Volunteering at Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata

In my time travelling I have encountered two great volunteer organizations that have left an impression on me. One in Ladakh where volunteers spend the cold winters as house guests and teach at local schools and another in McLeod Gunj where volunteers spend time helping Tibetan refugees in whatever way they can. At each of those encounters I was always impressed by the fact that tens and hundreds of people from all over the world show up and dedicate their time towards worthy causes. And we are talking serious time here, weeks and sometimes months. I have always wondered if I could be such a person.

Over the past few years volunteer tourism has caught on big time and I have eagerly tried to learn more. People working in Africa, South america and anywhere possible. One of such searches got me onto the volunteer page for Missionaries of Charity. I've been to the place before but oddly enough never heard of this thing. The volunteer program seemed straight forward and hey I've always #hated# Calcutta so it made it even more challenging. So yes I wanted to do it.

The experiences people have written about on-line encompass the entire spectrum. Some talk about the lack of empathy towards the admitted and others give near gory details of how severe the patients are there. Honestly this scared the shit out of me. Heck I still cringe and shut my eyes while I watch Hannibal all alone :'( So that made me second guess if this was a good idea.

But reading more about Mother Teresa recently I felt this would be a good place as any. I have always agreed to the notion that its easy to give some of your money as donations and "play your part", but if you can you should try giving some of your time, which is usually more difficult to part that money, and see how much difference it makes to the people you help and almost certainly yourself too. So with that selfish thought in mind I booked my tickets to Kolkata.

Encounter with the Train-o-snore-us

Finally got onto the train. Not surprisingly filled with bongs. The girl in my berth had 10pieces of luggage excluding her hand bags. There was literally no space left to keep any more luggage or even my shoes. And then a fifth person shows up claiming her seat is his. Auto upgrade saved us and the lady moved up to first class, with all her luggage. Yay!! My feet are saved. Chatting up with the co passengers we find out about our destinations, the state bifurcation benefits that none of us have seen and of course some modi sarkar tadka mixed in. Finally we end up agreeing that our only benefit in the new gov is that we can tweet the railway minister to save us from the luggage lady in case she returns ;)

Night falls and you wouldn’t believe the snore this guy in the adjacent berth had. Think trumbone being played right up your ears for 7hrs straight. It rattled the very core of my bones. He was incessant in belting out those loud rattling snores. God i pity his wife, neighbors and colony. So zero sleep last night. Caught a few winks after that trainosnoreus left.

On the road again

Just taken some time off work. The first thing on my mind is to take some time for myself and do something that I’ve always thought of but never did... The ever present excuse was lack of time. To that end I have decided to head off and just do it this time around. Will share what if I get comfortable with the idea or maybe after I've completed it.

Am gonna try the trains after a really long time. Didn’t get tickets for Sat so had to park myself in hyd for an additional day. At least now I don’t have an excuse for not packing :)

Random quote:
Once I did bad and that I heard ever/twice I did good but that I heard never

Past perfect

Sometimes its just better to close your eyes and relive the past than open your eyes and experience the present.

#allenism

The best love song period

Private space

It helps to write down a few memories here now and then

Coz I never know when I'd want to relive them

While you may read my words never utter them to my face

Just remember this is my private space

Let's kidnap happiness

I want to kidnap happiness
Would keep her with me for long long while
I wont ask for a ransom
Nor would I want to give her back
Coz whatever the price
Happiness is worth much more than that

I bet you dont believe me
But trust me I've made the plan
Its gonna go down pretty soon
And I believe that I can

But happiness is so elusive
Its something so difficult to find
It usually doesn't come alone
It has a person it would bind

So if this rhyme made you laugh or smile
You got some happiness on you there
So now I gotta kidnap you for sure
Trust me love its nothing personal
Its happiness that I am interested for... fair?

The fact that you came along
Is just a small bonus for me
It may not make you happier
But am full of glee

And hey kidnapping was the last option
I tied to lure her with love
But alas she rejected all advances
Saying she ain't available rite now

So yes I want to kidnap happiness
Coz to find her I took a lot of time
I want to kidnap her
And just keep her to be mine


Now wipe that grin off your face :)

+1

eerie serendipity

So google+ throws this in my face today... Serendipitous indeed...

I cant make you love me

Someone like you

angels

I believe in angels too ABBA

Singapore abridged

Trip Positivies

1. Ate all my meals at local hawkers markets barring the first and last at the airport. Singapore hawkers rule!

2. Had sufficient variety of pork to realize that I love thee oh lil piglets.

3. Lunch and dinner always done with Tiger beer.

4. Outside of pork I managed to reduced populations of crab, squid and frog by one each.

5. First capsule hotel experience. Gotta be lucky to get d bottom pod and silent roomies 😊

6. Outdid the MRT tourist pass by travelling till my legs were numb.

7. Walked through the botanical gardens from the MRT station to Tanglin gate and back. Luckily the rains that day saved me from the humidity.

8. Actually picked up my socks and headed out on both nights for the Chinatown festival, Singapore Night fest and Heineken Cities fest.

9. Understood Selfies! Finally made use of the front camera. And yeah locals here use extendable poles to click selfies... 😖

Trip Negatives

1. Could not try out the weird food options.
2. Missed trying out ifly at Sentosa
3. Didn't try out the ultimate cars

4. Budget. Some planning could've saved 10-20%

Singapore Positives

1. Didn't see a single cop outside of those at the airport

2. Cutest kids on the planet. Period.

3. Happiest urban kids. Seen kiddos in many cities but never found them to be as cheerful n playful in public as those here. For eg. In India I would say that I've seen such genuinely happy kids in our villages.

