Bump in the Road

What follows is a letter I received via email today from Timothy Jalam in Miraj, with whom I am working to start a hospice building and program there. My goodness! What a different world.

Respected Cynthia,

I am sorry for delay in responding the progress of the Hospice center.

The construction of New Hospice Center was started on 09/03/2009. But group of women and men from higher cast community of Bamnoli village shouting slogans saying stop this work if the Hospice Center is constructed in this village then whole village will be infected with HIV/AIDS. The situation was out of control we had to stop this work. I took the help of Police in this matter but the response was not very favorable.

Dated 12/03/2009 I had been to Mumbai and explained the situation to the Government authorities our intention of constructing Hospice center and provide care and support to the people who are sick and dying.

I was able to convince Government Authorities and got the special permission from the Health Ministries.

At the same time at village level organized four meetings with the village leaders and community people pleading them for their cooperation and explaining them that the HIV/AIDS will not be spread in the village if we have Hospice center in Bamnoli village, this will be privilege and honor for our village if we have this project in this village. We will be able to provide good service to the sick and dying.

I am happy to inform you that the construction work has now stated again. Please continue to pray for this work.

Can I get email address of Janet Hignett, 3 Loast lane, Pittsburgh, PA 15271, USA who came with the Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pittsburg USA. Who was residing with you at the Fletcher Hall in Miraj

With regards,

Rev. Timothy Jalam

Rukhminibai Lives!

Here is a letter I received via e-mail from the surgeon who replaced my friend's mitral valve and repaired the tricuspid. This was done in a full-on open-heart surgery procedure that lasted about 5-6 hours, wherin Shirish, bless him, opened her chest by sawing through the sternum with a surgical jig-saw, I kid you not. In this photo taken about 10 days after the surgery, my friend, Rukhminibai is pictured on the right, next to her daughter Alaknanda, and Alaknanda's daughter, Prachi. I first met Rukhminibai when I was 17, she was 24, and Alaknanda was 5.

My dear Cynthia,

I hope this note finds you in good health. Rukmini our patient came for follow up today. I was so happy to see her and did remember all your efforts for her. I was especially touched by your patiently waiting outside the ICU for hours on end while Rukmini was recovering after surgery. Rukmini is doing well. Her symptoms are almost gone and she is doing all her routine activities. Her heart size on Chest X-ray has remarkable decreased. Her operative wounds are healed well and her Anticoagulation blood reports are within the expected levels. I have readjusted her medicines and have called her for follow-up after 2 months. I praise God for having helped this patient back to almost normal health.

I thank you so much for putting your trust in my small department and allowing us to treat your patient and giving us this great opportunity to be instruments of healing in our Makers Hands.

With love and prayers,

SHIRISH

Dr. Shirish S. Pargaonkar

Head, Cardio-vascular & Thoracic Surgery

In-charge, Miraj Heart Institute,

Medical Superintendent, Wanless Hospital

Miraj - 416410 , INDIA

Mobile: 9823066280

E mail: shiripar@hotmail.com

shiripar@gmail.com

Pune

Visited the site where Mary plans to start a school to educate young girls from surrounding villages with the intent of helping them pass the 10th standard exams, like a high school exit exam. She was inspired to do this from assisting her housekeeper's daughter with her studies. The girl failed the 8th grade and Mary is tutoring her every morning before school. Mary's idea is that if she can get these children to pass their exams, a whole world will open up for them. The young girl in the headwrap is the caretaker's daughter on the land. My head is wrapped in a scarf in the latest fashion: protects against sun exposure and air pollution on the crowded smelly streets of India. This scarf was purchased in Maliwada. Pooja, Mangala and Hiraman Gavai's 25 year old daughter showed me how to tie it. Pooja and Hiraman both work at Capgemini. Mangala stays home and is looking for a project. They have closed the ICA-Bombay office, but want to reopen it as a guest room for travelers. The orchid is blooming in Mary's garden for me, she said. Portrait of Dali, lounging. Hello, Dali. I sing to her every morning, but she is heretofore unimpressed.

