Small Acts of Kindness

Field work comes with its own incentives. Starting the day early, travelling to remote places- that too in a scorching summer don’t seem to be very exciting. However, the encounters with people, ideas and missions make it all worthy. This time the field visit was to Prantij, a small town, around 30 kms away from Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

Schools in the rural set up as such leave me thinking. The discrepancies, hopes, despair, complacency and remedies- all strike at once, at various levels. There is so much left to do and to trickle down to that level. It is very easy to succumb to pessimism saying, “One person alone cannot really do any good!”

After completing three schools, and commuting while thinking about all these, I found myself staring at a small building of Prantij School No. 7. It was the fourth school of the day and completing the task was more on mind than anything else at that time. Field work is a complete reality check for all the arm-chair ideologies we flaunt around! It requires grit and efforts to sustain there.  

As I entered the school, I realized that the whole school was just two classrooms in total! One class room, which was bigger in size was also the principal’s office, staff room and also served as a common classroom for first and third graders- all clubbed in one! For the other primary classes, there was a corridor, which also worked as an open classroom as well as mid day meal cooking and serving area! The staff was all in all of four teachers including the principal. 

The school lacked resources and that was evident. However, this seemingly small and insignificant school- both because of the building size and student strength reaffirmed my idea of goodness.  

Before around 60- 70 years, one local freedom fighter Mr. Purushottam Solanki, whose grand children own the school building today, decided to rent this building out. The purpose was to have more children from the surrounding slums area come and study. The rent amount was fixed at Rs. 96/-. Purushottam bhai did that to overcome the discriminations faced by the untouchable children of those slum areas which excluded them from other schools. It indeed was a good gesture by the freedom fighter. But, the story doesn’t end here.

As real estate is picking up, even in Prantij, schools are being reshuffled and buildings are being sold off. In such scenario, there is not a single reason why this school building should stay! Also because the school strength is very limited. The infrastructure is flawed. Even the parents of these students would not mind if their children do not study.

However, the grand children of Purushottam bhai still do not want to encash upon it! For them, this land, which can otherwise get them the rent of at least Rs. 5 to 10,000/- a month is better off as a school- at least it is igniting some minds, at least it will help these children live a better livelihood.  

Do you know what is the monthly rent charged now after 50 odd years? 

It is still Rs. 96/-.

Noise, Sound and Voice

I have returned to writing after more than a year!!! Yes, because 2013 was preparing me for life- fine tuning me and building my experiential vocabulary! And hence, I return, evolved to a new orbit :)

Cribbing for 'travel for work' is usual. We all do! It becomes boring, tiring and keeps you away from family and leaves you no time to even sight see and shop as you are WORKING! Well, well, in that case I am one of those few lucky ones who get to learn wherever they go! And so, as far as learning continues, I do not crib about it! Recently, I happened to 'travel for work' to a Mumbai based NGO- Save The Children India. It was a usual visit for work. But I had a life impacting experience there. STCI works closely with under privileged children. While there are many facets of their contributions, I will restrict myself to all that I saw during my short visit!

Mumbai, being Mumbai, I started early- much much before time to reach the venue- and I actually made
there much before time! :D And my learning began as I waited for people to come in. While I travelled across Mumbai to reach this place- by snaking through and crossing several rushing cars, across suburbs;  by staying traffic arrested for several minutes and almost internalizing honks as the next sound to that of my breath, on reaching this place, the only noise was of SILENCE- yes, metaphorically and literally!

I realized that I was at an organization that also managed a school for speech and hearing impaired children from surrounding slum areas! All that was heard in the building premise was SILENCE. It was a stark contradiction to experience silence in the city which has gone deaf to people’s emotions, mainly because of its pace! Soon students started flocking in. Initially, I just saw them mindlessly. Yes, I was dumbfounded. Two of them were talking to each other. In front of me. And I was not able to understand! Yes, they were talking in the sign language. Well, what impressed me the most was that they were not unhappy for what they had not got. From all that I could gather, they were perhaps talking about a teacher who scolded one of them and about some girls ;) It looked so normal, yet so quiet! The walls on the stair ways were beautifully done up with lovely craft work by children!

A girl, with green ribbons on her tiny braids, pink ear-rings and colourful slippers, climbed the stairs, greeted her teacher in the sign language and moved on to go to her class. All without words. They did not have words, but they were at no loss of it. They were expressing all their emotions through signs. Thankfully, my senses returned and I started shooting them! Despite all the reasons to feel incomplete, these children were all cheerful- boys styling their hair like Salman Khan and girls, shying away looking at them, some kid hitting the other and the latter showing power by pulling the former by collars! All so live, all so much like every other school! But, all you hear is SILENCE. All you hear is language with a unique dialect. 