4. Great civic sense. Everyone stands on the left of the escalator so that the right part is available to those in a hurry. 😲

5. Escalator speed. These are escalators on steroids compared to the ones back home. Goes to show how quick things seem to flow here.

Singapore Negatives

1. Everyone is heads down on their phone. Now that I think of it barely heard anyone on an actual call though.

2. Damn expensive for tourists esp the stay

3. Sentosa... Was just blah!

4. To walk on the left or right. People only walked randomly. I would assume this should have been sorted by now. The govt better address this with top priority ;)

5. People actually eat at McDonalds in front of hawkers market. Given the awesome street food with sufficient large doze of "this stuff will kill you" the only thing unique about McDs is the bun.

How and why?

I was motivated to salvage my second long weekend in August. So with a bit of time to go I targeted Singapore. The gods were kind and I boarded the flight from hyd to Chennai and then to Singapore. During the layovers I soon realized I am gonna be screwed coz the hotels were charging too much. What's worse is their checkin time is 2-3pm while I land at 4am. Additional day charges were gonna screw me further.

Before buckling up for Changai I had narrowed down to Adler hostel. On landing it showed to be sold out. So after a massive hunt I landed at Chic otel by around 8am. Luckily got a bottom pod which handled 6ft beasts. Saved.

All said and done this was a long overdue backpacking trip outside my comfort zone. Time to "do" some more.

Humanity at 16kft in Mitra Cafe

"One man from each of the groups or I am sending the group down"
These are the words I heard from Jayo of Mitra cafe, high up at 16.5kft of the Stok Kangri base camp, while I sipped on a hot cup of black tea.

A bit confused I soon realized that this was an ad hoc rescue mission being put together. And getting a man from each of the groups was the only way a sizeable team could be formed. As he hurriedly packed in some boiled eggs and potatoes the story started unfolding - There was a foreigner who had fallen off and had broken his ribs and shoulder bone high up in the Stok ridge. As more people trickled down the mountain the stories got grimmer and the atmosphere a lot more sombre. The line between hearsay and reality had evaporated. 

An hour later, nearly 2-3+ hrs after the incident, there were 3 IAF choppers sent in for rescue but they found it difficult to land anywhere close to the injured lad. It was only after another hour that they were able to load him and carry him back to base.

As I sit back and recollect this incident I cant help but thank people like Jayo for their selflessness. He and locals like him are the Indian version of emergency mountain rescue paramedics. They run out at a moment's notice to help complete strangers, many a times risking their own lives. And they don't do this for any monetary gain but with genuine concern to help a fellow human being. We have seen them carry sick people on stretchers on trails where I could hardly imagine one person walking through. Sometimes walking through the night with headlamps. And then they come back with smiling faces to continue at their work.

So if you have lost your faith in humanity do visit Jayo at his infamous Mitra Cafe at the Stok Kangri base camp. And whether you require his services or not do thank him and his clan for...  just being around!

Jhuley



Few quick points from reliable sources
1. We got an update the next day that the person who fell was and Indian and was OK and luckily had not a single bone broken.
2. The IAF choppers, or any choppers, sent in for rescue are a rarity. 
3. Acc to locals such accidents are rarer than the choppers :) However there are more AMS related incidents, with a small % leading to death due to negligence by the subject themselves.

Yes We Can!

I remembered this slogan from the American presidential elections where Obama rose to victory from near obscurity. A simple African American who gave America a much needed glimmer of hope, after the Bush administration.

As the election fervour in our very own country rises it seems like it is our very own chance of creating our own piece of Indian history. So what are our options? Let's see.

As a minority in this country the Congress has been the only choice at the voting booth. Its not about the Gandhis or the Manmohans and its not that they have done anything beneficial for the minorities of this country either. Its just that they haven't done anything detrimental. That itself is a positive for us single digit/percent communities. Yes the great secular party. Alas the last ten years have been a string of opportunities lost and scandals galore. Of purely lazy and coalition-placating policies that have pushed India back a few decades if not more. That combined with the smugness of the Gandhis and Vadras just seems like a sin to vote them back.

But with the phenomena that was Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) there was a reasonable alternative. Heck a viable alternative to vote for a clean individual. Note I say individual and not politician - this fact itself drove hundreds and thousands of new voters towards the coughing Arvind Kejriwal. Alas naivete and unplaced bravado got the better of him. While he infiltrated the system he lacked the foresight to realize that he needed to remain in it to actually make a change. That one law minister if fired that very same day, regardless of fact, would have most definitely catapulted him to a level beyond imagination. Unfortunately today AAP is just a footnote not deserving a national vote.

So we are left with Modi. Can, I, a minority in India dare say that we should vote for the saffron brigade? You know what? this time I say we do. We have tried being secular and seen where it got us. Lets go completely unsecular and paint this country saffron, if that's what it takes to get her into the 20th century (yes we need to get into the 20th before we can be in the 21st). Yeah they have the Yeddiruppas, Reddys and RSS. Who cares? Can it really get any worse if these people come back to power? Maybe he can be the real Arvind Kejriwal. Maybe he has the shrewdness to realize that he has to be in the system and hold power to really squash the termites that are eating our country hollow. If nothing else this will atleast make a great story. A man of humble beginnings taking over the reigns of this country. Atalji couldn't drive the BJP coalition with his poetry but maybe Modi can with a simple cup of tea.

Yes I honestly think its our chance of creating our own piece of history or resigning ourselves into the history books. Because if the next government does not save this country, I doubt that god herself would be able to.