Tag: Flood Relief Bihar2008
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Heart touching moments from the camp
2 Nov 2008, Bihar Our camp has been a pretty busy place in the past few days. Daily we have been distributing something or the other as some families start preparing to go back to their villages. The government has started sending people to estimate damage & loss suffered by individuals so those who are able to go back want to get back so that they can meet the officials and get what is due to them. A few days back the temperatures suddenly dropped so we distributed blankets to all the people. The children in the camp are as…
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They are still in waters
Chatapur, 1st November 2008 The footprints that man leaves in his wake. The work that man does. His creation, his world – I was thinking of these as I walked from our camp to the next district. We give it so much importance and it is our very existence – but in a moment nature can wipe it all away. Just a few footprints tell of our passing – but they too are washed away, inundated. The next district is about 15 kms away. I started out with a local person at about 7.30 in the morning. We waded through…
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The Children of God
Children are so spontaneous. The worries of the world don’t worry them. They do not care or do not know whether Obama or McCain is going to be the next president of the US. They do not know the LOC between Pakistan & India – but they know how to laugh. They know how to spontaneously smile when you smile or make faces at them. They know how to be happy in small things – a tree climbed, a chocolate relished, the company of friends, running freely, shouting at the top of their voices, ……. They are the children of…
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Buffalo Bill – The original was Indian!
In some ways Bihar reminded me of the Wild West! You do remember those stories don’t you – of cowboys and horses and gun fighters. One wild character was Buffalo Bill. But few know that the name was copied from India! Here Yama (Death) is shown as riding on a buffalo. He was the original Buffalo Bill – the wildest and most dangerous of them all. For the Buffalo Bill of the West might have missed a shot but Yama sure does not miss. But all the same he is a friend if you get to know him. The…
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Ultimate satisfaction
I have been having Amma’s darshan for about 15 years. Amma had come to our place when I was in the 6th standard. We were staying in Suratkal at that time. The program was in a beach side village near Mangalore. My exams were going on at that time but my father forcibly took me to meet Amma. We started from our house at 1 am and reached the program site at 3 am. I had exams the next day so we thought that going early would help us get darshan earlier. I met Amma during the morning program –…
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A feeling of fullness
26 Oct 2008, Sauapul, Bihar Everyday there a large number of patients waiting even before our doctors get to the hospital. So till the end of the day it is non-stop consultation and in the midst of all this we have emergency cases from time to time. Some we deal with, some we have to take in our ambulance to the government hospital, and sometimes a doctor has to go with the patient. “But when I am tired and feel down I just have to catch a sight of Amal, who is generally seen running around the place, to feel…
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Back in Bihar camp
26 Oct 2008, Saipaul, Bihar After a very eventful journey in which we saw half on India – a bridge was broken on the way, lines in Orissa were flooded, there was a huge agitation in Bihar and they were breaking windows and disrupting rail traffic I finally managed to reach Patna 26 hours after scheduled time. And then again the trains from there were cancelled, the buses were jam packed and there was no space at all. It was with great difficulty that I managed to reach our camp today morning. Shall send some report when I get more…
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Amrita Chikitsalaya
23 Oct 2008, Supaul After arriving in Supaul the medical team started visiting one camp after another in Tribeni Ganj area of Supaul district. Along the narrow banks of the Kosi River there were thousands of small temporary huts which housed many thousands of flood affected families. Since there was no place yet to set up regular camps, the doctors moved from hut to hut seeing and treating patients. Soon after the Lahraniya relief camp was inaugurated the medical team also set up an out patient clinic in the Durga Madhya Vidyalaya, opposite the camp. Since the newspapers have been…
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And it was inaugurated
Around 10 AM on the day of the inauguration, (read the previous post) i.e. 3rd Oct, I had called up the brahmachari in charge of the construction and asked him about the progress on the erection of the stage and pandal and he confirmed that everything was done and the stage was ready. Taking him on his word, I concentrated on the arrangement of other aspects of the inauguration, like alerting the media, inviting other guests, getting the bilingual press report ready, etc (we had neither power supply nor printing facility nearby the camp). By the time I reached the…