Tranquil Thursday

I didn’t sleep well last night. I think I had fever. Or at least I felt feverish and restless. I thought I’d be tired in the moring, but I wasn’t. In fact, I felt good. But now that the sun is down, I’m feeling “not so good”. Don’t really know what’s wrong. I hope I’m not coming in for something serious. Can’t afford to fall ill here.

School went off ok. Graham is fitting in. At least he’s making a lot of effort. He spent time in my class as well as with Nilambar. From tomorrow he may have to start teaching because Nilambar went this afternoon to Poreya Haat where an ex-student of his is appearing for his board exam and needs a bit of extra coaching. He should be back by tomorrow afternoon. So Graham will fill in for him tomorrow. So why not the day after too? I will re-work the routine.

Bhola was here. Sardarji was here. Sardarji is the material supplier. I paid his dues. Bhola, as usual helpful, brought the re-charged battery and the gas cylinder on his way to Chandna Haat weekly market. He even bought vegetables for us and dropped it off on his way back. I paid some of his pending bills too. And we also discussed the well.

It seems the well might cost a lot more than we expected. We are still trying to figure out if it would be better to hire labourers from Roldih or give the whole job to a contractor. Well-digging is tricky business and it may be better to ask experts to undertake the work for us. It may cost a little more. But it certainly would be less hassle. It will be contractor’s responsibility to find the labour and get the work done. We have to take a decision soon as we MUST start digging in the first week of March.

It’s already warm and dry. I won’t say it’s hot. But it is certainly getting hotter every day. Once Holi, the festival of colour is over, summer will set in. Holi is on 11th March. The kids love the festival. I hate it because it’s messy. But like every year, this year too I will try to arrange a Holi colour fest in school. I’ll probably pick up some water pistols and some colour and give it to the kids and watch them have a ball!

From Monday the nursery kids are going to have drawing classes. Yvonne has sent so many coloured markers and crayons that each child will have his/her own colouring set. It should be fun for them.

They have started setting fire to the undergrowth. The hills all round are on fire. It looks quite beautiful from a distance. I’ll try and take some pictures.

Lost Tree. Lost Cause.

Ramnath called early this morning. He said Nara was planning to cut down the jackfruit tree near the Cheo Centre toilet. What do you want me to do, I asked him. Give him some money so that he does not cut down the tree. I said, it’s no solution. Firstly, I don’t know how much money he needs. Secondly, I’m sure that when I’m gone, Nara or his son will cut down the tree anyway. Besides, you get the villagers to explain that if the tree is left intact, then Nara will have an income from the Jackfruit tree for many years to come. Ramnath seemed despondent. I felt sorry for him. Sorry for the villagers. Sorry that despite so many years of work amongst the Paharias, we have not been able to get them to preserve the forest that they live in.

You can’t call it a forest any more. There was a time when these hills were covered with Jackfruit, mango and mahua trees. There were a lot of timber in the form of sakhua and sagwan. But they have all but disappeared. Huge tamrind trees have disappeared too. The few trees that one sees in and around Cheo are there simply because I had “bought” them at one point of time and the villagers are too scared to cut them down.

But of course I hadn’t “bought” all the trees! And the tree that Nara plans to cut down is not one of “mine”. There’s precious little I can do to stop him. And I don’t think I can continue “buying” trees to protect them. The trees I had “bought” earlier cost 40/50 Rupees two decades ago. Now they won’t sell these tress to me for less than 2/3 thousand per tree! I simply can’t afford it. Besides, if they can’t see the value of preserving the t rees on which their lifestyle depends, who am I to stop them?

Naturally, I’m feeling upset. I know Ramnath is upset. He is one of the few people who understands the need for conservation. The others simply don’t care. I remember once when the Cheo’s headman (now dead) was cutting down some trees I asked him to spare the trees for the next generation. His reply was simple. Who cares what happens to the next generation. I wish to eat, drink and be merry while I am alive!

Graham is here. He arrived earlier than expected. He was at the project at 9:00 am! I was wondering how he got there so early considering the police station opened at 10:30. Then Jehangir, the taxi man explained that he had “bribed” the policeman on duty to “speed up the process”. I was naturally very upset. I don’t want this to become a regular feature. Next thing you know, the cops will start harassing the volunteers simply to get some money out of them!
Anyway, Graham’s here and he’s rearing to “do something”. From tomorrow he’ll spend time with the teachers to familiarize himself with the school and the children. Then from Monday onwards, when the school timings change, he can start teaching in earnest. From Monday school will start at 8:30 and end at 12:30 with a 30 minutes break in between. There will be7 periods.
It’s really expensive to get online. Today my laptop downloaded some updates automatically and it cost me Rs 65! That’s too much. I’m exploring alternatives. This really is working out very expensive.

