fine-tuned their online teaching approach. Due to the pandemic we have lost some children but have now open our doors to new entrants as the present online teaching enables us to do so. But online teaching is not sufficient for underprivileged children and hence we have decided to call students in tiny groups – maximum of 4 at a time – to clear their doubts and help them in this critical situation.
The sad reality is that the pandemic has hit education at all levels, but more so education for the less privileged. We need to come up with a flexible approach with on line and face to face teaching. We are in the process of doing just that.
Our staunch supporters have stood by us and hence we were able to remunerate all our staff even during the pandemic but our secure funding meets about 60% of our needs so we still need to find new avenues to raise the shortfall. We are trying to approach institutions and corporates. Fingers crossed!
At this juncture we do not know what the future holds. Are we going to see more lockdowns and new deadly waves? Are schools going to reopen soon? Will life ever go back to what it was? To the last question the answer seems to be no! We are going to have to come up with a new normal where masks and social distancing will be par to the course. We just need to accept the new normal and carry on.
The fact that I could write this blog is yet another miracle. Has the time come to say Bye Bye chemo brain! I certainly hope so. But I will take it one day at a time and let Inaya lead the dance.
We are happy to announce our second Piano Recital by Ranjan the benefits of which will go to Project Why. This time Ranjan will take us on a nostalgic tour of the fifties and sixties. Harry Belafonte, Elvis Presley and many others. the concert will stream live of Facebook, Instagram and Zoom. The date is June 20th 7pm Indian Standard Time.
In January of this year, we opened a beauty skills centre for the women of the community. This is to teach the ladies new skills and make them more independent.
In this centre, we have employed the mother of one of our ex students.
In the first 6 months, the ladies learnt the basic and now many of them are doing well and have started earning after learning this new skill.
In the month of September, the first batch completed level one ( basic of beauty course)