The New India
(Blogging about some of my interesting experiences during my India trip this year...)
1. Gharonda: The Nest
In India, poverty is so ubiquitous that it becomes invisible. What catches the eye is the new wealth: the dazzling malls, the exclusive brands and the middle class Indian’s ability to spend more money than their parents could ever dream of. A recurring encounter with poverty comes in the form of street children who descend like locusts at each traffic signal. With their skeletal bodies dressed in rags they beg and beg with hollow eyes for money or sell flowers and magazines. After a few initial encounters, they too become a part of the unseen.
One of the most impressive people I met in India was a rosy cheeked, smiling young woman in my hometown Lucknow! We found out that we’d even gone to the same school, Loreto Lucknow, though she was a couple of years behind me. A young mother herself, Shachi runs an NGO called Ehsaas, which rehabilitates such street children.
She brings in these urchins, begging during the day, sleeping on pavements and vulnerable to all kinds of predators, from the streets and after an initial vetting with the authorities, ensconces them in a house aptly named Gharonda (translated as ‘A nest’ in Hindi). Here they live in a normal home, eat home cooked meals, go to school, attend summer camps and do all the things normal kids do. In those safe environs they stay till they gain a professional/college degree, get a job and learn to fly solo.
When I went to Gharonda, a house which indistinguishable in its middle class neighbourhood , about 20 children between the ages of six and sixteen lounged around, doing homework, watching TV or playing board games.. looking like regular kids on a summer vacation. What was different from normal children was the warmth and joy which bubbled in them on seeing a visitor. I had an offer to play carom, draw or dine within the first few minutes..and to return to play with them. An offer I took up. So I spent the next three days with them doing a workshop on conflict, and found that I was the one doing the learning. These were old souls within young bodies. Their eyes had seen more horror and cruelty of the world than I in my comfortable middle class upbringing ever had, but still found it in themselves to enjoy life.
1. Gharonda: The Nest
In India, poverty is so ubiquitous that it becomes invisible. What catches the eye is the new wealth: the dazzling malls, the exclusive brands and the middle class Indian’s ability to spend more money than their parents could ever dream of. A recurring encounter with poverty comes in the form of street children who descend like locusts at each traffic signal. With their skeletal bodies dressed in rags they beg and beg with hollow eyes for money or sell flowers and magazines. After a few initial encounters, they too become a part of the unseen.
One of the most impressive people I met in India was a rosy cheeked, smiling young woman in my hometown Lucknow! We found out that we’d even gone to the same school, Loreto Lucknow, though she was a couple of years behind me. A young mother herself, Shachi runs an NGO called Ehsaas, which rehabilitates such street children.
She brings in these urchins, begging during the day, sleeping on pavements and vulnerable to all kinds of predators, from the streets and after an initial vetting with the authorities, ensconces them in a house aptly named Gharonda (translated as ‘A nest’ in Hindi). Here they live in a normal home, eat home cooked meals, go to school, attend summer camps and do all the things normal kids do. In those safe environs they stay till they gain a professional/college degree, get a job and learn to fly solo.
When I went to Gharonda, a house which indistinguishable in its middle class neighbourhood , about 20 children between the ages of six and sixteen lounged around, doing homework, watching TV or playing board games.. looking like regular kids on a summer vacation. What was different from normal children was the warmth and joy which bubbled in them on seeing a visitor. I had an offer to play carom, draw or dine within the first few minutes..and to return to play with them. An offer I took up. So I spent the next three days with them doing a workshop on conflict, and found that I was the one doing the learning. These were old souls within young bodies. Their eyes had seen more horror and cruelty of the world than I in my comfortable middle class upbringing ever had, but still found it in themselves to enjoy life.
Comments
thats how i put this feeling of crying for others.....
i get such tears when i visit the HIV centers.
when i see a small child, like a skeleton in the crib, with big sparkling eyes, so much of expectation is there in those eyes. she looks like a dead person with lively eyes.
Do give me the address and contact # of this wonderful person who has "gharonda".
I have lot of things to give away in lko . will give them some new things also when i go there.
love.......aunty