Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Mountains calling

Parashar Lake, Trek with India hikes, 11-12 July 2015

Somethings cannot be described in words. They need to be experienced. As Trisha says 'woh wali feel'. So, that 'feel' can not be explained, it can only be felt. Let me try to narrate the first time trekking experience of three of us - Trisha, Asheesh and myself - with a somewhat experienced trekker Abhijeet, and two trek leaders from India hikes.

We often hear that the true character of a person comes out when she or he is put in unusually difficult situations. For a first time trekker it is somewhat a similar experience. I decided to go for trekking to spend my birthday doing something which I have never done before and to be able to wake up in the middle of nature.

And I was not disappointed. The air had a fresh breath and it smelled like nature. First thing that dawns is the massiveness and ruggedness of the mountains. They have been there for centuries, always standing tall and letting anyone and everyone enjoy their beauty. All around there was nothing except the  mountain peaks with clouds appearing and disappearing in different patterns over the mountains. The sun playing hide and seek with clouds,splashed an array of colours in the sky. The sky so blue is not possible to imagine for us living in cities.

However for us first time Trekkers the trip of over 7 kms from baggi village was surely not an easy one (though indiahikes say that it is an easy trek). Well, the drizzling that started early morning was not the only reason. The bridge over the nullah that connect baggi village to our trek starting point got a washed in the flash floods. Our trek leader , I guess after assessing our experience , was not convinced to continue this. After we managed to convince him we had to cross the nullah full of sludge and rocks which took over an hour. Trust it was not at all easy to walk like that with our back packs. As soon as we got a rythm after crossing the river we were 'attacked' by the leaches. For almost 1.5 hours we were screaming and walking with the most creepy feeling of leach crawling on our skin and also sucking our blood. For the record I got maximum leach bites. It became the only discussion for sometime. Thankfully at higher altitude we got rid of leaches and first time noticed the soroundings. There were layers of lush bright green pastures alternate with forests and in front were the mountains. We were so fatigued that at every possibility we will throw ourselves on the green pastures. Obviously we all anted to soak in as much possible the nature around.

We kept asking our trek leads for how much more time and the standard reply was 2 hrs for like almost 5 hours. The continuous rains added to our woes. Finally we made it to the top which was celebrated with a much needed hot lunch of rajma chawal and chai. All of us were dripping wet and already enquiring about the rooms and toilets. Hahahahaha This was a bad surprise to some of us that there were no toilets.

We were so fatigued that nothing else mattered except to get into a pair of dry clothes and ( look at damage done by leaches)

Friday, January 11, 2013

Pakistani Hindu families seeking refuge in India


On 10th January 2013, I visited village Kanvriyawad in Nagaur distt of  Rajasthan. It is 18 km from Merta city and around 100 km from Pushkar. I was accompanied by the local activist Umed Singh, a Dhram guru and my colleague Heva.

For past 3 months, some Pakistani Rabbaris have been regularly calling Neetaben and Laljibhai for help. Finally we could meet them yesterday. They are a group of 6 families, comprising 21 children, 5 women (one woman and her two children did not get visa, they are expected to arrive soon) and 9 men. They arrived in India by train on 22 October 2012 on a 30 day visa, which was extended to three month visa expiring in March 2013.

They belong to Tharparkar district of Sindh in Pakistan. Incidentally a quick google search shows that the largest concentration of Hindus lies in Sindh in Pakistan and every month an estimated 60-100 Hindu families enter India with the intention of never going back to Pakistan. This group claims that they are the first from the Rabbari community to migrate to India and there are approximately 3000 Rabbari families who would all like to migrate to India.

It took them 8-10 months to get visa for India at the cost of Pakistani ruppess 15000 (INR 7000) per person. Average family size of 6 in this case means 90000 Pakistani Rupees for visa only.

