And the day begins with a Peace March
across the city with youth from all over Madhya Pradesh. It’s reminiscent of
the one in Kolkata, but it was much longer at like 3 km. There were school kids
and college students and working professionals and everybody. They had their
banners and flags and all, and we walked right on the main road while traffic
passed us by. I really like how the spirit was really high and the slogans were
on full blast. It was so cool that some passing vehicles actually slowed down
and asked us what the whole thing was about coz they were interested. Fun!
In front, we had our Nation’s Flag
flying high! And by high I mean HIGH!! John climbed up on the roof of our bus
that was leading the march and waved the Flag and he’s an additional 6 feet
tall. Just looking at it from the front was quite something..
My throat had been straining for a few
days and I knew that if I didn’t give it enough rest, it wouldn’t heal and so I
took a self imposed vow of silence for 2 days straight (And no, I didn’t break
it). And it didn’t matter that there was a need to communicate to keep working,
I either used a self invented form of sign language or would type it out on my
cell phone and show it to whoever. Today was the second day, and it had become
quite easy to “talk” to people this way. Rakesh was walking with a professor of
the Bhopal School of Social Sciences, where we were gonna have our program, and
after watching me all morning, he actually asked Rakesh if I even knew how to
speak also or if I was mute. I dont know whether that’s a good thing or not..
But we all had a great laugh about it afterwards.
Appearances can be so deceptive!
We reach the Bhopal Institute of Social
Sciences and get the warm tika
welcome and a small flower-petal shower. And the first thing we do after that
is plant 10 trees! In other places we’ve planted like 1, but here all of us in
our team got to be part of the process rather than a selected few. And it felt
kinda awesome to actually be planting
so many trees instead of just talking about it so much..
The program at the Institute is set up
in this most huge pandal where
everyone who took part in the peace march came and sat and attended. All the
banners and signs they carried were planted or stuck in the potted plants and on
the white sheets flanking the stage. I think that that was kind of special coz
that way those reminders were right in front of everyone for the whole program.
And what a program!! It begins with prayer, as all things should and this service
was of different religions. With the vibe set, the dances took off! The
traditional dances followed by our girls. The culture and talent is just so
rich here.. And the most inspiring and touching fact was that some girls who
performed did it especially for us despite having an exam immediately after.
Really yaar.. How many people would
do that? Thank you all of you sweet, beautiful people!
The Bhopali people are really cool. They
keep laughing all the time. And that always makes for a jovial atmosphere. After the program, we got to rest a bit.
After continuous travel and programs, it can get to you, and getting a few
hours off can really rejuvenate you. Plus, we got to interact (In sign
language, mind you) with the Bhopalis and share a few laughs. Like the time
we’re standing in line for lunch, and Fr. Prakash behind me picks up a handful
of my hair, which wasn’t washed for a few days coz of illness, and says, “Ye sadhu wale baal ho gaye.” Hehe.. What
a comparison..
A few of our team headed out to the site
of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in the evening. Rakesh didnt let me go coz of the
whole throat thing. He said, “That whole place is infected. We wont take people
who are already infected on their
own. Your immunity is low na.. So
it’s dangerous..” This was even after I made the whole upset-kid face..
So Rakesh narrated his account of the
experience there when they got back. He said that the place was deserted, but
there was no protection in place. He and the camera crew just sauntered in
without any questions asked. He said even now people are facing problems
because of the gas leak, but there was nothing cordoning this place off to keep
people from entering or coming in contact with the environment in the vicinity.
The people around were least bothered about the whole thing now. They’ve grown
accustomed to it, he said, and it’s not a big deal here anymore. In fact across
the road only there was a slum settlement. But he still felt that there should
have been more precautionary measures taken by the government to protect people
from this area because no one knows how bad the poisoning was. Or still is.
Seriously..
They walk around and find some children
playing there and picking berries off the trees and eating them. Rakesh and
Alan and all also had some. Rakesh said something about a weird sensation in
his leg a few minutes after that. It kind of scared him because of the threat
of poisoning from the surroundings, plus he also had the berries. But it
vanished after a few minutes. Luckily.
Just being there, looking around at the
barren remains of life around and what’s left of the factory, Rakesh said it
just felt so sad. The walls around had stuff painted on them like “25 YEARS
BETRAYAL – CENTRAL & STATE GOVERNMENTS” and “UNION CARBIDE YOU CANT HIDE,
WE CHARGE YOU WITH GENOCIDE.” Plus the abandoned building left to decay on its
own stared back at them. This residue of an incident that affected sooo many
people for sooo many years is enough to knock the air out of anyone.
He came back with a different look in
his eyes.
The evening sets and now we’re getting
ready to head for Lucknow. It’s another overnight-travel night. We’re set to
leave by 11pm. Hopefully we should reach in the estimated 14 hours after
departure. Let’s see. In the meantime, our new Bhopali pals Savio and Joowan
are telling us not to leave. Partly we dont want to leave, coz of the constant
laughter and enjoyment opportunity. But we gotta move on. Only then can we come
back haan? (wink wink)
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