The D'Souza Family

I am fully enjoying my visit with the D'Souza family in Pune. Cyprian has created an amazing IT business, having used ICA methodology to create a company that was sold to the French for millions. They are worldwide, but the main campus is here in Pune. They provide software for financial institutions all over the world. Everything is state of the art. An incredible building. Pune calls itself Silicon City. They were on the "hitlist" of the Mumbai Terrorist attacks in November and have stepped up their security. Eventhough Cyprian was one of the originators of the company, we were inspected thoroughly at the gate. They rolled a mirror around under the car, had a metal detector wand if needed, opened the trunk, had us unroll all the car windows to inspect us. No photos inside allowed. It was quite something. Dali, the great Dane at their home is impressive, but extremely shy especially around me. Their son, Ashwath is beautiful and intelligent with a British accent from schooling in York and Wales. Mary and Cyprian are very much the same. Wonderful people. Their daughter is teaching at a school for the mentally challenged in Kerala. She is 19 and an amazing artist. Beautiful in photos, but I have yet to meet her.

Holi Festival

Today is Holi festival. It started last night with the full moon. Lasts today and tomorrow. Last night, I visited Shankar Jadav and his "new" wife, Renuka and their almost 2 year old son, Aditya. They made a special meal with jaggery (unrefined raw sugar, like dry molasses) stuffed chapatis and khir(sweet milky rice with nuts), bindi (okra), pakoras, other fried snacks, rice and dahl. Very good. Today, people throw colored water and powder on each other. I left my friends in Aurangabad just before holi, but they annointed me with orange powder and then gave me the powder to color each of them as part of the parting ritual. Here in Pune, mostly college kids, families and kids celebrate. Many people do not. Also part of the tradition is to drink bhang water (hash tea) all day. Haven't sampled that yet.

Last day in the village

Spent Saturday evening, night and Sunday in Maliwada, having tea with old friends, meeting new friends, children, wives and husbands, having beaucoup cups of chai, chai, everywhere chai. These people feed me and give me chai and snacks every few minutes and then ask why I'm so fat. We sang bhajans together. I relented and let the ladies dress me in a sari, marathi farm style, through the legs in front and tucked in the waist at the back. They couldn't help but giggle and laugh, but so appreciated my effort to engage in local custom. They were constantly honoring me with red powder on the forehead. I honored them by drinking their tea, singing their religious songs with them, and wearing their clothes, and generally enjoying their beautiful smiles and enthusiasm for life. I found a computer genius named Ravi who downloaded my pictures and videos on his harddrive to share with the others. Who would have thought that possible in little old Maliwada? Maliwada now has a bank, restaurants (not just tea stalls) and shops with everything from bangles, saris, shoes, hankies, to motorcycle parts and building supplies. They seem to be thriving. And growing. New infants, this one only 7 days old, pulled out from under the bed when reviewing the family tree. Some things are just the same. Pundlik in his blacksmith shop, started by his grandfather and continued by his father. His youngest son, my friend Nandakishore helps him in the shop sometimes. Granny in her glasses watching the world go by.

Eating Well

Last night we went to a lovely restaurant in Nashik and ate quite well. This is called a thali plate. This style of dining is available in Santa Cruz, but nothing like this quality and quantity. You just arrive at the restaurant, called a "hotel" and sit down. The servers bring all the food and condiments and refill as you eat unless you are vigorous with your declinations. There were four more food items yet to come when this photo was taken: rice, puris (like chapatis, but fried), a sweet yoghurt dessert dish, another yoghurt dish with a ball of rice in the middle. The food was fabulous. Very high quality.

Orchid Farm at Belgaon Dhaga

Sumit and his wife Anjali decided to return to his parent's farm near Nashik, near a village called Belgaon Dhaga. They are starting an orchid farm in the old chicken house. The Parekh's got rid of the chicken venture about 3 years ago. Sumit and Anjali got their orchids from Thailand. Anjali is an architect and designed the home they built on the property "within shouting distance" of Sumit's parents. You can see the house on the left side of the photo and the children walking back to their house from "Aba's" (grandpapa's). Sumit is a business man. They are both world travelers.

