A roof over your head

Currently, helping Father Yesu Antony for the Dhobi Village Housing. Here's an excerpt from his email:

"We have a poor Dhobis village near Mamallapuram. 19 families are living here and all of them are poor coolies. They requested me to give them good low cost housing. I have collected so for Rs.1, 00,000 /- for this purpose. Though it is a small amount, I am going to create a housing fund from where they can take loans and pay it back in installments.

If you could be part of the programme we can help this village to have a better housing facility."

One year

December 26th. Who can ever forget this day?

One year since the giant waves washed away more than 250000 human lives and countless animals and wiped out forever the smiles of millions of people, hope is the only word that gives us strength.

Let us raise a prayer on this day, to be with those who need someone to walk with them in their road to prosperity.

Nambinar endrum keduvadillai.

Inspiring

Very inspiring quotes from a year calendar. Better than coffee to make my veins awake.

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope" - Martin Luther King

"You must be the change you want to see in the world" - Gandhi

"It takes twenty years to make an overnight success" - Eddie Cantor

"I keep my ideals, because inspite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart" -Annie Frank

"Do not wait for leaders, do it alone person to person" - Mother Teresa

Inside the church

It's been nearly three months since I left India, carrying the memories of the villages, the nice people and children. My scribbling pad (which I used to hurriedly jot down things that I observed, heard and felt in these places) brings a smile to my face. I find many "to write about" story hints and quotes, scribbled all over the pages. But, I never did, because of (lack of) time and energy. Instead, I captured those moments and stories with my camera. Here is one such photo, taken in a nice, old church, that reminds me of the Bhajanai Mandalis of villages.

Things to notice - the clay tiled roof, the cross on the wall, the drums under the altar, Hindu style designs on the floor.

Father Yesu Antony (CRDS Director) is the one wearing the white shirt and talking to the people.

Hurricane Katrina help

Please see Hurricane Katrina Blog (http://katrina05.blogspot.com/) on ways to help the people affected.

You can write to : katrina2005.comments @ blogger.com for any updates or info.

You can post your photos to Flickr and tag them "hurricanekatrina"

Related Links

International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day

Flickr Photos: Missing People

Flickr Photos: Found People

Flickr Photos: Okay People

Katrina Missing/Found Persons Digest

Katrina News Digest

Katrina Blogosphere Digest

NOLA.com Hurricane Coverage

National Hurricane Center

Donate to Relief Efforts - Networkforgood.org

Yahoo!/Red Cross donation site

Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth

Coconut water

I wanted to tell you about affection. In its simplest, unalloyed and spontaneous form. When you go with a desire to listen, talk, empathise and help, you can experience it, village after village.

"Your good guest-treat him like God" said the great sage Valluvar. And I was experiencing it here. Coconut water, cool drinks ("dei, saarukku cool drink vaangiyaada"), tea, coffee, biscuits -- the people won't let you go without having something. And when you have a plan to visit many places in one day, you can conveniently skip breakfast,lunch and dinner!

Faith and light

(Photo: left: Baby Janani in Venpurusham village [the black dots on her face are put by her mother to ward off evil eye], right: the sun sets in Paramankeni)

Cuddalore Periya Kuppam

In Cuddalore Periya Kuppam, the children loved to see their photos on a huge screen -(since we didn't have a proper screen, we borrowed a dhoti (veshti) which is a long white wrap around cloth that the men wear in South India). They were so enthusiastic about learning with computers and a projector!

Fish n crows

Saw this during the street play. The crows were very enthusiastic and patient in trying to get a piece of the fish that the woman was cutting for dinner.

Of boats and engines

Some three kilometres from Kovalam Beach near Chennai lies Chemmanjeri kuppam. Another typical fishermen village. Almost same scenes I would later witness in other kuppams --- an Amman temple (village Deity), a small Government school (A,B,C,D and 'ua,aaa,yi, yeee' scribbled all over the walls with chalkpiece and charcoal), a narrow tar road leading to the sea, some coconut trees, thatched huts (with palm leaves) some small concrete houses built by the Fisheries department of the Tamilnadu Government as part of a phased housing Scheme, some good houses that stand testimony to the money from good catches, the fiber boats, the catamarans [tree trunks shaved off and tied together to make a boat] and of course the remains [garbage, plastic bags, damaged houses that remain as a heap of bricks] of the tsunami. I have come here to see the night school run in the government school building. Compared to other places, Chemmanjeri is lucky - the children do not have to travel much to school. It is right here. While walking inside the school building, I am reminded of Sadraskuppam where around 55 children huddle below one light bulb to finish their lessons and homework.