They sold their land, house and other assets in Pakistan before coming here. They also informed that they have to sell at very low prices and some of them could not find a buyer for their land. They must be having strong reasons to leave everything and come to another country which is equally unknown to them. I spoke to men and women separately to find out what forced them to leave their homes. ‘hamari behenein aur bachche surakshit nahi hai wahan. Hum to kaise bhi reh lenge par aage bachchon ke saath kuch bhi ho sakta hai’ (Our women and children are not safe. We [men] can somehow live there but don’t know what may happen to our children in future). Security fear, violence and religious persecution weighed heavily on their minds. Women and girls said they could not go out of their homes, they were bound to their homes. Girls were not even sent to school in Pakistan. ‘wahan ke aadmi kee najar achchi nahi hai’(men do not see hindu women with good eyes).
 
They reported cases of forced/bonded labour, kidnappings for ransom, forced conversions, rape, robberies, religion restrictions, etc on the Hindus.

This group is given shelter in a gaushala run by Nirmal maharaj in the village Kanvriyawad. He was also their local guarantor required to get visa.  In Pakistan these families lived in a village close to a city and were engaged in trading activities. Though, traditionally they belong to a family of camel rearers. Currently 5-6 men of this group are engaged in daily labour, selling fruits and vegetables in the village and other petty jobs. They are supported by the community contribution in form of food and cash. However this may not help them to survive in long run. There are not enough livelihood opportunities in the villages, agriculture is rainfed and no industries nearby. Infact most of the villagers themselves seasonally migrate in search of labour.

This group cannot even move to any other bigger city in Rajasthan or outside because their visa is restricted to village Kanvriyawad.

Out of the 21 children 10 are school going. Currently they are enrolled in a private school 4 kms away. What children might be feeling and thinking is difficult to say. They did seem to be excited with our visit and looked bright. One of the young boys, Prabhuram, 11-12 years old helped me communicate with women because they could not speak hindi. He could also talk few lines in English. Prabhuram was studying in 4th class in Pakistan but here all children have to start from class one because the curriculum is in Hindi, which was not their language in Pakistan. Prabhuram did not show his disappointment for starting school from class 1 in front of us, I could only encourage him by saying he can get double promotions if studies hard. If this group and more families come in future, the education of children will be a big challenge.

Two of the women are pregnant. All the women were confined to their homes in Pakistan, now they feel freedom to go around in the village and they are happy about it. The women showed the traditional handmade rajai and pillow covers they make. 15-10 rajais are given in the daughter’s marriage. They have never sold them.

What are their plans now? They need help to move out of the village, primarily because the village does not have any opportunities to earn. ‘We want to come to Gujarat.’ They have seen many other groups going to Gujarat and have heard that there are more opportunities in Gujarat. They said we are willing to work, we need work and a house to live for our family.

There are many issues and problems that they might be facing, but the single most worry is daily income. The visa restricts them to the village Kanvriyawad. They say that if they can find a local guarantor else where they can get visa for that place. The process is such that the SP of new place has to write to the SP of current location, upon verification and approval the visa can be obtained for another location.

The immediate concerns that arise are:

  • ·         Meeting daily expenses in the short term
  • ·         Legal knowledge/counseling on visa extension, migration to another location, and citizenship
  • ·         Ensure they are not exploited by middlemen, agents, local police
  • ·         Psycho-social support for children, women and men, and
  • ·         Long term integration plan for this group and other families who want to migrate to India







Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Once again!

Disillusion!!!! Ever since I have started working in the sector, this has been a common, sort of - once every while - feeling.

In 2003 when I was working in Gujarat we came to know, people from outside Gujarat come here to find brides. This time in 2012 there is more to this story. For quite some time now the girls from the tribal belt of Gujarat are arranged  to get married to men of all ages, income, religion, etc. There are agents who decide the amount to be paid  for the 'girl'. The amount varies from Rs30000 - few lakhs. Main criteria being age of the girl and the age of the man.

We spoke to a man, age 40 years, still unmarried, who went to these agents to find a girl for himself. It is like a mela he said. The girls are brought in a jeep (like cattle transported from one place to another).

Interestingly these agents also help girls to run away after staying few days with the husband. The same agents then arrange another marriage for them. It is emerging as a kind of prostitution.

 I do not have actual data on the money transfers but it is understood that these girl and their family get little of the total transaction. It is also reported in some cases the girl looted the boys family and ran away.

It doesnot stop with female foeticide, if poor tribal girls survive they have worst to deal with .

And how can we help?

