9 Sep 2008, Bihar

Today in the morning we had a surprise but welcome visitor. Shri. Avdhesh Narain Singh, the hon’ble minister for labour came to our accommodation to consult our doctors! What better validation for the quality of services we are providing to the people of Bihar!

After finishing some of the endless jobs that always seem to be there we set off for Bhawanipur where we were to build our first shelter for the flood affected. When we reached there the bamboo we needed for putting up the structure was not there. As Bihar is a new place for us we have to rely on the loal resources and the local people to some extent. We had been promised the bamboo early in the morning, but when we inquired it had not reached the site. Again we contacted some other people and were again assured of speedy delivery. This went on with us remotely contacting different people and getting the same assurances. But when we reached there in the early evening nothing had still been done and we were still told “…. Just sit down, it will arrive in a few minutes. It is an easy job.” Easy it might have been but we had seen enough to make us uneasy. So Sadashivji and I along with Sashwat just set out to look for bamboo, with the local crowd following us with assuarances that it was not necessary for us to go out, and that the bamboo would arrive in a few minutes……

We were finally able to identify a local person who knew of a place a little far off where there was a grove of bamboo. By that time some workers with machetes joined us. So they chopped it down and we pulled it out so that the branches could be cut off – as some of the locals watched as these strange Babas actually worked! It was fun. And the experience became indelible when we were bitten by some local variety of ants which live on the bamboo – which from personal experience I can vouch to be “Numero Uno” among ants. It stung like acid and the area around the bite became swollen and was AAAAH! Bliss for some time. Pain and itching after that.

If you have any doubts to it being the number one ant then maybe you should come to Bihar and try chopping down some bamboo! Best of luck. Don’t say that I did not warn you.

By Amma’s grace we were able to start the job and it is still going on. By tomorrow evening we will most probably have a finished shed. And people can move in a day or two later. Water hand pumps are being put up, there is to be electricity connection and ample bathrooms and toilets.

The local populace was really impressed by our work and I could hear them as they talked,  “…. they have come here to give, all the way from Kerala.”

A reporter from the newspaper with the widest circulation who had seen all the problems that we had faced was telling another person, “….they do not depend on the facilities available to them. They get their work done by sheer will power.”
When someone asked me what God we worship and I replied “You,” the reporter quipped, “Yes, they worship you. They worship mankind.”

— Nijamrita