Today was the first day I went to the field with the Home Based Care workers. Home Based Care is one of the most popular models in AIDS relief work today. I am here to learn as much as I can about the model, and later explain it to other people. But that's not the real reason why I am writing this post.
AIDS, like any other killing disease, brings trauma - to both the patient and the family members. Knowing that the patient doesn't have long to live removes you of all hope. But AIDS also brings a stigma along with it. Even though one must have been pricked accidentally by an unsterilized needle, everybody would condemn the person of being immoral (though sadly, it is the case 90% of the time).
A patient called "K" has been admitted here in the hospital for the past 2 weeks. Her youngest daughter, 5, also HIV/+ is here to take care of her. Her husband, also infected with the virus, is at home, bedridden. However, the mother has left a month's stock of groceries for their two other HIV negative elder daughters, one studying in the 12th and the other in the 10th. These two hardworking girls take care of the place. They told our friend, (and trainer) that they remember to clean the place regularly, and keep all their books and bags in order.
They are out of cooking-gas, so they cook their food using firewood. They cook for their father and themselves, clean the room everyday, take care of a little baby and study for their respective exams! And I thought I was doing a great job learning how to use the electric cooker!
Well, hell's not over for them. While we were speaking, two old women looked into the room and walked away. Immediately, this eldest daughter's face fell with shame and tears were welling up. I have a feeling that the girls weren't so popular in their village either. No points for guessing why.
As I write this, I feel like I am writing the first half of the Cinderella story. Don't these girls deserve a break? Hmm... May be, but they're not getting one in the near future at least. Chances are, that they are living just for their parents. As soon as their parents die, uncles and aunts will grab the place they're staying in now. They might marry them off for a cheap dowry, which means they will end up with even more disgusting men for husbands.
Something is very wrong here. But sadly, things like this happen everyday. AIDS is showing no sign of slowing down the infection rate, and people are showing no signs of stopping their immoral behavior. Also, people today rarely look out for others. If only the neighbours and friends were more supportive, we won't actually have a need to go and drop here every month. The mother won't be so sick with the lack of hope and the father MIGHT have changed because of this. Children don't have to hide their faces with shame the way they do. Survival of the fittest sucks.
Today's world is full of hypocrites. Thinking that by living good lives, providing for self and family and getting respect from people we have completed our duty as humans. Christians thinking that their little light is shining brightly among those who need it don't realize that they are sitting inside the wicker-basket.
At this time, I wonder if I also am a part of this dastardly system we all live in. Am I unknowingly trampling on the frail heads of a million people whose needs are smaller than those of a sparrow? Am I merely being a hypocrite with a job like this to explain away my actual insensitivity? And in anyway am I actually contributing to this Survival of the Fittest world that raises the wicked on pedastals made of the bones of the poor? I can only hope not.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
My new home
A few of my readers might have lived in places like this before and are expected to not bother reading the entire post. But me being someone who lived most of his life at least 30 to 40 feet above the ground in some apartment or the other, living at Amberhaigaun in a small room on the terrace of a once upon a time house for a joint family is fascinating! The room I have is definitely bigger than the rooms$ at Tapti and Xavier's! It also has an attached kitchen and bathroom. The downside is that the place doesn't have shelves of any kind. It's as raw as you can find them! Trying to refurnish the place to make it liveable wasn't that easy because I always took it for granted that there will be a soap with a scotch brite brush sitting next to sink... you get the picture.
Living in the hostel does give you a sense of responsibility but not as much as much as living alone like this. You definitely get a lot more worries in your head. Cooking is definitely one of those big reponsibilities, yeah, I definitely need to some catching up. Both with skills and instruments. As long as I don't fall sick or weak eating the works of my hands I really am not complaining yet! Every time I try and come up with new ways to make me eat more wholesome food! The catch to all this cooking is that I have to cook all these things only in the low energy consumption rice-cooker! I cannot cook on an electric hot-plate because of the extra energy it consumes. Buying a gas stove also is presently out of the question. The shop is too far, and I don't have so much money. I have got pretty interesting recipes that make me eat a lot as fast as possible! (Maybe I'll compile a crazy list and post them sometime!)
