Bangalore Break

My trip to Bangalore is coming to an end. I am leaving tomorrow for Kolkata. My ticket is booked, but the seat is not confirmed. I am praying that it will get confirmed before I board the train as I have a huge solar panel to carry back with me. Also, a bag heavy with battery and other equipment. Besides, it's a long, long journey -- two nights and a day. I don't wish to be be sitting up all the time! That's how it's going to be if I don't get a confirmed seat.

Anyway, it has been a great trip. The day I arrived (18th), Rahul and Jayotsana were celebrating Aarush's birthday. His birthday is actually on the 16th, but they took advantage of the weekend. It was nice to be here for it because I also got to meet a lot of nice people. I also got to meet Amar Subash, who has been supporting the project for the past few years.

Rahul and I left for Coorg early next morning. It was wonderful to drive though the Karnataka countryside. The Gulmohars and other trees were in bloom and so one saw a profusion of reds, purples and yellow all along the way. The roads are broad and well-made. So driving was a pleasure. And Coorg was absolutely fabulously green and peaceful. I loved being there. And since Rahul was scouting for land to buy, we criss-crossed the Coorg hills and I got to see almost all of the region. The icing on the cake was the "home-stay" at Bel Home, a beautiful and quaint cottage near Madapura. It's run by a wonderful and warm couple who made the stay even more interesting. The food was fabulous and delicious!

Rahul and I returned to Bangalore on Monday evening. The drive back was just as picturesque and pleasureable. It rained while we were in Coorg and it also rained when we reached Bangalore. The weather was perfect.

Once the "holiday" was out of the way, I started doing what I came here to do! I went to Rahul's office and met Manas Das, another Dakshinayan supporter. I was looking forward to meeting him and thanking him personally for his unflinching support. This evening I'll be meeting him and his wife, Preeti, for dinner. I'm looking forward to that.

At Intel, I also finally got to meet Satyajit Singh who gave me the necessary equipment to run the e-learning programme. As many of you know, two student-laptops are already on the project but we needed solar panels and other peripherals to run them. Now, thanks to Satyajit, we have all the stuff we need. I'm looking forward to getting back to the project and starting the learning process!

I also owe a major part of my enthusiasm to go back and start teaching the kids about computers to two people -- Joyeeta Das and Sathrupa Dasgupta. Joyeeta briefed me about the e-literacy programme and gave me an overview along with lots of manuals. Sathrupa explained the programme step by step via a conference call. It was great. Now I just can't wait to get back and put all the theory into action.

Well, the "work" part is over. And most of the fun part too! Going shopping with Jayotsana, watching Aarush learning to swim, having dinner at Manav and Priya's place.... and so many other little pleasureable things that I'm probably forgetting. It'll be sad to leave.

I've taken full advatage of Rahul and Jayotsana's generosity and warmth. I've enjoyed the warmth of all those whom I've met this trip. It's now time to go and share it with the kids in Jharkhand. They are waiting for me.

I've been in touch with them through Bhola and Nilambar. The latter is, in fact, at this moment on his way home to get married! That's good news. But I've also had some bad news. The second well hit solid rock at 16 feet. That's really very unfortunate. A few more feet and we'd have hit water. But this rock is too hard to break through. We'll either have to abandon it or use dynamite to blast the rock. The only problem is that we have no idea how deep the rock layer is. If it's too deep, blasting won't help either. Bhola is planning to drill through the rocks and see how thick the layer is. This will take a while. Let's see what happens when I get back.

The next post will be from Jharkhand. Till then....