They all prayed! Yes. They did. And this is how it looked and sounded! Only to remind me of Shree Jaggi Vasudev's saying- "Language is a conspiracy between two individuals!":) This experience stamped it CORRECT! It also reiterated for me that prayers never need correct grammar. All they need is correct intention. 

Almost all of them had hearing aids on their ears. Don't we also often need them? Don't we also periodically turn deaf to our dear ones' emotional cries and demands? Because we have speech, we insist so much on the right words than the right intentions! Using words, we highlight our troubles and underplay our happinesses! We suppress our inner voices by the noise of words. In fact, we have confused it big time! BIG TIME! The voice, noise and sound! All have got mixed up! Alas! there are no hearing aids available that can help tune in emotions!

This 45- 50 minutes taught me a lot about how we see our problems. I realized that there are always enough reasons to celebrate life- in all its imperfections! I learnt the difference between sound, noise and voice! It taught me the difference between communication and dialogues! Everything that I just knew till then, I saw, experienced and internalized. Sharing this here, because there is a lesson that I was awarded as a trophy that day, and which I want to pass onto as many as I can. That is "Our hardships are not as hard as the hardships of others."

So, cheers to life! It is worth celebrating with all its existing imperfections!

Caved for Liberation

Verul, commonly known as Ellora, is a cluster of caves spread in the area of around 3-5 kms. Like any other heritage structure, this also has those beautiful sculptures to WOW for, which attracts globetrotters. But the unique SILENCE that it acquires once the abuzz of inquisitive tourists is overcome, is what makes it worth visiting!

30 km away from the city of Aurangabad, the Charanandri hills are in sight sooner on beginning the travel. However, reaching there requires efforts and time both. Each turn of road, through a new hill, taking a little higher, makes the city look tiny-miny- non-existent-yet-fully inhabited. My trip by the State Transport Bus added to contemplation due to the wait accompanied with the growling of aged engine and resulting incapacity to perform the uphill journey. Hence, I sat there watching, helplessly deriving comparisons! Mountains are like relations. The real distance between the two becomes evident as one approaches the relation. After an effortful journey, when one reaches the peak, there is a breathtaking view awaiting to unravel itself- view of the bondages that was not available on the distanced plains. 

The hills of Charanandri have been excavated into beautiful shrines. Walls featuring huge sculptures, events and pastimes of Gods of different faiths- Shiv, Mahavir and Buddh. Excavated at different times, the caves lead a historian to focus on the changing impacts and spread of religions through this; the artist to observe the efforts and skill that has gone in building some of the mammoth monolithics, a religious to feel the omnipresent God, and a lover, to the much needed solitude! Anyone, who has not mummified his identity in these categories or has transgressed beyond, will see a complete blend of everything- love, faith, peace, art and solitude!

Ellora has not been spared from the wrath of time. Most of the sculptures have lost their finesse and sharpness. Many things are left to your imagination on seeing the half survived idols. However, the immense efforts that once have gone in are not difficult to gauge!

While each sculpture either indicates the generosity, compassion and love or might of God, the purpose of going atop these mountains and building caves is something that intrigues me! 

Dividing the world in three levels, anything that takes you away from the plain surfaces- your mundane activities, forces you into a much needed solitude- oneness with soul and hence, SOULITUDE. Following the basic principles of physics, steeping down requires less energy against uphill actions! While the lower levels ensure more material wealth in form of metals and minerals, going upward gives more ethereal feel, hence more spiritual orientation. I believe, the monks and kings of those times followed the same ideology and thus travelled away from their kingdom plains to build caves up in the hills.

Climbing up- elevation- energy driven action orients one from perception to introspection- from world to within. Building a cave is like giving one’s raw existence a meaningful life with one’s faith at the core! Working out everything around that almighty who is the source of life on this earth.

On staying back till tourists' enthusiasm dies, one is left with the caves with fixed sculptors bringing dynamism in though processes, generating immense peace and self-unity, rendering one in that sublime state where spiritual vulnerability and dispassion become one’s natural choice. SOULITUDE becomes the way of life then!