Another bore of living alone is the cleaning bit. Living on the terrace means my door opens to the terrace. Which means, all the dirt of the village enters the room the moment I open the door. And since my mattress is on the floor, I have to clean the floor regularly and make sure no bugs enter. Surprisingly the day I swabbed the floor with phenyl, insects started coming into the room! And the insects haven't left since! Any suggestions grandmas?!
The architecture is classic basti Delhi architecture. A few T shaped rafters line the ceiling. Balanced carefully between these rafters (without mortar or cement) are extremely huge, extremely cheap kadappa tablets. One slight shake of these rafters, and the ceiling meets the floor. I'm kinda sure because lizards go in and out of the room through gaps in the ceiling. So, in case of an earthquake I should remember to keep my wits about me, or I could get sandwiched before I say 'what?' But did y'all notice? during the mild earthquake there were no deaths?! Hmm... I guess It's not as unstable as it looks! But definitely not rain proof! This record breaking rain hasn't helped much either!
Still, for a summer season, the weather has been pleasant so far and the room is extremely comfortable! (Pent-house luxury, definitely!) But when the sun gets angry because the clouds were blocking it's view, y'all can have Sam Tikka for lunch!
Living in the hostel does give you a sense of responsibility but not as much as much as living alone like this. You definitely get a lot more worries in your head. Cooking is definitely one of those big reponsibilities, yeah, I definitely need to some catching up. Both with skills and instruments. As long as I don't fall sick or weak eating the works of my hands I really am not complaining yet! Every time I try and come up with new ways to make me eat more wholesome food! The catch to all this cooking is that I have to cook all these things only in the low energy consumption rice-cooker! I cannot cook on an electric hot-plate because of the extra energy it consumes. Buying a gas stove also is presently out of the question. The shop is too far, and I don't have so much money. I have got pretty interesting recipes that make me eat a lot as fast as possible! (Maybe I'll compile a crazy list and post them sometime!)
Another bore of living alone is the cleaning bit. Living on the terrace means my door opens to the terrace. Which means, all the dirt of the village enters the room the moment I open the door. And since my mattress is on the floor, I have to clean the floor regularly and make sure no bugs enter. Surprisingly the day I swabbed the floor with phenyl, insects started coming into the room! And the insects haven't left since! Any suggestions grandmas?!
The architecture is classic basti Delhi architecture. A few T shaped rafters line the ceiling. Balanced carefully between these rafters (without mortar or cement) are extremely huge, extremely cheap kadappa tablets. One slight shake of these rafters, and the ceiling meets the floor. I'm kinda sure because lizards go in and out of the room through gaps in the ceiling. So, in case of an earthquake I should remember to keep my wits about me, or I could get sandwiched before I say 'what?' But did y'all notice? during the mild earthquake there were no deaths?! Hmm... I guess It's not as unstable as it looks! But definitely not rain proof! This record breaking rain hasn't helped much either!
Still, for a summer season, the weather has been pleasant so far and the room is extremely comfortable! (Pent-house luxury, definitely!) But when the sun gets angry because the clouds were blocking it's view, y'all can have Sam Tikka for lunch!
Hi from the Village
A few posts ago, I announced that I was going to join EHA as a "Training Co-ordinator". Well, here I am. The Pastor found a place for me nd told me that it was only worth Rs 1000 a month, which, compared to other places, was extremely cheap! So, I said to my self "What-the-heck" without thinking that it would be in the heart of a weird urban North Indian village!Most aspiring youth in the movies leave small villages or towns to big cities to seek their luck. Some movies elaborate to tell about the life of this young kid who one day became... err.. I don't know... Ambani? Rockfeller? Recently, I left my home to seek my fortune. In Delhi... But there's a slight snag in the story. I'm a pure-blood city-slicker. Have been brought up in big cities all over the country, and now, am here to seek my fortune (or greater good, if you might call it) in a village in Delhi!
