10th Jan : Railway train to Bhopal
It was a comfortable 8-hour ride on the train from Delhi to Bhopal.
Fields, fields, fields, litter, litter, litter, cattle, cattle, cattle…
We shared a urgent feeling for human livelihoods to return to the fields.
Jim Loney, a Canadian Christian Peacemaker Team activist shared his experience of being kidnapped for 118 days in Iraq, which he describes in his book ‘Captivity’.
Kidnappers have those who love them and whom they love, too.
The Iraqi kidnappers had told Jim stories of the HURT and ANGER created through US military offensives that killed loved ones.
11th Jan : From Guns to Gandhi
The Times of India
The Youth’s interview got onto the front page of the Bhopal edition of the Times of India! Read the text of the article here.
78 year old Bagvir and his wife had established the Gandhi ashram we stayed in.
Bagvir shared with the youth, “All human beings are one. God is one and religions are different paths to God. Gandhi had said that Truth is God and that God is Truth.”
Paul and Kathrin ( husband-and-wife Canadian volunteers with Ekta Parishad who kindly arranged and co-ordinated our Indian trip ) brought us to old Bhopal Market which had a Hindu temple at one end and a mosque at the other.
Kathrin gave us a treat of banana, papaya & chiku milk shakes, opposite colourful shops of mannequins modeling lingerie :) . Another ‘first’!
12th Jan : India lives in the villages
Namaste!
We visited Bhimkothi, a remote village located in the jungle, off the beaten path. Rakash of Ekta Parishad had been working with the villagers to obtain official documents for land ownership, to establish a school and to dig a village well.
Importantly, Rakash shared that he spends a few nights a month in the village because ‘it is in the night that the stories and lives of the villagers become more transparent.’
Poverty in a land of plenty.
Life transpires in the Indian village nights.
Gardener, over 100 years old: “We all die… we should leave something behind.”
13th Jan : The mosque in the city, the mosque on an island
With Indian Youth at ‘Begum’ Mosque
The mosque we visited in Bhopal City is the 2nd largest mosque in India, built by a Begum from Afghanistan.
To the youth, Bhopal lake was not a lake. It was a sea.
Mosque on Bhopal Lake
14th Jan : Railway train back to Delhi
Train Buddy Utkarsh
Dearest Abdulai,
It was really great meeting you and clicking those pictures.
You have a tough task ahead. Stand brave against the odds and your genuine heart and crystal clear thoughts will take you to your dream.
I wish you all the luck, happiness and success in all your future endeavours.
Looking forward to meet you again and this time at your place.
Keep smiling.
Your train buddy,
Utkrash Pandey
15th Jan : Registering the Afghan
‘States’ presume out of fear that every Afghan is ‘guilty until proved innocent’, though out of the nineteen September 11th hijackers who provided a ‘justification’ for bombing: ‘guilty Afghans’, none were Afghans.
When I went with the youth to the Foreign Registration office ( Afghans and Pakistanis need to register their existence in India within 14 days upon arrival ), I asked an official where I could find a toilet, and he said, “ Inside ( the building )!” I tried at the guarded door which led into the building, but the official told me, ”Outside!”
16th Jan : Frisbee and Astronomy
Making Friends through Frisbeeing
Solar Time and Astronomy
17th Jan : Sleepless on the 20-hour train to Gandhi’s birth city of Ahmedabad
The Good, Slow Train: Train panes
In the sleeper class cabin of the slow train with unpleasant toilets, Gandhi may have said to us,
“Feel as cold as everyone else.”
The Sleeper Cabin: Ali under colorful blankets
Click here to go to the volunteers’ website.
Life Inside the Train
Life Outside at Railway Stations
Thoughts While on the Railway Tracks