Delhicious Dillli

The capital of India, Delhi, is not only one of the biggest metropolises, but it is a place that has typical Indian flavours to offer. Between slithering six and eight lane fly-overs, crossing each other like the relations of a polyamorous and gulleys that are as narrow as a staunch mind’s acceptance quotient, Delhi is a place that has several elements to offer. Culturally rich, the city also has beautiful places to visit and cherish the memories of.

A truly cosmopolitan, multiethnic and multicultured Delhi has its own Dehlicious culture. The city is blessed with many such monuments that spread their grandeur and make you time travel to the past when Moghuls flourished in India. Giant structures like Qutub Minar, Humayun’s Tomb and many others have their own charm which is intact even after so many centuries. Each stone in Delhi has history etched onto it :) There are stories, which have made their ways to public and there are secrets that probably these stones would narrate the day they will get a language!

A city, where ‘run’ is the command. People keep traveling from one end of the city to the other as Delhi has an expensive streak associated with pleasures of life. Many have thus chosen to stay out of the core city and prefer commuting to their work destinations early in the day! For them ‘Qutub Minar’ has become just a Metro Station! :)

For a traveler like me, who has much time to herself and less of pressing timelines, Delhi comes across as a city that is way different. Every five minutes one would encounter a huge, well maintained park, which is quite unique when you look at other metros! The areas where of Parliament and other Bhavans are located and the roads leading there can only make one pinch oneself to believe that it is the same Delhi, where, in some parts, wires weave the sky! Yes, there are colonies where UV rays don’t even reach the earth because they are so prevented by the cable meshwork that works almost like an ozone layer! This part of the city experiences a laid back life style, which is quite contrary to the ‘go-catch-a-metro’ one! The best is that one finds such narrow by-lanes with some Gurudwaras and temples or masjids located in the neighbourhood of an extremely noisy, busy, metro station! Indian paradox at its best!

However, what you find in common between these two contrasting lifestyles is the love for food a Delhiite has. And so, Delhi has been blessed with several food joints from the elite most to the itsy-bitsy, liliputian ones. In the latter type, one literally shares even the plate area with the group on the other tables:D Road side cheap and hygienic food ranging from Coconut slices to Chanaa Bhel to Parothas can keep you walking and exploring the city giving you required energy shots! Chholey Bhaturey has never tasted so yummy anywhere else!

The pulse of the city is felt moment you manage to sneak into the gulley called Chandni Chowk. The pulsating heart of Dilli, where Gurudwaras, mosques, shops, temples, food stalls everything is fixed like a jig saw game on the sideways, yet allowing enough room for taxis to park and walkers, vendors and even beggars to carry on with their activities. What one cannot do easily is drive through! :) 

A small inconspicuous bylane called ‘Parothey wali Gulley’ in the Chandni Chawk has a series of outlets offering 30 odd different varieties of parothas flavoured with Bhindi, Karela, Rabadi and what not!

After returning back to Ahmedabad, from the Heart of India, my ECG definitely had an extra peak, the ‘D’ peak, that throbs every time I think of metro veined city having wire- meshed skies, gigantic monuments, tasty paratha & lassi joints and majestic Qutub Minar by night of Delhi.

And I somewhere now justify the race to Delhi that predominates the political scenario in India :D

Delhicious it is!

Pushkar: Changing landscapes of static terrains

I reiterate- Pushkar palpitates. It is renewed constantly. Its dynamism holds you hard. The Serene ghats on the holy lake and the breathtaking crowd on the temple walls, the chaotic markets and the silent alleys, days filled with hullabaloo and deafeningly silent nights- this city of contrast is way different from any other religious place in India.

This was my second visit. I felt as if so many things had changed! And so many exactly the same! 

The place has a mystical aura about it. There is something that you can breathe, experience but cannot narrate. You unbecome to become- the ever silent individual, stoical to all Mayik activities. The mystic feel transmundanes your Muladhara Chakra – the Root Chakra where your whole consciousness is based. It awakens your Kundalini, not giving you some miraculous powers, but rejuvenating the YOU within.

The soul penetrating silence and ear crushing noise is what Pushkar is all about. The alleys where there is a head on collision between material and devotional realms. Where you see the beauty and vulgarity of both realms and yet remain non chalant because you seemingly lose the power to judge. Where one is forced to question the whole concept of society and morality! Not as much the skinny clothes put your beliefs to question, as often is the saffron trade that you witness.

The glass skinned foreigner women enjoy temporary association with all brown/ tanned guys, often in the name of learning or healing. It is a sight to see. Ankle high draped sarees with ill fit blouse and a flowered plaint is something they so easily accept- to be like us. While I surely cannot be judgemental about their sincerity in doing so, I surely found them at peace when with their ‘Gurus’- the twisted spirituality!

