c'est la vie

I'm in a deep blue mood today.
I tried to post this yesterday, but had dial up issues.

What do you say to a boy, when you discover him at the point of despair
because his father has been in prison [in Bihar's Beur jail]
for the past fortnight
and he's struggling to keep it a secret
trying to hide it from the neighbours
the nosy relatives...
what can you say...
and not appear to be prying...
he says his father is imprisoned
because of some loan issues
he had told me a month ago that there was a case of a failed business
somewhere along the line.

and now...
he's got to juggle school
[he's a school captain in the eleventh grade]
and visits to the jail
and be a source of support to a harried mother
and keep the nosy neighbours away...
and then there's the issue of just what might happen
if the landlord finds out that the father has been arrested
they may not have a roof over their heads

that's life
for the lower middle class
in Bihar... if you have no political clout
no money for bribes
no contacts with big ganglords
then you can get thrown into jail and run for bail for over a fortnight
for defaulting on a loan....
and you don't want to go to the press
because it's a matter of family honour.....

This evening I was at a function marking the end of the first phase of the Prachar projects three year reproductive health initiative in three districts of Bihar. The results, in terms of contraceptive use and raising marriage age, as well as spacing are encouraging.

At the same function I met a rather enthusiastic man from Aurangabad, who is working on livelihood issues... and was appalled when he took me aside and told me : I think that the AIDs epidemic is the gift of God to the world... all the immoral people will be wiped out!

I was aghast. i told him that i would take issue with him, and pointed out that the vast majority of hIV psoitive people in bihar will soon be women... the faithful ones... set him thinking and he promised to get in touch for more information.

Can you imagine what harm half-baked and sketchy information on HIV and AIDS is wrecking on a state like Bihar with almost no access for the vast rural majority to health institutions?

On the other hand, here is a picture of some young men who are excellent peer educators on adolescent HIV/AIDs issues, trained by a grasssroots organisation , a non-NGO called ACT India {aasra charitable trust}.

Be my valentine?

Sigh!

There was a time... 1986... when you couldn't find a single valentine's day card
in the average Indian city card store
I remember we would make do with 'all occasion cards'
to send our cute li'll love notes to our' significant others' and casual flings alike.
The first valentine's day party I organised in Patna
was when i just landed in fresh from Sikkim
it was at a place called Jugheads run by a handsome bachelor boy from Shillong
I was doing two columns in the Times of India, which had just about started
setting about 'inventing' valentine's day in the city.
Well, in 2006, i must say that at least two of the couples who turned
up at my party are now [hopefully] happily married and
have bonnie little kids to prove it

As for me... I'm currently unattached
Not alone or lonely at all, just happy living a single, carefree life
And i wish everybody who visits here
that someday, sometime they feel the love
of another human being... man, woman, boy, girl... what does it matter
as long as
you can feel the lOVE tonight....

Hello Again, Neil Diamond

I just stayed up late, long past my bed-time, to watch Oprah Winfrey's Prime Time on STAR World just for one reason: it featured that absolutely astounding and amazing singer-composer, one whom I fell in love with the first time I ever heard his voice on a 33 and a third rpm vinyl disc entitled 'Gold'... the man who wrote Sweet Caroline, Song Sung blue... and one of the most romantic songs ever written , 'Play Me'.
I'm talking about Neil Diamond, and I'm an unsahamed and incorrigible fan. I have hummed his songs since the age of fourteen, even tried to get a bit of the gravel into it as puberty made my vocal chords go wonky.
There he was, not like the photograph in this blog, but 25 years years older, and the voice is as magical as ever. His new album is called '12 songs' and though I know I'll never lay hands on it in Patna, Bihar... somebody out there please take the hint and BUy the CD for me... hee..hee...
Neil has a song for every mood... for every situation.. my own theme song is 'Forever in Blue Jeans':
Money Talks - but it don't sing and dance
and it don't walk ... and i'd rather be... forever in blue jeans....

surprise

Today, Friday, 10 feb, in the afternoon, I had the most pleasant surprise of the year.
I'm sleeping in bed - doctors' orders, to be obeted after all. the phone rings, and a friend says, 'guess who's sitting beside me right now in Patna Women's College, and if you can't , you forfeit your soon to be procured new laptop. Well! you wake up a sick man from a well-deserved afternoon's sleep and want him to play guessing games... will women neverlearn??... anyway I forfeited the laptop-to-be with no fight.
And then wafts a voive through the ether, a familiar voice that's so warm and well known, but for the life of me, this is the sound of a woman I just can't place... and then... the revelation... it's Usha Lachungpa, well known wildlife conservationist from Sikkim.... my spiritual home.... heard after eleven years... and she says....
"I've grown old now [absolutely impossible.. that woild make me ancient... she says, little Minla who played in your arms is now in College [when did that happen?] and younger daugher Yuheena is finishing secondary school ... I'm so happy, 'cos Usha and her husband Ganden are more than friends, they're family.
Tomorrow, perhaps, when she gets time off her official engagements, she'll visit me... and I can't wait to hear all the news....
Which gets me thinking of the question, I'm trying despeartely to answer. Why is it that life sometimes overwhelms you, gives you too much to swipe at, that years pass and you suddenly realize you haven't even spoken to your closest friends in years? I'm one of the lucky ones... I'm getting another chance to be a friend, and you bet I'm not gonna screw it up this time.

Back on the road again

And so I went out of circulation.

A sort of chattus interruptus, as my access to the internet became restricted.

And then, it happened...
What I thought was a bad case of viral fever turned out to be
pneumonia... a pretty awful case of fluid in the breathing apparatus

And that took me to hospital
put me on my back, literally.
and forced me to take a long look upward
and outward, and a little bit inward as well.

Sometimes, it's necessary to be forced to lie down
to be shown that the world will still go on turning without you
a little sluggishly perhaps, but it turns nevertheless.

I spent the past ten days
enjoying the comforts of a clean, well-lit, and caring facility
far more fortunate than the thousands of other people in this country
who have no access to even the very basic of medical care
another day in paradise for me...
and a reason to give thanks and praise.