Vinod Parekh

This is Mr. Vinod Parekh with his 2 delightful grandchildren, Ved and Devika, ages almost 4 and 2. They are Sumit's children, Vinod's eldest. Vinod was the project director at Maliwada village in 1975-77, where I met him when I first came to India. He is the same, great sense of humor, loves people, can communicate well with all types. People confide in him. He is inspirational. Two people told him they were on the verge of committing suicide until they spoke with Vinod and regained a desire to live.

Fun with Devika

Bathtime with Devika.

This is Vinod Parekh's granddaughter, Sumit and Anjali's daughter, named Devika. She just turned 2 about 2 months ago and is a firecracker. This was just after the moment that she came to me and asked me to pick her up, by reaching up with both arms in that wordless 2 yr. old way.

Radhakrishnan

This is Radhakrishnan in his barber shop, son of a barber; his brother's a barber. At the age of 12 or so, he was my translator 33 years ago. He taught me the bhajans I still know today.

Barbershop

This is Radhakrishnan's barber shop. His eldest son is the barber in the background getting ready to take a straight razor to his customer's throat.

Maliwada Reprise

So, this is the middle of town on an early Sunday evening. Maliwada now has a "market", fruits and vegetables. The temple in the background is new in the last 33 years. The well to the left has been there all along. All the people and activity are new. This is a teaming village of 5000 people now. When I came it was a struggling farmtown of about 500. Such a change! Some of the oldies but goodies recognized me. I was there for only 2 hours, but will return Saturday for 2 days, staying in the village, probably at the goldsmith's house. My blacksmith friend has no indoor facilities, except electricity.

Pics of Hospice Presentation at MGM

Here I am signing my autograph and words of encouragement to the nursing students.

The audience. Some sleepy, some enthused. The usual.

At the beginning; the head of the College of Nursing: Dr. Mhaske, PhD in Community Health

The end.

The Stove Project for Changu Narayan, Nepal

Some of you more careful readers, (Mom, Dad) may remember that I had plans to visit a stove distributor in Bangaluru for the purpose of inspecting and sending if appropriate a couple of samples to the village project in Nepal. Well, that visit did turn out to be fruitful. I arrived at their swanky office in a somewhat sweaty and dishevelled condition as is my bent when travelling in this hot, dusty country, it seems. In spite of my appearrance, they were very polite, gave me a tour and let me use their computer to check for a non-PO box address to receive some stoves and made arrangements to send 2 models up to Kathmandu. I showed them my photos of the stove project we saw up there at their Centre for Rural Development in Kathmandu. A very pleasant man named, Ravi was my guide and told me he is fluent in the 5 languages of the areas around Bangaluru in which they are working now. They have plans to expand up to Maharashtra and Gujarat in the next year or so. They've been in the current location for about a year and a half. Ravi took me to an ATM where I withdrew about $100 worth of rupees and paid for 2 stoves and shipping to Nepal. They will send them as soon as they receive a physical address from me. I'm excited about the combined efforts of the stove technology in Bangaluru and the fuel developments in Kathmandu and the resulting potential for improvement of air quality and stopping deforestation. Another success story!

Mahatma Gandhi Mission

Sorry for no photos this post, but forgot to bring my camera cord to hook into the computer. Just had a reprise motorcycle ride to get to this cafe from Nandakishore's office. Reprise, because the last time I rode sidesaddle on the back of a motorcycle was in this very area 33 years ago, and the results were less than spectacular. We were leaving the village of Maliwada, just gaining speed from the dirt road onto the blacktop, when the back tire blew out and the cycle started to tilt. I tried to jump off just before getting wiped off the back end of the thing and was wearing leather "chappalls" or typical Indian style sandals and did not succeed in staying on my feet. I fell, and the momentum I had from being on the motorcycle doing 25-30 miles an hour carried me rolling across the road and into the dirt at the edge. I skinned up my leg and tore my dress (yes, I was wearing a dress at the time). This lovely feat was witnessed by quite a few villagers who knew me and came running to see if I was hurt. Thankfully, only a little, and I went back to the village to lick my wounds. But that was then, this is another story, thank the gods and goddesses in such abundance here in India. This motorcycle (a honda hero) was also very old, but in good condition, and the driver very careful. We arrived without incident. Earlier today I delivered a very successful Hospice presentation at the Mahtma Gandhi Mission which has a hospital, schools of agriculture, engineering, nursing, among many others. It's lovingly referred to locally as MGM, not to be confused with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Hollywood. For my presentation, I received my very own small bust statue of Sri Gandhi himself and a beautiful white cotton shawl, as well as a 500 rupee honorarium which was referred to as a "love gift". That's a lot of money here. They were extremely appreciative. They want me to come back and do a more involved presentation over several days. They provided a projector so that I could show my powerpoint slides that I developed in Miraj at Fletcher Hall. A bunch of students asked for my autograph at the end. It was very touching. Pics to follow.