Pushkar is the king of pilgrims, they say! And it is highly evident when you see God present everywhere. Houses have Gods protecting them at the doors. Ghats have Shivlings overlooking the lake. 

While the town sees much lenient morales, contrarily what you observe is a typical Indian colonization. Amidst the extremely drooping necklines, you see veiled eye lines. The children, shying out of cameras and parents wanting their children to be captured makes you feel AT HOME. Where the drains are open and doors generally shut. The wives give you a stern look when you persist on clicking their eyelashes through those veils. Where Worship is the occupation and worship alone is the way of life as every second house in the by lanes is a house of God- a temple! 

The experience is so different on the Mela Ground though. The snake charmers in their cankerous voice attracting foreigners to take some clicks in return of a few bucks, not realizing the dust they bring to their nation! But, the ‘Hellos’ and ‘money’ in the ringing young voices can always force you to curve your lips. 

The grounds are full of life- Life of a camel! You often wonder how on earth PETA manages to boast about its societal impact, when the horrifying procedures to tame the animal are being practiced as a routine here! It is a ‘No PETA Land’. Man cannot live in a free society- he either tames or gets tamed! Prudence only has biblical significance! Hundreds of photographers like us, educated and vocal about our rights, on the ground, while the camel is being forced, blissfully make pictures and return! Faulty Karma is not only through action, even inaction amounts to it!

Misconstrued Shaivism limits the lost Smaarts to intoxicating weeds and some trance music calling it ‘meditation’. This probably has attracted more blue eyes than any tourism ad campaign can ever do! If Jaisalmer has all those sand dunes to boast about, the MIRAGE called LIFE is all at Pushkar! Yes, one sees complacency that accompanies the saffron garb! Renunciation itself is a mirage. Long grown white beards and absence of footwear cannot kill the desirous individual that dwells within! Sanyas has different connotations. It is the ease with which one accepts and not what one rejects or selects. 

Pushkar has something for everyone. While photographers are happy with some greater clicks managed amidst chest pressing crowds on Ekadashi, a foodie would find heaven in the Halwai Gulley. A worshipper finds temples the destination and an occultist, those trance music and odd healing practices! An ardent observer will never get over the place as it has so many elements to offer to study. Several unnamed relations that you see wafting between different nationales for their cohabitations and at times, transgressing the conventions, at a level, which only spirituality can justify! 

If Pushkar lake holds the keys to ever essential spiritual bliss, the alleys and the market has strings to keep one attached to the world. But in both ways, you return visiting a higher orbit of your inner self. Pushkar, thus, is a place to correct your own beliefs about LIFE. It has experiences to enrich the mind, body and soul. Life at Pushkar is similar to things lying on the Super Market racks. You have to pick your own experience up. But rest assured, you will not return without buying some wisdom from there!

Dad's the world :)

Walking down the memory lanes feels as bright and sunny as the early morning sun shine during winters! The warmth of cuddle and the brightness of love! Silent as ever.

*My Child, My Pride*

Let me help you walk down to your first ever breath, where you were first lying lapped up close to your mother’s warm bosoms. You find a man by mom’s side, looking at you joyfully; whose tears taking a route different from that of mummy’s. Look at him carefully. You can see him choking due to the force of warmth and then soon recovering from that feeling. The man, who then on, went on silently doing his duties through out. Whose role has only been to be strict on face, demanding in stature. The sculptor who saw YOU in the rock and chiseled you out :)

Safe on his shoulders

He has had fewer words to express his love. Least to self advocate! He has stood by you, providing all the background melodies that your life needed to turn musical. He even has faced your bitter side and at times even reacted to it. He has taken the onus of being unacceptable, because he has dared putting his foot down. Your mom always MANAGED it for you, but he, he has been way too stubborn! Loud about his anger, his love dripped out through his deeds, that he accepted to bring meaning to your life- often went unnoticed.

Humble and serving

In the man’s world, this man has always been understated. In highlighting the mothers who have nurtured the babies to become human beings, somewhere, we have turned a blind eye to the contributions made by Dads. If it was your mother who cried when you went to hostel to study, your father is the one who went out of his ways and managed the finances! You have probably never seen him crying for you, but if the pillows and bed spreads can be made to talk, you will know what exactly went on that same night when you were choking out of guilt feeling for your mummy!

