Will be spending a week going from Colombo to Trinkomalee, down to Ampara and Arugan Bay, and down south to Hamatota. Will then swing up closer to the center.
...will be seeing tsunami effected villages and conflict villages lacking electricity and water. ...need to run. No email for a week.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Back to Back
…The Bay area friends know that I have a habit of squeezing in too much in one day…alas, it's happened again. I have no regrets when it's only me who is affected…but when I end up taking others, this time mentors like Jos and Walt, in the spiral of attending back to back attention-taking actitivities, I do think twice about doing a similar whirlwind next time.
…Now in Colombo. Only the first day…peaceful now, yet knowing the chaos of the infamous tsunami not too long ago, reminds me that my external business needs to be grounded by inner silence.
…Now in Colombo. Only the first day…peaceful now, yet knowing the chaos of the infamous tsunami not too long ago, reminds me that my external business needs to be grounded by inner silence.
Next: Sept. 26 - Oct. 26
Haven't been able to post so well these days...but i have nice photos of life in Abad to share...though won't be able to do until after the next round of travelling:
Finally, after visiting several potential partners in India the last 2 months, we (Green Empowerment) have narrowed down the selection to 2 in India. The team came to India this Mon.
After a day in Bangalore of meeting with a few that have extensive experience in solar and micro hydro for rural areas, we'll visit Sri Lanka for 2 weeks to scope out potential partners. The latter half of the month will be spent visiting the 2 potentials in Uttranchal and Orissa, in the end forming a plan to start actual work.
…Yes, I have yet to explain the details of the work and groups I've been visiting…the usual excuse: One of these days...
Finally, after visiting several potential partners in India the last 2 months, we (Green Empowerment) have narrowed down the selection to 2 in India. The team came to India this Mon.
After a day in Bangalore of meeting with a few that have extensive experience in solar and micro hydro for rural areas, we'll visit Sri Lanka for 2 weeks to scope out potential partners. The latter half of the month will be spent visiting the 2 potentials in Uttranchal and Orissa, in the end forming a plan to start actual work.
…Yes, I have yet to explain the details of the work and groups I've been visiting…the usual excuse: One of these days...
Monday, September 12, 2005
Not Even a Glance
Now at home in Ahmedabad for a week...before the next month of travelling starts...but a week ago:
Dark. Lean. Not bony. Diligent. Not more than 7 years in age. Down the aisle on his four limbs with his saturated, mucky cloth, mopping the pasty blue colored floor as if it were the only thing that mattered…ever. Only after he is at the end of each 2 row section, does his blank stare request money. No begging. No demanding. Simply a request for money in return for the job he had just completed. Two sections down, a group of young college students start giving him coins even before he finishes their 2 row section. Not even a glance up at the coins until he is at the end of the section.
In the middle of cleaning this section, his mopping rag had become too saturated. In this moment, where 5 hands had come towards him, all holding coins for him, he runs around the corner to the door to squeeze out his rag, not even a glance at the offering palms. Finally, he has completed mopping this section. finally he reaches out for the coins…finally I realize how on each of the 9 train rides I've taken in the last month, each sweeping/mopping kid that comes thru captures my attention, triggering tears…which fade as soon as the young boy is out of sight…why can't I spend my free moments helping his and countless others' situation? Can I even do anything?
Tonight, from the Banglore to Delhi ride, I managed to latch onto working on a sodoku puzzle. I've already spent 3 hours on one…Next to me the old Marvadi couple have spent the last 2 hours chanting…I'm sure their chanting has more chances of helping the child sweepers/moppers than what my 3 hours of soduku-ing…or the meals of the last 2 days in Banglore, which have merely gone into forming worldly relationships with other egos, can offer.
How can one always remain in the Mind and Spirit of serving the needs of another? We are inter-connected…the consequences of all uncontrollable mishaps and haps highlight our Oneness. There are many, as the groups and individuals I've met in the last 2 months, who spend most of their days for others. Even more than their conscious efforts, there must be a way one can nurture a sub-consciousness (much like the diligence of the cleaning kids on the train) regardless of the conscious workings, which is wholly devoted to our Oneness. Any thoughts???