I’m not feeling very well. My whole body is aching. Is it because of the bus journey? Change of season? Or am I going to have yet another malarial attack? I guess I’ll find out soon.

Another Normal Day

It was Shivratri last night. And there was a “mela” (fair) this morning. Some of the kids must have gone off to the mela because attendance was down to 50%. That’s ok. I guess they are entitled to take off once in a while. Most of the kids absent were from Burhikura though a few of the Santhal kids too did not show up. Everyone loves going to these fairs.

But school went on as per routine despite the fewer kids in each classroom. There were only 3 in class four and 8 in class three – the two classes that I teach. But what bothered me was that Radha’s father came to ask for a holiday! When will these people learn? I’ve told them that they are free not to send their wards to school if there’s a good reason for it. I did not force his daughter to come to school either. She could have been absent like some of the other kids. But then to come to school and have parents coming and asking for the school to declare it a holiday, is a bit too much, I think.

The mornings are still chilly. The day is warm but not unpleasantly hot. The evenings are cool. And the infernal gale. Wonder why it starts up at noon every day and subsides by 3 pm. One can set one’s watch by it! The roofs rattle and it can be very irritating after a while.

Franca said she can’t leave a comment on the blog. I checked and it’s true that unless you have a gmail account or a blog holder yourself, you can’t send a message! What a pain. Does anyone know how to get around it?

The kids were playing with the Frisbee that Yvonne sent. They seemed to enjoy the new toy. Hope they preserve it and not let it fly over the wall!

It’s been a quiet day otherwise. Things are running smoothly at the project. We are expecting a volunteer tomorrow. Hope he gets here without too much trouble.

And sorry Yvonne. There are no palas flowers on the branches. I’m uploading this old photo. Hope this will do.

First Day of the Week

First day of school since my return. I’m still tired and it was quite an effort to teach the last two periods. As soon as school was over, I had a bath, then lunch and went to sleep. Slept till 3:15 and woke up with a headache which is still bothering me. Hope it will go away. Strange that in Kolkata’s polluted atmosphere I suffered no health problems. And as soon as I get back to fresh air, I get a headache!

The weather is strange. It’s cool at night. Chilly in the mornings and hot in the afternoons. Around noon it starts blowing hard and the gales continue till about 3 and then stop as abruptly as they start. The wind is dry but not hot. However, it messes up the whole project. It blows leaves off the trees and the palas flowers. I promised Yvonne that I’d post a picture of a palas in full bloom. Yet when I went to take a photo today I realized that ALL the flowers have been blown off! I can still see a few trees laden down with palas flowers outside the campus. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll take a walk and photograph them. Failing which I’ll put up an old photo.

This evening I opened up the four parcels Yvonne sent us. They were full of crayons, notebooks, pencils and puzzles. I’ve decided to give these to the kids as their monthly attendance gifts. I hope Yvonne won’t mind. With the puzzles Simha left behind and the ones the Yvonne sent we now have enough jigsaw puzzles to keep the nursery and class one kids busy. And for once, we have more than enough crayons to go around and the children can now do some colouring and artwork.

The school timings remain as it is for the time being. We plan to change it from the 1st. We will then have classes starting at 8:30 and we will finish off by 12:30. Today at assembly I noticed that all the children were wearing their uniform. Great.

The good news is that I’ve heard from Amar Subash and Manas Das saying that they will continue to support the project’s work. This is great news indeed. So the hat is not looking empty. Hope I’ll get more good news soon. Today the masons came to discuss the well. We’ll start digging from the 1st of March. Hopefully by the end of March we will have ourselves a well. Let’s see how things shape up.

Back in Roldih

It’s good to be back. And I’m glad all has been well while I have been away. Bansi, Nilambar and Suman must have been very busy cleaning up the place because the project looked very neat and clean when I arrived. But soon there was a strong wind which lasted all afternoon and the whole place got messed up. There were leaves all over the place. I guess the children will have their work cut out for them during “shramdaan” tomorrow.

I’m looking forward to teaching again. It’s been a while and the children of class 4 have suffered the most. I’m sure they are looking forward to having regular classes after this break. Nilambar and Bansi have been teaching all classes except class 4.

I was looking forward to meeting Bruni. But when I arrived she was not there. But when she came back in the evening she was both surprised and happy to see me. Apparently she did not come anywhere near my room ever since I went away. Her pups have grown up. One was taken away by a villager. There are four left now. Chandrama wants one for the Cheo Centre.
Balai completed whitewashing and painting today. I’ve even paid him for his services. I blessed him and told him that now that he has completed the project’s work, he’ll probably get a nice bride soon. He was quite embarrassed and said he has now decided not to get married. I know it’s not true.

Ever since I got back all I’ve been doing is sleep and sleep. It’s going to be back to routine from tomorrow. And you can also expect regular updates.