While I walk towards the sea, Chandran, a local fisherman starts walking with me too. This is another thing that I noticed in most kuppams.You just cannot walk around alone, clicking photographs and taking notes, even if you want to, someone will definitely come to you, stick with you till you leave. Yes, they will tell all the stories BT to AT (Before Tsunami to After Tsunami) and some more behind-the-screen stories, but won't let you take notes alone. So, here is Chandran who tells me that their houses might look good, but their foundation is weak because the tsunami waters have gone down and weakened it. So, they want new houses, but would still prefer to keep the old ones (same story, again!). Double benefit, I think, but choose to remain silent and just nod. Four new boats gifted by CRDS have been delivered today and they quietly lie on the beach sands. The talk turns to making boats now. "Normally, when they pour the foam into the reenforcements in the fiber boat, it needs 7 or 8 days to settle and strengthen, but the boat makers now are just letting it stay for 2 or 3 days for obvious reasons - they want to make more boats in less time." "Does this compromise on quality or it doesn't make a big difference?" I ask him wondering at the boat's light weight body and strikingly vibrant colors. "Don't know, can't say till we put it to the actual test by taking it into the sea".

One of the well-known actors of Tamil cinema, Prakash Raj, lives here in a huge bungalow, close to the sea. Chandran notices me looking at the house. "It is Prakash Raj's. He was of good help on the day of the Tsunami. He made arrangements to give us rice and lentils for two days, but he went to a safer place the next day." Probably, this gave the actor a chance to repay the love and sympathy the villagers showered when his child died last year after accidentally falling off the roof of his home.

BT AT or is it BS AS?

(Photo right: a new catamaran ready to touch the waters of the Bay of Bengal Sea @ Meyyurkuppam, near Kalpakkam. The Amman temple straight ahead was 'untouched' by the tsunami, say the people)

There are small, energetic boys (the Muthus, Murugans and Kumars) who are eager to tell me details of their life violently demarcated by the killer waves. That is when this thought struck me. Just as we denote normal years as A.D or B.C, almost everyone here talks in terms of B.T and A.T (Before Tsunami and After Tsunami)

While discussing plans for building concrete houses, we tell them that there is a new requirement from the Government - every family has to take a photograph in front of their home/land, whatever condition it may be in. This will be documented and serve as an evidence in case any disputes arise after building the houses. Later, when the houses are completed, they will have to take another photograph in front of their new home and submit it to the respective NGO. This request immediately brings a subtle but noticeable gloom among the fishermen. It becomes our duty, then, to explain that all this is for their good. "Development", we tell them, "has to be scientific, and not knee-jerk or haphazard". One guy, whose house is the best in the village, (unaffected by the tsunami) is worried - "If you see that my house looks good in the photo, will you cancel my name from the shelter list, or will you still build a home in the excess land I have?". Clever question indeed. If we said yes, that would mean, inside his compound, he gets another home, in 325 sq feet, at no cost. He could use it for any other purpose, while still living in his original home. "We will talk to the Government on this example and let you know".

A roof above

Providing permanent shelter to people is one of the five-point agendas. The scale of destruction in the coastal villages from Chennai to Kalpakkam may not be as much as Nagapattinam or Kadaloor, but then one visit to places like Paramankeni and Angaalamman kuppam (named after the village Goddess - Angaalamman Kuppam means small village in Tamil) shows that the people cannot rebuild their lives on their own. The people need the Government and NGOs' funds and expertise to get back to their 'normal life'. In Tamilnadu's villages, you cannot just walk in and start a development project. They have their chosen people - mostly elders - to sit and talk about issues pertaining to the village. This is called 'Panchaayat'. Today, we are visiting 11 Kuppams that have been adopted by CRDS for Shelter work. Sitting and talking to them about reconstruction efforts is a essential but tiring task.

There are people with straight requests, hidden agendas, greed oozing through her let-me-get-whatever-I can-from-these-people-eyes. One woman, of the last category comes to us wearing a see-we-are-so-poor-and-we-are-dying look on her face while we are just about to leave after a loooong discussion on housing issues. "When are you going to give us more rice and paruppu (lentil)? It is so tough", she asks. Seven months after Tsunami, she still wants the Government and NGO to give her everyday bread (or rice!). Annoyed, but still wanting to give an answer that doesn't hurt much, the Project manager tells her, "Ennama ippadi kekkareenga, boat, engine, net ellam koduthome, ippo arisi paruppum kodukkanumna mudiyuma, meen pudichu pozhainga, adukku udavarom. Poytu varom" (We have given you boats, engines and nets.So, please use them to earn your livelihood. For that, we will support you, not by giving rice and lentil)

Water

She had just slept on the cement bench after a full night's work at the hospital.

In her dream, she saw herself being washed away in a flood with her children and somehow catching hold of a branch of some tree, they miraculously land on a small island.

When she awoke, it was already time to go home, cook lunch for the kids, send them to school and come back to the hospital. It was only a short break.

When she came back, she found that her husband had died. Too much alcohol.

She somehow didn't remember the dream, and the relation, for a long time.

She had better, bigger dreams to realise.

In hand

There is so much to do. So less time. I have never wished to have 28 hours in a day (while working in offshore rigs, who would!?), but now I do. There is so much I want to share with you all. All I could manage now are the photographs on my Flickr album. Will post more tomorrow.

[Photo:In Venpurusham village, this baby girl, Janani (meaning "giver of life" in Sanskrit language) would not want to leave my hand for a long time.She wore a beautiful smile on her face all the time and I could see why the affected people say that children are their biggest hope]