Hi there! Welcome to Ambihaigaun! The village in Dwarka! Look at the kind of waters the floating leaf is swimming through now! This village generally is full of lower-middle class folk with a very... err... North Indian village like demeanor. Unlike other 'normal' villages that are surrounded by fields, this village has walls to surround it. But don't be fooled! This is a genuine certified village complete with panchayat, community centre and all! The walls of DDA colonies. Inside these colonies live people of the upper-middle-class (Generally the kind of people I was raised with and can get to know easily). Since my home is outside those walls (which I shall talk about later), I do not identify with them. I usually look at them as snobs who have more than they need and don't know what to do with them (of course "amnesia"ing the house at Chennai I have left)
The people of the place are slowly getting to know me. The occasional shop-keeper who finds out where I am from, and what I am doing, to the stares I get from people as I walk past them. I considered (and still consider) those stares as rude, but to them, it's a way of getting to know someone. To show that they recognize you. I have been trying to act friendly and say Hi to everyone I see the second time, but all they do is stare at you. I remember ol Digg telling me of his feelings about saying Hi. According to him, it's a completely useless ritual and a waste of voice. Here too, he knows that you acknowledge his presence and he acknowledges you. Of course, in a village, you're supposed to notice and remember everybody's faces unlike the city, where you only recognize a select faces you see very often, and in order to show you recognize them, you wave out so they notice you. But in the village, all this is taken for granted! Gee, I am learning a lot! (Not a bad observation for a hobbying anthropologist who's been here three days, eh?)
Almost (I said almost) everything you need to run a house can be found in the two rows of shops quite close to home. (Sometimes I wonder if one row of shops is a bad photocopy of the other) There is an ATM (for Axis bank, which I might make an account in, let's see) and a milk shop that roughly divides the two rows. And for things you cannot get (at least at a decent price) here, you'll have to make a trip to the big city, it takes about an hour to get there (of course, not in a cramped Government bus but in the AC of the metro (which is still cramped by the way) and get the choicest goods for the choicest prices (of course, if you know where to look)
I haven't completely explored either Ambihaigaun or even Dwarka for that matter. Ambihaigaun just doesn't so exciting to explore, and Dwarka is too big to be explored on foot. However, I now know how to go where I want to go! May be, as I get to know the place better, I might start posting!
Hi there! Welcome to Ambihaigaun! The village in Dwarka! Look at the kind of waters the floating leaf is swimming through now! This village generally is full of lower-middle class folk with a very... err... North Indian village like demeanor. Unlike other 'normal' villages that are surrounded by fields, this village has walls to surround it. But don't be fooled! This is a genuine certified village complete with panchayat, community centre and all! The walls of DDA colonies. Inside these colonies live people of the upper-middle-class (Generally the kind of people I was raised with and can get to know easily). Since my home is outside those walls (which I shall talk about later), I do not identify with them. I usually look at them as snobs who have more than they need and don't know what to do with them (of course "amnesia"ing the house at Chennai I have left)
The people of the place are slowly getting to know me. The occasional shop-keeper who finds out where I am from, and what I am doing, to the stares I get from people as I walk past them. I considered (and still consider) those stares as rude, but to them, it's a way of getting to know someone. To show that they recognize you. I have been trying to act friendly and say Hi to everyone I see the second time, but all they do is stare at you. I remember ol Digg telling me of his feelings about saying Hi. According to him, it's a completely useless ritual and a waste of voice. Here too, he knows that you acknowledge his presence and he acknowledges you. Of course, in a village, you're supposed to notice and remember everybody's faces unlike the city, where you only recognize a select faces you see very often, and in order to show you recognize them, you wave out so they notice you. But in the village, all this is taken for granted! Gee, I am learning a lot! (Not a bad observation for a hobbying anthropologist who's been here three days, eh?)
Almost (I said almost) everything you need to run a house can be found in the two rows of shops quite close to home. (Sometimes I wonder if one row of shops is a bad photocopy of the other) There is an ATM (for Axis bank, which I might make an account in, let's see) and a milk shop that roughly divides the two rows. And for things you cannot get (at least at a decent price) here, you'll have to make a trip to the big city, it takes about an hour to get there (of course, not in a cramped Government bus but in the AC of the metro (which is still cramped by the way) and get the choicest goods for the choicest prices (of course, if you know where to look)
I haven't completely explored either Ambihaigaun or even Dwarka for that matter. Ambihaigaun just doesn't so exciting to explore, and Dwarka is too big to be explored on foot. However, I now know how to go where I want to go! May be, as I get to know the place better, I might start posting!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Manjolai 2
I forgot to add this in my previous trip to Manjolai. One of the craziest things I did was walk half a kilometer up the hill - ... - In a water-pipe! There was some maintanance work going on there, a friend of ours wanted to meet the foreman. The workers said he was working in the pipe half a kilometer up hill! So we went! We climbed up the ladder and let ourselves down the hatch into the looming water pipe, which by the way was five and a half feet in diameter... The walls of the pipe was coated with some sort of black slime. There were light-bulbs lighting our way, so there was no room for getting scared. But we all got a little claustrophobic in a little while. The feeling that the walls of the pipe are going to crush us wasn't exactly exhilarating!