Lap is the world

He probably at one stage wanted to buy a car or something else dearer to him, but had money enough  only to either fulfill his long cherished dream or to let you enroll in a premier institute. And, none knows where did he cremate the dreams to ensure good schooling for you.

While it was acceptable for your mom to cry out aloud seeing you in pain or unwell by plunging into a Sofa or sitting still with grief, your dad wasn’t allowed that liberty! He had to go to work and also had to ensure medication. Don’t ever believe that he did not feel like throwing himself onto that bed out of the uncertainty of your fate! But, he had to go ahead and face it!

The best for him

He probably got only Sundays to make up for his lost hours of sleep, but he rather took you to a park and helped you swing. You probably, unintentionally, several times, broke into those moments of silent companionship that your parents wanted, and did not even realize it! The evenings when he preferred explaining the maths sums to you cannot be even enumerated!

Yes, the account is endless. But, we are not used to reading anything which would compel us to contemplate. We quickly label it as ‘clichéd’ and go on. Because to live a guilt free life seems the easier way out.

Educating generations

However, only when you lose him to the time as his body withers away with age, or probably when you wear his shoes and live a vicarious life, you realize that your DAD is the only real SUPER HERO. He wears no fancy masks, can't fly, can’t always win over the villains and is not a go-getter, but is a survivor, a giver- the one who gives you wings as well as the sky, while chooses the ground and its reality as his life.

Father’s day, thus, is the time, not  only to express your love for your father. It’s the day on which you have to count the blessings that you have got from the ABOVE in form of this MAN:)

Pink City and its myriad colours

Neo Jaipur:)

The colourful aridity once again played host to me. This time as Jaipur.  As I saw during my stop over, though the Pink City has adopted the colours of modern times, the culture and ethnic feel have pretty been preserved :) Tourism flows in the veins of Jaipur and so those dhoti pants clad tourists carrying their world in their backpacks with a map in their hands and coins in the pocket are no novel sight! They are part of the City.

Moti Dungri in the backdrop

Jaipur still has the ROYAL charm retained. You may try to turn your eyes from the architectural abundance, but you cannot successfully do it. While streets bustle with traffic and routine chaos that makes it a CITY, you will end up seeing the richness of art everywhere- at cross road circles, Government offices and on distant hillocks carrying a lace of fort wall!

Fair skinned foreigners are a common sight

There is a suaveness that cannot be put in words and which I find going amiss in Ahmedabad these days (Pardon me, if I sound harsh). Modernism is growing quite responsibly in Jaipur- at least in the first sight it appeared so. And for those of us, who love rich vocabulary, Jaipur is the place. Their Hindi can boggle you down. Each proficient statement would make you fumble and insistently look for a Shabd Kosh :)

Hawa Mahal

The best part of the city is the food and the Forts and Palaces. Pyaaz ki Kachaudiya and Lassi- Malaai maar ke are two yummy things one should never miss during their Jaipur visit. We managed it during our return journey and that made it super enduring while our bus decided to rattle throughout and halt at an odd hour at a super odd food joint.

Jaipur from Nahargarh fort

There are several tourist places; each expanded enough to allow spending long hours without getting back to the watch. However, the RTDC craftily fits them all in a day trip, where half of the places are finger pointed while passing by. It’s a sheer streak of luck, if you happen to be sitting on the window seat and manage  craning your head out bang on time and thus recognize the place :) 

Fort wall laced hillocks

However, they are all uniquely structured- ranging from Hawa Mahal, City Palace to Jantar Mantar to Amer Fort to Birla Temple and many others. Each can be described in an independent blog!

Nahargarh Fort view

Nahargarh Fort, which is atop a hill and invigilates the city, has got its due ever since Aamir Khan et al in Rang De Basanti have had their foot falls and bottle falls at the place ;) Yes, during the day, flocked by tourists, once the sun dips down through those Limestone blue houses beneath, the palace surrounding sees boozers with liquor and savouries! Lot of  hungry bats, skin lovers and liquor lovers provide enough business to Bhel pudi wallahs to hang on till late :) 

Star studded Jaipur

However, if one stays through till the lights turn on, from Nahargarh, Jaipur looks star studded. It is a super fun to see the huge Hawa Mahal going of the Match Box size with the Jantar Mantar and sundry palaces :) The city, from Nahargarh looks like divided into a perfectly planned one where each area has enough greens to keep the aridity balanced. You gotttttaaaa see it to believe it!

I wish to go again to Jaipur, with my tourists’ cap on and return with my camera loaded of pictures capturing the stills and feeling the action of the city. We will meet, yet again, Jaipur!