I smile every time I think of my country, about India. Not just a particular city or a particular state or locality, but the feel i get when i say India. It has so many things that you wish were different, so many habits, so much socialization, so much infrastructure that you wish was better or more, but I sometimes wonder, if India was not not the way it is today would we have had the same vibrancy, the same fiber that gives us the Indian-ness.
I work in a space that falls between the two sides of India - the one side that has all the amenities namely, a house to stay, a steady income, clean water, clean toilets, food to eat and friends and family to talk to. On the other side i work and interact with people and groups who have a broken roof, a mud wall for home, one meal a day, children not going to schools, women giving birth to a malnourished infant in a no facilities health center.
When i work for them or with them, I feel angry at the government and helpless at the situation, no matter how much we try, tomorrow there is going to be someone else, who is going to be in the same place. The problems are huge, the infrastructures small.
Not that we the government is not trying to make a difference, but the problems are like huge rapidly growing fire and the government efforts are like little pitter patter of rain.
Every evening when I get back home, I wonder, have I done enough. Have I made a small difference? And every night the village-city send me signs that tell me nope dear heart! your work has just begun.
So as my first post to the world wide web and my dearest village-city, I just think I should say...play on!
Look forward to my intricacies and journeys through the village-city. Give me some more positive energy to go on
I work in a space that falls between the two sides of India - the one side that has all the amenities namely, a house to stay, a steady income, clean water, clean toilets, food to eat and friends and family to talk to. On the other side i work and interact with people and groups who have a broken roof, a mud wall for home, one meal a day, children not going to schools, women giving birth to a malnourished infant in a no facilities health center.
When i work for them or with them, I feel angry at the government and helpless at the situation, no matter how much we try, tomorrow there is going to be someone else, who is going to be in the same place. The problems are huge, the infrastructures small.
Not that we the government is not trying to make a difference, but the problems are like huge rapidly growing fire and the government efforts are like little pitter patter of rain.
Every evening when I get back home, I wonder, have I done enough. Have I made a small difference? And every night the village-city send me signs that tell me nope dear heart! your work has just begun.
So as my first post to the world wide web and my dearest village-city, I just think I should say...play on!
Look forward to my intricacies and journeys through the village-city. Give me some more positive energy to go on
Lovely first post Piu. You are one of the very few whose single-day provides ample juxtaposition to be able to say 'thank you' to God in your prayers every night, for what you have. For many others like us the days typically begin and end in the sameness of graceless blaming & cursing, finding reasons to be in constant dissonance with self and all that we come in touch with.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to your musings!
Nivedita
Piu Di... loved your thoughts on life of those helpless people in our country and you know what.. whatever steps you take to change their lives, trust me.. it works coz i've experienced that along with you. And I am sure it still works coz it's you!
ReplyDeletekeep blogging.. I am sure there's a lot 2 read!