Where do I belong?

Just came back after a week's stay in Gujarat.  I have never thought about my origin. What are my roots?

Happened to meet a 'Romani' (an ethnic community also known as gypsies). He came to marag office because we work with pastoralist and nomadic communities. He was a tall guy who could easily pass as an Indian. Romanis believe that their community originated from a place called Kannauj in UP. I think he said he was from Serbia.

The reason he was here was to find someone who could help him find his 'roots'. His community has gone through change in faith and religion on many occasions in recent history.  Still his assumption was to find his connections based on language. He believed if they originated from here there might be communities or people who still use few words which are common or have common roots.

His search took him to Rajasthan. Somebody introduced him to a group of people outside Pushkar temple as gypsies of Rajasthan. He asked them what was their occupation. To his utter dismay he was told ' we are beggars and begging is our occupation.' Of course he found no common words. But he was so so disappointed and sad to hear begging as occupation of the 'gypsies'.

He was not very hopeful. He almost believed he will never find his origin, from where they came!!


Friday, September 17, 2010

First few days in Liberia

First time in West Africa, placed at a guest house in lower Monrovia which according to a friend is a place out of nowhere. Unfortunately this guest house is 45 min away from the main city. So quite restricted to the guest house- to the extent that for past 3 days i am eating raw papaya for both meals and ripe papaya for breakfast. No other fresh vegetable is available.

Liberia is 5.5 hrs behind India, the farthest i have traveled. Random observations in three days;
  • No electricity, country runs on generators. In our guest house electricity supply from 7 AM to 7 PM.
  • English common language, rather American English
  • LPG very expensive, charcoal common cooking fuel, even in the guest house no LPG
  • Business scene dominated by Lebanese and Indians
  • Iron, gold, diamond - Mr Mittal biggest name in iron
  • Call rate to India cheaper than to many African companies (5 cents/min)
  • 1US$ - 75L$
  • Very very green
  • Very little construction (this too in past 3 years)/no bill boards on road.
  • Indian army woman outside President house
  • Missing fresh milk and food in general :(
I am hoping to get out of the guest house and get some real flavour of Liberia and food to eat.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

'aadat'

When you get used to something its called a Habit. This reminds me of a nice evening when three of us were together having chivas. Suddenly a question pops up : what is love?

Spontaneously we replied

A: dard

B: dokha

And i said ‘aadat’.

Selfless love – is it possible?

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Sixth house in Gurgaon

Yesterday I moved into sixth house in Gurgaon. It all began in October 2006 when I had no choice but to find a house and start a new life all over. Since then I have graced 6 houses in Gurgaon - nothing but a series of bad luck, a new story each time.

House No 1: 2 Oct 06 - August 2007; owner wanted double the rent I was paying. I was willing to pay but the broker would have lost his commission unitl a new kirayedar came

House No 2: Sept 07 - June 08; owner got a job in Gurgaon and i was asked to vacate

House No 3: July 08 - Oct 08; As soon as i moved in owner found a buyer and sold the house

House No 4: Nov 08 - 13 June 09; owner didnt get along with daughter in law, separeted and asked me to leave

House No 5: 14 June 09 - 15 Feb 2010; I decided to leave

House No 6: 16 Feb 2010 - until i want to leave; this time i shifted to my own home after 2 nd half months of struggle with Axis bank.

Quite a lot of statistical analysis can be done with above data. Unfortunately each time I parted on a bad note - fighting and jhik jhik with owners. Each time paid one month rent to brokers and shifting charges to moners n packers. Funnily, same guy moved my house three times in past 18 months.

More than shifting, searching for a house is a pain. I have now looked for a house in every corner of Gurgaon. In my office i am almost the house consultant. I seem to know all the locations, websites and a lot of propery dealers.

But thanks to mom my series of bad luck seems to have come to an end. If she didnt nag so much and more than that didnt support financially I might be on the same run. Thanks so much mom.

Buying a house was never on my list but may be it happened for good. till yesterday I felt tied and burdened with heavy debt for next 20 years.

But today when i woke up, I felt a different energy. I went to each room and my heart said this is my home.

Thanks mom and God and my friends who share my hapiness today.