We were also worried as to what would happen to us if someone at the dam above turned the big tap on. Well, apparently we would have been flushed out (hopefully in one piece... .... but definitely dead) at Kanyakumari!
That night, there was no scope of a good nights sleep! I kept imagining myself coming out at Kanyakumari covered in black slime and wrapped in a million lightbulbs!!!
We were also worried as to what would happen to us if someone at the dam above turned the big tap on. Well, apparently we would have been flushed out (hopefully in one piece... .... but definitely dead) at Kanyakumari!
That night, there was no scope of a good nights sleep! I kept imagining myself coming out at Kanyakumari covered in black slime and wrapped in a million lightbulbs!!!
Manjolai (important bit)
I forgot to add this in my previous trip to Manjolai. One of the craziest things I did was walk half a kilometer up the hill - ... - In a water-pipe! There was some maintanance work going on there, a friend of ours wanted to meet the foreman. The workers said he was working in the pipe half a kilometer up hill! So we went! We climbed up the ladder and let ourselves down the hatch into the looming water pipe, which by the way was five and a half feet in diameter... The walls of the pipe was coated with some sort of black slime. There were light-bulbs lighting our way, so there was no room for getting scared. But we all got a little claustrophobic in a little while. The feeling that the walls of the pipe are going to crush us wasn't exactly exhilarating!
Manjolai
Oftentimes, when I hear my friends describe the beauty of the mountains, i rarely get impressed. I've seen the mountains of Kodaikanal, Thekkadi, and even a bit of the Himalayas! You see one, you've seen them all. What's so great?!
Today, standing at the top of an unnamed cliff at Manjolai, Tamilnadu, I couldn't think the same! Standing on the edge of the Western Ghats and looking at the plains below, my ancestral district slowly lighting it's lamps all over to chase away the incoming darkness, I decided to raise the 'beauty' scale a little higher.
The mountains completely clothed green with the trees were stretching in ups and downs all around me to form a great horizon. yet , from where I stand, I can see the range give way to the seemingly endless flatlands spanning at least 50 villages, flourishing because of the sparkling water streaming down from the mountains into a dam.
For a city-slicker like me, staring at starry skies is a rare sight. Last night, I could have spent the entire night looking at the real live planetarium, watching shooting stars, and wondering what to wish for, 'cause for the moment I couldn't remember a single care in the world!
In a few weeks time, I'll be the busiest man on the planet, settling down to a new job, a new life. This could be the best stretch one could ever wish for!
Beside this awesome beauty, I did spend some 'quality-time' with the family. Great pics will soon be put up!
Today, standing at the top of an unnamed cliff at Manjolai, Tamilnadu, I couldn't think the same! Standing on the edge of the Western Ghats and looking at the plains below, my ancestral district slowly lighting it's lamps all over to chase away the incoming darkness, I decided to raise the 'beauty' scale a little higher.
The mountains completely clothed green with the trees were stretching in ups and downs all around me to form a great horizon. yet , from where I stand, I can see the range give way to the seemingly endless flatlands spanning at least 50 villages, flourishing because of the sparkling water streaming down from the mountains into a dam.
For a city-slicker like me, staring at starry skies is a rare sight. Last night, I could have spent the entire night looking at the real live planetarium, watching shooting stars, and wondering what to wish for, 'cause for the moment I couldn't remember a single care in the world!
In a few weeks time, I'll be the busiest man on the planet, settling down to a new job, a new life. This could be the best stretch one could ever wish for!
Beside this awesome beauty, I did spend some 'quality-time' with the family. Great pics will soon be put up!
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