I'm sorry that I have not been posting to the blog. The problem is not lack of news. In fact, there's so much happening that my mind is full of plans and I just couldn't bring myself to write anything for the blog.
Anyway, I'm in Kolkata at the moment. I am waiting for the city to wake up (I've been up since 5 am as usual). I checked mail and tried to work on the concept paper regarding the new ashram -- Amrit Aangan. And since I couldn't make much headway, I decided to write a few lines to fill you in on what's been happening since the last entry.
Jon arrived on the project on the 5th -- the same day that I got back to Roldih from Kolkata. He took to the project like a duck takes to water. Probably because he had already visited a couple of projects in the south and had done a bit of teaching. It was great to have him becaue he's also good company. And of course, that meant I didn't have to do much teaching. Which suits me fine at this point because my head of full of plans regarding Amrit Aangan. Also, I've had to make calls, contact friends and well-wishers and supporters. I'm thinking BIG about the new ashram and it will require huge amounts of funding. So while planning the new project I also have to ensure that there will be adequate support. In fact, I've been on the phone most of the time that I was on the project -- except for moments when I just sat and thought and thought.
Roldih was fine while I was away the last time. And thanks to Suman, the kids and Bhola, it continued to be fine while I was there. Then Jemma arrived on the 16th so that she could be on the project for Diwali which was on the 17th. Mitali arrived on the 17th and so suddenly the project became quite lively.
Diwali was fun but somewhat subdued because we could not buy too many crackers this time -- the price of firewords has risen and we were short of funds. But we did have a little "puja". Had some sweets as "prasad" and the children lit up the lamps and played around with the few sparklers and rockets and flowerpots that we could afford to buy. They had fun but I felt a bit sad at not being able to provide them with more. I felt particularly bad for the village kids -- I couldn't give them more than 2 sparklers each this time. Last year I had given them each a boxful of sparklers and rockets. If they were disappointed, they did not tell me.
Jon and Jemma had a nice time with the kids though and Jemma liked the fact that she was able to get to know some of the kids before she started teaching them. There's a new routine in place and so Jon, Jemma and the Class 4 kids are teaching and when I spoke to Jon yesterday he informed me that it's all going well.
Attendance has dropped. This is partly due to the fact that there have been a string of festivals -- Dussehra, Diwali, Bahiya Dooj, Chaat -- and also the government schools are holding some sort of exams. Since most of the children from Burhikura are enrolled in the government school, they were busy sitting for the exams. The kids from the tribal villages have been coming regularly.
Bhola is now officially in-charge of the project. He's back on Dakshinayan's payroll. He starts school and then goes home to attend to his business and comes back in the evening for village visits with Jemma and Jon. When he can, he also spends the night on the project. These days he's very busy with his "van" which is functioning as a taxi and from what I gather, he's making a neat income from it. I'm glad to have him taking care of the project while I am "distracted" and channelizing my energies elsewhere.
We have new plans for Roldih school. From next year, we are switching back to Hindi medium. The fact is that all the schools in the region are Hindi medium and after kids leave our school, they go and join Hindi medium schools anyway. So why not prepare them accordingly? We will follow the government prescribed books and syllabus. This will mean that we should be able to find teachers for all subjects except English. That will be a subject taught by the volunteers and by me when I am on the project. I would love to have some feedback from you regarding this.
I left the project on the 21st -- the day following my birthday. Mitali and Bhola sprung a surprise by bringing a cake! We had it in the evening with Darjeeling tea. It was great. Mitali presented me with some good tea, a track pant and pearl buttons for my kurtas. Bhola game me a set of pajama kurta and Jemma gave me a Maori good luck charm. Wow!!! I felt like a kid all over again!
We drove from the project to Bolpur in Bhola's car. It was a lovely drive except that we encountered too many "strikes" and had to take a long, long detour and made it to the train station just a few minutes before the train's departure. The journey was very comfortable even though the 4-hour journey from Roldih to Bolpur took 6 hours because of the detour. The train took only 2 and a half hours. Bhola discovered a shorter route and his return journey took only 3 hours and a few minutes!
Well, that's all for now. All's well in Roldih. Kolkata sucks. And I'd better get down to writing that concept paper now.
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