Day 95: Everybody has got 5.5 liters of blood

I had the opportunity to visit Bangalore, India in 2000 for 8 weeks.  It was an amazing experience.  Totally sensory.  The sounds of the city never cease, even in the middle of the night.  Honking horns to warn people you are driving around a corner.  Street vendors shouting their daily specials.

The visual imagery of India is lasting.  Throngs of beautiful brown-skinned people, dressed in an array of brightly colored sarees and kurta pyjamas.  The contrast of beautiful homes directly next door to slums.  Cows stopping traffic, with cars 5 or 6 across what we would consider to be a two or three-lane highway.  Heads bobbing side to side in affirmation.

The smells are potent.  Burning incense to greet you as you enter a shop.  The smell of raw sewage as you drive over what at first glance appears to be a river.  The constant smell of burning trash.

Indian food is a tasty combination of sweet and savory.  Spice.  Rich creamy sauces and rice in abundance.  Combine your taste and touch sensations at each meal, as food is eaten by hand.  Combine the rice with sauce into a cohensive clump, hold with your four fingers cupping the food, and push it into your mouth with your thumb.

I loved my time there.  But the heart break of poverty is so evident and accepted that there was a lot of confusion and questions as well.  The caste system still exists, separating the poorest of the poor from the richest of the rich.  But even in these set ways, and centuries of ingrained ideals and traditions, there are heroes in India.  People that recognize we are all the same, regardless of our status in society.  "Everybody has got 5.5 liters of blood.  I am just a human being."  Narayanan Krishnan is serving these people.  Nourishing their bodies and encouraging their spirit.  

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Day 75: Wise beyond her years

There are some individuals that seem to possess a wisdom that is beyond their current circumstance.  Take for example, Bharti Kumari, a 12-year-old girl in India.  Recognizing the value of education, she is teaching the lessons she is learning to children who don't otherwise have access to it.  That is not the typical response heard from a 12-year-old about going to school.  What about "May I puh-lease stay home?" or "I don't want to do my homework!"  No, she understands the ultimate value in becoming educated.  Rising above your circumstances.  Not allowing others to deprive you of knowledge.   Looking to the future.  Here is her story.

"As an infant, Bharti Kumari was abandoned at a railway station in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states. Now, at the age of 12, she has become the head teacher at a school in Kusumbhara, her adopted village.

Every morning and evening, under the shade of a mango tree, she teaches Hindi, English and maths to 50 village children who would otherwise receive no education.

In between, she attends a state school in Akhodhi Gola, a two-mile walk away. Dressed proudly in her school uniform, she passes on the knowledge gleaned from her lessons to the village children, aged between four and 10, in her own class.

“I have a long day. My school is from 10am to 3pm and I study late,” she said. “This is what I love doing. I enjoy teaching children their ABCs as well as the Hindi alphabets.”

Kusumbhara is a poverty-stricken village 87 miles from Patna, the state capital. Most families are Dalits, India’s lowest social group, and they live in fear of Maoist insurgents waging a terror campaign against the security forces.

In the past four months 30 schools and community buildings have been blown up by the rebels. “How will we get educated if we’re scared?” asked Bharti, appealing to the government to build a proper school in the village.

Her pupils are among the 10 million Indian children who are outside the state education system because their parents are so poor that they need them to work or no schools are nearby. Earlier this month the Indian government pledged £3.6 billion for a “right to education” scheme which aims to provide free schooling for all.

Bharti’s adoptive father, Rampati, an impoverished farmhand, said he would not follow the rural tradition of pushing girls into early marriages but would allow her to continue her studies.

Her future career has already been decided. “I definitely want to become a teacher when I grow up,” she said." The Sunday Times

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