On The Way To Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh - 26th Feb 2011

While leaving Raipur, 30 kilometres out we reach Durg where Deepika’s house is there and she invited us for breakfast and we were welcomed sooooooooooo warmly by her family. She introduced us to each member and some of her close friends were also there, who were practically family only. The love in the air was so thick and smiles were floating all around.. It was a very happy time.

And her dog Veer! He was a cross between a lab and something else (I forget) was the cutest and most loving creature! I wish people weren’t scared of dogs.. Dogs are one of the richest sources of unconditional love..  I would have sat and petted and loved him all day if people hadn’t chased him out of the room. To all those people who ‘don’t like’ them – you don’t know what you’re missing.. (And if you say you know – you still don’t)

We have a most delicious and nutritious breakfast with puris, sabzis, chicken, bananas, grapes, home made cake and kadak chai. Like, yummmmmmm.. Our mouths still water when we think about it.. But I particularly loved the grapes.. They were deep purple, at least 50% larger than your average grape and sooo juicy.. And they were pleasantly sweet. Just enough to let you have a whole bunch of them and not get that sugar-saturated feeling later. There really is something about home grown stuff that makes you miss it elsewhere..

I really liked how Deepika’s family was so close-knit.. The bonds they shared were very tight and the mutual support and the being-there-for-each-other feeling was very strong. We had to leave just after breakfast to reach Jabalpur in time, but we just kept delaying. Not on purpose.. But no one took the initiative to start moving. We were having such a great time..

We hit the road again. Metaphorically. But we wanted to physically hit the road! It was sooooooooo bad!! Just so uneven and broken! It looked like they broke it up to rebuild it, but destroyed it and never got around to fixing it up again. God knows how long it's been under construction! Maybe it wouldn’t  have been so unbearable if we had to travel for just a few hours or so. But today it’s travel for the whole day pretty much. And it stayed like that for 150 km or so..  By the end of the day, everyone’s back and legs were silently screaming. But honestly, haven’t seen roads like this anywhere. And they’re supposed be our national highways.. It was appalling! If the leaders in our country ever want this great land to develop further, they should really do something about the roads. At least start from there. It’s just that none of them ever travel on these roads in between cities and towns, so they don’t even know that they’re in this state.  It’s just so wrong on so many levels..

There has to be something that we can do to make this right. But I know that one person can't do it alone. All or nothing. It’s either all of us, or we get nothing, right?

Jabalpur and On The Way To Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh - 27th Feb 2011

It was kind of like a day of surprises in a sense today. Firstly, we set up a program for the parishioners at the Sunday Mass at St. Aloysius Sr. Secondary School. They didn’t know that we were coming and all of them stayed after Mass to see what we had to say. It was kinda cool to get a positive response like this. In almost all our programs, they were organised beforehand and all the students and all knew we were gonna put up something and they were prepared. But here, it was completely out of the blue for them, and it was such a pleasant feeling to be received and appreciated. (Smile)

Today was travel for almost the whole day too. We stopped for lunch at some roadside dhaba and there were these fields behind it and after lunch Savita and some of the girls went and got some branchlets of the plants growing there. They had these green peanut-sized ‘fruits’ of sorts and we didn’t know what they were. Then Savita cracked the soft green shell to reveal channas! They were nowhere near ripe yet but without doubt, that’s what they were.. Green and tender, they tasted so sweet! For so many of us, this was a new experience.. It really puts into perspective how much you know and how much you think you know..

Continuing on, we passing all these fields of our agricultural countryside and when you keep watching that for a while, you sort of tune out of the age you’re living in. You forget momentarily about technology, about a fast paced life, about deadlines, about corporate offices and concrete jungles, about a lot of how we generally live life in the city. It’s like you’re in a different world, where life is much more simple, it’s slower and you feel you breathe a lot easier. Or more deeply, rather. It just felt more peaceful.. When you’re looking at this from the outside in, it doesn’t look remotely the same as when you’re actually there. I guess because when you’re not actually there, all you had thought about this kind of a place was still seen through city-life coloured glasses and all the perceptions that come with it.

We stopped for tea somewhere on the way to Bhopal in the evening and we noticed some people across the road and just approached a bunch of them sitting around. We spoke to them about our program and asked them what they felt about this situation in their area and what can be done. They were quite open and welcoming to the lot of us that stopped and just randomly came up to them and asked them stuff about them and their issues that surround them. They even agreed to record the message and the Village Sarpanch happened to be there and very willingly spoke in front of the camera. He spoke about stuff like there is lot of corruption and if anything, any action is to be taken it should be by the youth. They have the power to make that necessary change. They need to come together and only when they are united can they do something. That unity in the youth is very important. And he also spoke about how there is no difference in ability between girls and boys. Girls are just as important, hardworking and capable as boys and they should be considered no less. If we all supported this belief instead of considering girls to be liabilities, denying them education and an opportunity to work, we’d be a much much more prosperous nation. He told us how much he appreciated our efforts and then gave us his blessing and best wishes that our mission on this journey be successful.

It was cool in have this interaction with the Sarpanch and the villagers. It was truly understanding a part of India of which a lot of us haven’t had much knowledge of, interaction with or much of an inclination to learn about. Many of us have preconceived notions of what they would be like and don’t care to budge from there. We hadn’t expected them to be so open minded, so pro-growth for our country and so against corruption, a feeling we also held very strongly. It really changed our perception of them.

After this, we’re all getting back on to the bus and everyone who was standing there suddenly starts following us. They said that they were very inspired and they kept offering to give us tea and even to accommodate us for the night and be their guests for a few days. They wanted to know more about the program and how they could join. They were just so taken by these strangers from different parts of the country who came from out of nowhere and in the short span of 10-15 minutes that they were there spoke such positive things about how to make changes to help make our country a better place. They even started following us on their bikes for a while once we left, they were so enthused.

 This encounter with these people was different from any other that we’ve had. The program we had in the morning may have been impromptu, but this one here, also impromptu, in the middle of the villages with the true village folk had a completely different feel to it altogether. This audience we’ve had less of, and we didn’t know what kind of reaction to expect. But to see the way they took to us was so encouraging and it really gave us a renewed energy to continue on. John, in particular, was thrilled. This was beyond what he had imagined for the trip and it really raised the smile on his face even more.

To more surprises.. And new experiences.. How much there is to learn. Hai na?

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh - 28th Feb 2011

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)