The Summit

Here's the giant Shivaji temple parts of which are 2000 years old in the city of Tiruvannamalai.

This is me on the summit with my intrepid guide taking a moment over my right shoulder.

I met this lovely French man named, Guy just below the summit. He hiked to the top with us and I enjoyed a chat with him in the hut at the top as we rested for the harrowing journey back.

This is me at the beginning, fresh and unsuspecting.

Photos of the big climb

We started out in Selvaji's hut. He is a guardian of the forest, keeping people from smoking and putting out forest fires. I started up the mountain alone while Selvaji went back for provisions.

This was one of the "sleeping spots" Selvaji picked out for me. He set two rocks down for a pillow and said, "you lie down and sleep for 2 minutes." Very refreshing.

Arunachala, Sacred Shivaji Mountain

This morning I got up and planned a sedate 2 km. hike to the cave where Sri Ramana Maharshi lived and meditated for 7 years; started at 6am and planned to be back by 8am to bathe and go to Richard Clarke's (retired here from San Jose a year and a half ago; rents a palatial 2 story home with roof deck for $200/month) house for a visit by 9. But nooooooooo. I caught the enthusiasm of an impromptu guide living in a grass hut at the foot of the mountain and agreed to have him guide me to the top, without asking the length of the trip or preparing for a long gruelling hike with sunscreen, water, food, head protection, walking stick, none of the essentials. Nevertheless, my fearless guide took me on like a project with comments such as, "you have a big body and walk so nicely to the top of the mountain." Well, that didn't turn out to be entirely true, because near the end, I turned my ankle and fell, colliding with my tiny guide and we both sprawled in the dirt on an incline. He scratched his leg and hit his spine on a rock. I scraped my back and turned my ankle, but not badly. He urged me to a standing position as quickly as possible and had me crawl into a narrow cave for shade to "sleep" while he hustled down the hill a few hundred yards to the cave cum ashram and freshwater spring. He returned with a liter of water and a steel plate of food, rice, dall and green beans. It was the salt that was most critical at that point, and the rest. Whew! Near catastrophe averted. Now I'm recovering with only moderately sunburned forearms and face, swollen and sore knees, but proud to have bagged that peak! Pictures to follow, my camera battery just died.

Where I'm Staying

This is the Ashram down the road from Sri Ramanasramam where I am staying. Accommodations are mediocre, I wouldn't even say clean, but at least I have a place to wash and sleep, which is better than the alternative and what a lot of people around here have.

More of the self-guided tour

Got a little cow dung between my toes when I wandered into the milking room. Snapping a photo of this guy attaching the automatic milker produced an "Hare Ram" from him. I think he was a little taken aback by the sudden audience during this private moment with the cow. The teeny calf in back had to wait his turn at the teat. I wandered to the back of the property and came across this little settlement of shacks and snapped a photo of a little girl finishing her bath. Everything pretty much happens out in the open here. Earlier in the day I saw a very old woman bathing by a public water pump, naked from the waste up, squatting by the side of the road, young boys, men and me walking by. She didn't care, nor did they seem to notice. Saw a man brushing (or rather cleaning since no brush was involved) his teeth in the typically Indian fashion with black tooth powder and his index finger outside his room at the ashram, instead of inside in the bathroom which has no sink, just faucets in the wall in an enclosed bathroom. The little girl in pink above was too cute to pass up. I think she lives behind the ashram in the shacks.