Can read; will fight hunger!

First generation learners @ Imlee Mahuaa School

When we give a child the gift of letters, we prepare them to never go hungry in their lives.

A letter came on email today, which filled me up with so much joy. 3 years ago I had traveled all the way to the Naxalite hit Bastar District Chhattisgarh, to meet Prayag Joshi at his school run by an NGO Trust, dedicated to teaching children their 4 Rs, where even the Government of India fears to run a school. Let me take you to this letter straight away.

Dear Julia,

How are you? Hope you are doing well.

I am happy to share with you the Annual Report and photographs of the work we did at Akanksha Public Charitable Trust during the year that just went by (you could use the links at the end of this message to view the Annual Report and other documents).

We have had an encouraging and satisfying year at Akanksha.

The 11 children whom Akanksha supports for their formal education in Chennai have progressed well at their respective schools. We expect to add another 3 to 5 children in Chennai and 50 children in rural Chhattisgarh to this program during the next two years.

At Imlee Mahuaa School, we watched our 60 children play, explore, learn and get insights from a variety of games, experiences and work. Some of the older children eagerly took on the challenge of engaging with their course work without being ‘taught’ by the adults and some even started participating in running the School.

Our educational experience was rendered especially joyous by various steps that we took during the year to free ourselves from many structures, rules and givens that we’d constructed for each other at School. It was also enriched by the variety of interactions that we had with many people who visited us in Balenga Para and with those whom we met during our excursions away from School.

This year, our children started saving up the scholarships they received from the School in their own Public Provident Fund Accounts. They expect to use these savings for higher studies, entrepreneurial pursuits and other important purposes in future.

Of course, the encouragement, support, and contributions that we have received from you and others like you over the years has made all this possible. Thank you very much.

All of us will be very happy to hear from you and have you over with us again. So do write to us and come and visit us whenever you can. 

Bye now.
Warm regards.
Prayaag

Links:

a. Annual Report  Click HERE:
b. Photographs Click HERE:
c. Audited Financial Statements  Click HERE-
d. Audit Report  Click HERE
e. Minutes of meetings of the Board of Trustees Click HERE-

Click here for Imlee Mahuaa School on Facebook:

Prayaag Joshi with hs kids in Nainital

Silent is the lamp...

At the break of dawn, a lamp went off!

The year was 1995. I travelled to Delhi with two people from a film production company called Mantra Magic Films, from Mumbai. We were to remain in Delhi for 4 days to attend a Week of Broadcasting at Pragati Maidan. While my colleagues put up with their cousin’s at Nizamuddin, I settled into the very clean, very white, very British YWCA Guest House in Delhi. The room felt very cold and distant and while I was in Delhi, I wanted some warmth and friends around. I did not know anyone in Delhi, at that time except that I had got an address and phone number of two people, who were part of the women who desire women community in Delhi. I called the number and talked to someone, who said that they had a guest room where they put up women who came from out of town.

I checked out of YWCA and moved in with them. The house belonged to Giti Thandani and the two girls I met there introduced themselves as Cath Stuggart and Betu (Anandita)Singh. While I was away all day, I liked the warmth of their presence in the evenings, the quick breakfast with them in the mornings, little chats and sharing. I liked my little room on the top with an electrical kettle, tea bags, milk sachets, books and magazines on same-sex love. The little room was a sheer delight, with a window that looked out at the world, from the top. And on the last day of stay, I enjoyed meeting other women who desired women, in a neatly arranged beer and chips party on the terrace of the house.

I struck an instant rapport with both girls but Betu is someone I spoke to from Mumbai too after I returned. There was something in that child-like face that attracted me a lot. Cath Stuggart was staying over from England and learning Hindi and together they were doing a great job of managing Giti Thadani’s Office-cum-residence in Delhi, while she herself was in Germany.

The first beginnings of Sangini, began in Delhi, supported by the well-known Naaz Foundation. Betu and Cath were instrumental in bringing this to life.

Today, at the break of dawn, the lamp went off. Betu (Anandita) Singh passed away, the immediate cause of death being, stage 3 of cirrhosis of the liver.

This brings me to the main subject I want to write about.

The LGBTQ community in India suffers extreme isolation, marginalization and hence is an extremely lonely community. While there is a lot of companionship and friendliness among people, the togetherness is absent. People meet for drinks, dating, parties, but that real family feeling and togetherness is hard to come by. In the earlier days, the in-fighting overtook the outward seemingly out and about façade.

It has taken many of us a huge amount of courage to come out to family about our sexual identity. Very few families accept and support people who are out. So there is already the family one is fighting to find approval in and then there is the society at large, which finds any woman who is single, not partnered with a man, two women living together, something they cannot make sense of. Even tolerate. And what they cannot make sense of they want to eradicate. Kill. Or forget about it. This gives rise to the well of loneliness that very often hound, the LGBTQ community.

It is surprising that even after the decriminalizing of homosexuality, multiple films supporting same sex partnerships, so much literature, society at large has not accepted us in their midst. Families continue to ostracize us, or treat us with shame. If this is the attitude with families, then the society at large will also follow suit.

For example, consider the coming apart of a heterosexual marriage. Friends, family, extended family, friends of friends and all and sundry will come together to keep the marriage going. It is the opposite in the case of LGBTQ couples. Even in the community, people turn their heads away, and of course, the family beats hell and fire to break the relationship – in most cases. The laws of the land do not protect us, nor help us in any way, so that we feel included in the overall society at large. Do you mean that there is only one way to relate to another human being and that is the heterosexual way?

The well of loneliness is often filled with insecurities, alcohol, drugs and behavior that cry for help. But no one hears these cries, until it is too late.

These forced silences speak louder than words. These dead moments of life, even in a living body, are what regressive societies perpetuate and promote.

We really must wake up to some glaring, disturbing, uncomfortable truths that surround the LGBTQ movement in India. For that we need to know, about struggle elsewhere in the world and how they overcame it.

Now, the question is - who is going to bell the cat and make the first move?

Also read: Film review: And you thought you knew me by Pramada Menon

http://juliadutta.blogspot.in/2013/09/film-appreciation-and-you-thought-you.html