Santhosh's ramblings

Every other day a 12 to 13 year old boy walks in, mostly alone, but sometimes accompanied by his younger brother, who is about 7 -8, visiting many of the families in our campus, taking orders for chicken. He is our chicken supplier! He was walking in and my first reaction was – how can this boy, who is less than 14 be doing the work of an adult. My last few years of experience with “right based responses”, “advocacy” on “Child labour” and such related issues, which I had opportunity to be part of  was rekindled and I was asking around – how can we allow this to happen! How can we even allow this boy to come into the campus? We should put an end to this! Till 2 days back when I took a walk outside the campus and saw his “shop”. His shop was – a trolley (Tela Gadi) on which a middle aged man was cleaning and cutting chicken. And he and his brother, was the home delivery system. Possibly the person who was cutting and cleaning was his father – I am yet to talk to him. And for him...

One of our doctors from the ANC clinic called yesterday in the middle of the OPD. She had an HIV positive lady at the clinic in 39 th week of pregnancy, who needed to be admitted for elective LSCS. A decision had to be taken regarding treatment. Over next few minutes we discussed the plans and decided to meet with the lady and her relatives in the afternoon. At about four, she came to us, and we stood away from the crowd and started talking to her. She had come alone, which was unusual for a 39 week pregnant woman in this part of the country. You would have the mother-in-law, sister-in-law and the brother-in-law with them even if the husband is not! When we asked her about people who have come with her, she said she has come alone. Husband – she told he is working in a place about 4 to 5 hours away. Then the story tumbled out. She knew she was Positive, her husband also is positive. No one else in the family knows. The only way to keep this within them two was to come alone to the ho...

I had some hands on classes yesterday. Classes on “Anarchy”, “Survival of the fittest”, “Comradeship and Community”, and “Living in the present”. All these over a period of 3 hours during a shopping trip to Raxaul market, the first one in 4 months. Anarchy was evident all around. The rickshaw trip to the market and back, was one of negotiating space between cycles, potholes, puddles, Tongas (Horse driven carriages) trucks, bikes, people, cows and many other moving things. Everything was everywhere and every one was moving into wherever there was space. On return, the railway crossing was closed and both sides of the road was blocked off. The moment the gates opened, two full roads (the incoming and outgoing) has to create space to accommodate movement, which is four times more than what the road was expected to have – and it all was managed with ease. Who said Anarchy was difficult! Even in the shop, (the local mall {small m} we go to) the queue for check out, was broken umpteen ti...

A culture change is quite evident these days, if you are following the print media and the tele media discussions. There is a culture of reactively responding with abusive voices and violence at will, if any one acts or against a promoted ideology or a perceived human idol even! Many of these ideologies and idols created out a certain perception, relevant not to the larger community, but to a section. There is a culture of promoting and positioning oneself as the best and the answer to all ills and problems, - whether it is Nation, religion, language, organization, or individual. There is a culture of intentionally polarizing and dividing, even to extend of hate campaigns if there is no alignment to the agenda of the so called promoted ideology or answers which are being promoted. There is a culture which encourages sacrificing of others for the sake of the greater ideology, culture or nation itself. And there is a culture of silently closing eyes, ears and mouth (like the three mon...

Two days back a Medical student from Pokra came visiting. We asked him how are things at his college. He said, the hospital 750 bedded is almost empty. Most of the hotels and other establishments are closed. There is no food available. The cost of transport to the hospital from nearby town which was 300/- now costs 2000/-. People cannot afford the same and so they do not come. Another patient who came shared, LPG is going at 2000/-, if at all in black available. Patients who come to us, cross the porous borders at their own risk, come in bikes, tongas etc. after spending quite bit of time and resources. We living at the border on the “Big Bro” side, has been observing this deteriorating situation for last one month. Whatever the “Big bro” and “Small bro” country leaders may say or may not say, or the Media decide to ignore in the midst of more colourful stories of Mukherjee’s etc, the fact is that a Nation is struggling. Rather common people of the country is suffering. For the Big...

Israel under Joshua’s leadership had just crossed over Jordan. God had done a great miracle by dividing Jordan River and allowing them to cross the river. The next hurdle was Jericho. God has gone ahead and worked out a great victory, with them not shooting even one arrow. But God had given them detailed instructions how to go about each step. Joshua who was used to sitting in the tabernacle and listening to God, along with Moses, had done pretty well, and the fame of Joshua as a leader had spread all around. He was slowly fitting into the shoes of the great leader who had led them for 40 years – Moses. And they were just starting into the new phase of their journey to Promised Land. A series of wars had to be fought and kingdoms had to be conquered and Jericho was the first. But God also had given clear instructions for their behaviour, how they should deal with the things they would come across as they conquer nations. There was a character expected from them. Things seemed to be go...