Dark. Lean. Not bony. Diligent. Not more than 7 years in age. Down the aisle on his four limbs with his saturated, mucky cloth, mopping the pasty blue colored floor as if it were the only thing that mattered…ever. Only after he is at the end of each 2 row section, does his blank stare request money. No begging. No demanding. Simply a request for money in return for the job he had just completed. Two sections down, a group of young college students start giving him coins even before he finishes their 2 row section. Not even a glance up at the coins until he is at the end of the section.
In the middle of cleaning this section, his mopping rag had become too saturated. In this moment, where 5 hands had come towards him, all holding coins for him, he runs around the corner to the door to squeeze out his rag, not even a glance at the offering palms. Finally, he has completed mopping this section. finally he reaches out for the coins…finally I realize how on each of the 9 train rides I've taken in the last month, each sweeping/mopping kid that comes thru captures my attention, triggering tears…which fade as soon as the young boy is out of sight…why can't I spend my free moments helping his and countless others' situation? Can I even do anything?
Tonight, from the Banglore to Delhi ride, I managed to latch onto working on a sodoku puzzle. I've already spent 3 hours on one…Next to me the old Marvadi couple have spent the last 2 hours chanting…I'm sure their chanting has more chances of helping the child sweepers/moppers than what my 3 hours of soduku-ing…or the meals of the last 2 days in Banglore, which have merely gone into forming worldly relationships with other egos, can offer.
How can one always remain in the Mind and Spirit of serving the needs of another? We are inter-connected…the consequences of all uncontrollable mishaps and haps highlight our Oneness. There are many, as the groups and individuals I've met in the last 2 months, who spend most of their days for others. Even more than their conscious efforts, there must be a way one can nurture a sub-consciousness (much like the diligence of the cleaning kids on the train) regardless of the conscious workings, which is wholly devoted to our Oneness. Any thoughts???
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Down the Aisle
How did he manage to jump onto the train?
Legs and hands are there but are not working. No voice.
Only the glance on his mid-aged face.
Seeing him slide his partially working body down the aisle and beg for money, I was so tempted to follow him and know him. As an immediate reaction, I wanted to give him the chai I was to start drinking…but of course chai is not what he needed.
What does he need? How can someone who cannot walk or talk need anything which I could give? …I wanted to touch his Spirit somehow…He had certainly touched mine.
Legs and hands are there but are not working. No voice.
Only the glance on his mid-aged face.
Seeing him slide his partially working body down the aisle and beg for money, I was so tempted to follow him and know him. As an immediate reaction, I wanted to give him the chai I was to start drinking…but of course chai is not what he needed.
What does he need? How can someone who cannot walk or talk need anything which I could give? …I wanted to touch his Spirit somehow…He had certainly touched mine.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
She Answers
Two days ago near Hydrabad:
After a grueling meeting...where I got kicked out of an office and refused to leave without a peaceful, professional conclusion, in trying to move ahead with the day in a practical manner, I headed for the Secundrabad train station, hoping to find the AC'ed Tourist Reservation office to spoil myself in the few pluses of being labeled an outsider, while getting tickets.
...Alas, contrary to Lonely Planet and the Indian Railway website, there doesn't seem to be such an office at Secundrabad. The auto dropped me off on the direct opposite end of the station to where the general reservation desk was located. ...No surprise...such drops have happened time and time again...where I walk nearly as much as I rode on the auto in order to get to the right place.
Finally getting to the reservation desk, I was determined not to re-live the reservation desk experience I had had the day before at the Kanchekunj station, where I was put on the spot and forced to buy a ticket which I later found out was an RAC ticket (not confirmed). I also wanted to avoid the sardine sqeeze at the inquiry desk line. Hence, I waited patiently at an empty window that seemed to have an employee somewhere nearby.
While waiting, She answered. I was on the brink of one of those moments where I just didn't want to take anymore surprises...and it's always a chore to decide which train fits my schedule and still has space. She, the Divine, answered by sending a new friend along, Hridesh. Hridesh is a soft spoken PhD student at one finest molecular cell biology centers in the world...based in Hydrbad :).
