Hippy Bogus - ness

This picture captures all I have to say about what Ehsaas is trying to do in Pune. Bringing a few moments of joy to the lives of underprivilaged children, in and around Pune.

However the writer in me has this compulsive need to document details surrounding the trip, so that the broader perspective surrounding this trip comes through.

This trip started out as a "bike ride and a visit to a tribal hostel" all rolled into one. It ended up being an extremely educating experience for me, and my friends from "Ehsaas", which is the community service group we have got together to form in Pune.

We started out at the CYDA office, located at the centre of Pune (CYDA is one of the NGOs Ehsaas is working with) with 8 folks from Ehsaas and 4 bikes. Madhura from CYDA volunteered to be our guide on this trip, and helped us find the ashram shala (interchangably referred to as the Vagholi centre for the dumb and deaf or the Mukh Badhir Vidyalaya - Vagholi) , located about 30 kms away from the centre of the city. What struck me about Madhura was the patient manner in which she allowed us to spend time at the ashram shala, without interfering in the long drawn discussions we had after tour of the ashram. She waited patiently for us to finish talking, to provide us with insightful information.

We had a car and a bike join us midway on the trip (and one car after we reached there), so were a happy group of 5 bikes and a car, on a very hot day in Pune. The mid-day sun in Pune burns your skin, and the dry heat has your eyes feeling sauna-esque. On the way to Vagholi, Sonika, my friend who was riding pillion and I swapped stories about our respective social and love lives. This considerably helped to beat the heat. We also passed this beautiful old temple, on the banks of a lake, but had overshot the ashram shala, and had the other bikes waiting for us, so had to turn back ASAP!

We finally got to the ahsram shala an hour later. It consists of 4 ad hoc buildings, with a central courtyard. It was evident that these structures were erected on a need basis, and not with any planned perspective. It houses 300 kids (including 50 dumb and deaf children), who study in standards 1-10. A lot of these kids have spent over 5 years at the ashram shala, and there were no visible signs of being ill-treated (I had to being this up. I don't have the most positive impression of residential schools run by charitable trusts) but the kids here were extremely happy, and showed no fear of the authorities (they seemed to be able to interact with us in an extremely unencumbered fashion)

The visit kicked off with Mr. Motilal (who is the son of the man who set up the NGO many years ago with 8 kids) explaining to us what they did at the ashram shala. He brought up how they pick up kids from various places in Pune, and the yawning gap that exists between funds that are provided to take care of the kids to the funds required to actually provide them with basic amenities.

Mr Arthur Linfield was then introduced to us. He has spent time doing charitable work in many places in the world, and the last 7 years have been spent in Pune (Family Care - Pune initiative). He came there with 2 of his daughters (Amaris and Leilani) and along with his wife and 5 other children, spends time doing similar charitable work at a slum in Pune. He spoke passionately about helping people, and his experiences helping people in India over the past decade.

An extremely articulate speaker, the message I got from his little talk was that "even the smallest act of reaching out to other people is useful (and it could mean giving 1 kilo of rice or a 100). However, while having long term action plans is a good thing, putting those plans into action in the present is equally important.

After Arthur left (and he has one very cute daughter), Motilal took us on a guided tour of the ahsram shala. The first "classroom" we visited was a concrete structure with a tin roof with holes (now serving as a classroom for the 9 & 10th standard kids). We were in that room for about 15 mins, and I could have roasted popcorn till it popped. I don't think I would have got through schooling those conditions, and you had kids here who were just excited about being able to study. We were taken on a tour of the girls hostel, the school for the dumb and deaf, the computer room, and finally to the hall, where we walked to a rousing applause from the children. I was stunned at the discipline inculcated in them. They were neatly sitting in rows, girls on one side and boys on the other (and I think each row consisted of kids from the same year - not sure about that though). We were officially the chief guests, and there were more than 11 chairs lined up at the head of the room for us to take (we were 11 Ehsaas volunteers who made it on the trip). We were introduced to this kid who said the most heart rendering prayer for us. She must've been about 3 years old, and was living with a beggar on of of the roads in Pune City. The organizationconvinced the beggar to allow them to take her away, and brought her to vagholi. The beggar later died. She is too young to go to school, so is in the balwadi (rudimentary playschool).

We also met Sachin, who is the son of a prostitute, and who was dropped at the ashram 5 years ago. I was very impressed with how intelligent some of these kids were.

Ehsaas volunteers at the end of the trip decided to do a realistic rethink about what we could do at this ashram shala. The location might pose a problem for us to come down every week, but we tentatively decided to come back here on the 30th of April and organise a talk for the kids about what career paths they could opt for, after giving their board exams. This is more of a morale building exercise for kids currently studying in the 10th and the other younger kids, that they have hope! It would also help the other kids understand what they could do with their lives and lend some direction to them.

I was personally very humbled by my interaction with the children. They had torn clothes, scrabby faces, and no slippers, but were so un-encumbered and full of life!