Palagat, Kerala - 18th Jan 2011

We stopped on the way to Palagat for breakfast and all the girls got gajras for their hair. The whole place smelled really nice for a while..

At St Mary’s Institute of industrial Training we had our first program. There was this large mass of young boys and girls standing and watching. And we were watching as their expressions flowed with each talk and dance and all..

And the same thing continued at Mercy College later that day. Mercy College is also the same college that our own P.T. Usha is from. Today, there must have been 1000 to 1200 young girls there and they applauded really enthusiastically to everything we presented.

And then something really interesting happened – When Rakesh opened the floor for anyone to suggest or ask something, there was complete silence. As if some kind of fear or apprehension had gripped the crowd and no one said anything. Then this one girl came up and said that what is surprising her is the silence the whole crowd is keeping. And that it’s important to speak up and how much we need that right now. She really appreciated the efforts of our group, to have this kind of a campaign and go all over the country to spread the message and she said it could only be effective if we all used our voice and spoke up. All of us know the problems and we can make a difference if we just raise our voice.

It’s hard to explain the feeling you get when you actually begin to see what you set out to do, take form.. That was a very profound moment in our campaign...