Hridesh, being from Rajasthan, could relate to my obstacles of getting around Andhra and getting train tix. Since he had an open lunch break, he generously helped me tag team in order to get the right train numbers I needed to book the last minute ticket to Banglore...and to come up with a back up plan of booking a bus. AND he pushed me to get the next leg's ticket, to Delhi. Getting tickets for 2 trips in advance was a first for me!
After being done with my train ticket chores, I got a tour of the center he works at...I was completely impressed. After having spent so much time going to village sites the last few weeks, it was surprisingly refreshing to see India's top biologists at work. Regardless of the sightseeing of the center, I was so grateful for running into Hridesh...he couldn't have divinely connected at a better time.
After a grueling meeting...where I got kicked out of an office and refused to leave without a peaceful, professional conclusion, in trying to move ahead with the day in a practical manner, I headed for the Secundrabad train station, hoping to find the AC'ed Tourist Reservation office to spoil myself in the few pluses of being labeled an outsider, while getting tickets.
...Alas, contrary to Lonely Planet and the Indian Railway website, there doesn't seem to be such an office at Secundrabad. The auto dropped me off on the direct opposite end of the station to where the general reservation desk was located. ...No surprise...such drops have happened time and time again...where I walk nearly as much as I rode on the auto in order to get to the right place.
Finally getting to the reservation desk, I was determined not to re-live the reservation desk experience I had had the day before at the Kanchekunj station, where I was put on the spot and forced to buy a ticket which I later found out was an RAC ticket (not confirmed). I also wanted to avoid the sardine sqeeze at the inquiry desk line. Hence, I waited patiently at an empty window that seemed to have an employee somewhere nearby.
While waiting, She answered. I was on the brink of one of those moments where I just didn't want to take anymore surprises...and it's always a chore to decide which train fits my schedule and still has space. She, the Divine, answered by sending a new friend along, Hridesh. Hridesh is a soft spoken PhD student at one finest molecular cell biology centers in the world...based in Hydrbad :).
Hridesh, being from Rajasthan, could relate to my obstacles of getting around Andhra and getting train tix. Since he had an open lunch break, he generously helped me tag team in order to get the right train numbers I needed to book the last minute ticket to Banglore...and to come up with a back up plan of booking a bus. AND he pushed me to get the next leg's ticket, to Delhi. Getting tickets for 2 trips in advance was a first for me!
After being done with my train ticket chores, I got a tour of the center he works at...I was completely impressed. After having spent so much time going to village sites the last few weeks, it was surprisingly refreshing to see India's top biologists at work. Regardless of the sightseeing of the center, I was so grateful for running into Hridesh...he couldn't have divinely connected at a better time.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Andhra, Orissa, Andhra...Karnataka
The last week or so has been spent moving from one excellent non-profit to the next. Visited CRESHE near Vijayvada and Gram Vikas in Berampur, Orissa....will write in more detail about them later. Now in Hydrabad to visit a Light Up the World Project...and will move on to the supposedly fast life in Banglore tonight, arriving tomorrow morning.
...Images that have stuck: One Didi extremely proud of and smiles about her biogas cooking system...and another 5 hrs away who has become the illiterate but passionate spokewoman for the LED lights in her village. ...In Orissa, came upon an Australian couple who have dedicated the last 3 years to the tribal population there...On the trains, meeting spirit after spirit who were looking after me...and lastly, waking up to the rhythms of the rails and to the dream-like, dawn fog rolling over the bright green rice fields and coconut trees.
...Images that have stuck: One Didi extremely proud of and smiles about her biogas cooking system...and another 5 hrs away who has become the illiterate but passionate spokewoman for the LED lights in her village. ...In Orissa, came upon an Australian couple who have dedicated the last 3 years to the tribal population there...On the trains, meeting spirit after spirit who were looking after me...and lastly, waking up to the rhythms of the rails and to the dream-like, dawn fog rolling over the bright green rice fields and coconut trees.
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