The below words were written as an email by a Shvaas volunteer sometime in 2007 to a friend, about an experience that still remains deeply alive:

Couple weeks back something happened. We do a project in Shvaas whereby we cook about 50 meals with love and go out on the streets to feed people who are extremely old, mentally or physically challenged. Volunteers would go out personally and deliver them with as much respect and caring and many times also sit with the people and eat with them.

One of the teams went to the railway station last time. They found a man lying unconscious, in his own urine and waste with several flies and mosquitos on him. They gave me a call and asked me to come there. We tried to take him to the hospital in my car, but the people and police warned us that if he dies in our car than we will be in legal jeopardy. His condition was really very serious. We tried to feed him water, glucose, but he would vomit it out. He was severely dehydrated and anaemic.

We tried to get help from the police, but they seemed quite complacent. There were thousands of people zipping by, but no one had time to stop. This man had been lying there since 5 days. But no one was interested in taking an initiative, which made me wonder, what are the priorities of our society today? What can be more important
than trying to save a dying man? We tried to call doctors at the station, but none seemed to have the time or inclination. It was a stretch for them.

We waited for more than an hour. I sat by his head, stroking his forehead. He was dimly responding to my touch. I was experiencing strange feelings within me towards him.

Finally the ambulance came and he was taken to a Mother Teresa Hospice. He was there for a week. I would visit him regularly. One day I went and he was vomitting blood. His sheet and his hands were all colored red. He had Tuberculosis which had spread to his brain. He was severely anaemic as well. So he hardly spoke anything. He did not have much control over his bodily functions. All he said was his name: Seva Ram.

Last Friday, I went to him with a doctor. We decided that the next day we would shift him in a special ward at a bigger hospital. The next morning I was sleeping when I got a call early in the morning. The Sister called me to inform that I should come soon - “Sevaram was breathing his last.” I got dressed and rushed to the Hospital. He had already passed away.

I miss him. In the one week that I knew him, I had not talked to him but we still seemed to share an unspoken language. The only way I could communicate with him was through the touch of his hands, his head, his feet. I knew he could feel my touch though he did not say anything. I knew he knew me. In a strange way I felt deeply connected to this stranger. Somewhere it felt like he was very close to me.

I saw them pack his body up into a white sheet. Somehow the body did not feel like it was dead. It still seemed alive as it was being wrapped away. They tied up his hands and feet. Flowers were laid over his corpse. I have never seen death so close to me before, though it is there everywhere.

All I can say is that I have not been able to digest this completely yet. The experience lingers on… only to teach me something I still need to learn.

This is an acknowledgment to my friend, who I met briefly on a traffic signal.

Doing my bit for the Tsunami victims, I had gone with a group of friends to collect money from the public. After getting the checks (from relatives, mostly) and having exhausted all the known resources, tin boxes in hands, we hit the streets.

‘I don’t want to see any pairs. Each of us will take a separate corner.’ I said, with more courage than I felt.

I found a safe corner at town hall square. I would walk into the traffic when it slowed down for the red light, and jump out just before it turned green.

‘Tsunami mate!’ , I would say, jingling the box. (’Mate’ is ‘for’ in Gujarati.)

Those who looked back at my face, my eyes, more often than not, reached into their pockets. The box took in coins, even some ten rupee notes. I always said a cheerful ‘Thank you.’

After an hour, I realized that the auto rickshaw passengers were more eager to put cash in my box. The car drivers avoided my eyes. So its true, I thought. The middle class is much more generous than the rich.

And then, horror of horrors, a real beggar joined me. A middle aged, dirty, if-he-could-beg, he-could-work kind of beggar. If I started on one end of the road, he would follow me. I was getting extremely hassled. Should I confront him or should I take a tea break? What will I say if I confront him? More important, what will he say to me?

The lights turned green suddenly and I stepped on the square.

I turned around to see the beggar smiling a ‘hello comrade’ at me.
‘Tsunami mate?’ he asked me.

I nodded, slightly unnerved by his sweet smile.

He took out a five hundred rupee note and slid it in my box, and walked away!

Thank you, comrade. Thank you for the donation, and for the dignity you awakened in me for all beings.

[I blog at: www.baktoo.blogspot.com].

An amazing graduation speech by J.K. Rowling (author of Harry Potter) given at the Harvard University in June 2008. It’s a bit long but I assure, it is definitely worth the effort!
http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html

via www.telegraph.co.uk  Jun 05 visit site

A catastrophic water shortage could prove an even bigger threat to mankind this century than soaring food prices and the relentless exhaustion of energy reserves, according to a panel of global experts at the Goldman Sachs “Top Five Risks” conference.

Nicholas (Lord) Stern, author of the Government’s Stern Review on the economics of climate change, warned that underground aquifers could run dry at the same time as melting glaciers play havoc with fresh supplies of usable water….

Lord Stern, the World Bank’s former chief economist, said governments had been slow to accept the awful truth that usable water is running out. Fresh rainfall is not enough to refill the underground water tables.

“Water is not a renewable resource. People have been mining it without restraint because it has not been priced properly,” he said.

Farming makes up 70pc of global water demand. Fresh water for irrigation is never returned to underground basins. Most is lost through leaks and evaporation.

A Goldman Sachs report said water was the “petroleum for the next century”, offering huge rewards for investors who know how to play the infrastructure boom. The US alone needs up to $1,000bn (£500bn) in new piping and waste water plants by 2020.

“Demand for water continues to escalate at unsustainable rates. At the risk of being alarmist, we see parallels with Malthusian economics. Globally, water consumption is doubling every 20 years. By 2025, it is estimated that about one third of the global population will not have access to adequate drinking water,” it said.

I am not going to say who told me this story. It was an old man, with a white beard. Who loved talking, and Oh, did he talk a lot. When someone talks like he did, I like to listen. When the talking comes from a deep understanding, listening follows effortlessly.

‘You know how Christ got enlightened, don’t you?’ he asked me.

‘Umm…Not exactly, no.’ I said, nibbling at my dinner. We were dining at an ashram, I won’t say which.

‘It happened on the cross.’ he stated.

‘On the cross? How?’

‘Well, to begin with, it wasn’t a good day for Christ.’

‘True. He was crucified. They put nails in his hands and feet. Must have been very painful. ‘ I said.

‘Yes, but that part wasn’t so bad. He was an ace meditater, so he was aware through the pain. He asked Father to forgive his tormentors.’ he said. I gulped.

‘What was worse,’ he continued, ‘was that they did the same to two other thieves. Christ was crucified along with two others. Ok, one of them was innocent, but the other was a common thief.’

‘Not good company.’ I said.

‘Nope. Not good company at all. Christ, after all, was the Son of God, no less. He didn’t mind being crucified, he kind of knew it was coming, he could take it. But.’ he paused, to see if I got it.

‘But?’

‘The point is, my lady, whenever there is a but, complete surrender has not happened. ‘

‘Agreed.’

‘And this but became a question. Jesus looked at the sky and asked, ‘Why, Father? Why this bad company? Even on the cross, Christ was still a seeker. He sought a question. However, he was a true seeker. Meaning, he waited for the answer. And the answer was, ‘Because that is my will.’ Christ accepted the answer, and the surrender happened. ‘

‘Oh. And then he said, ‘Thy will be done.’

‘Yes, then he said, ‘Thy will be done.’

‘That is so beautiful.’ I said to the old man. ‘Thank you.’

‘You are most welcome.’

–
Posted By Grasshopper to Mountain, at Baktoo.blogspot.com

A few nights ago, I met a Prof who asked me to give him content for making a two minute speech at a graduation ceremony.

I sat on my comp that night and thought. Is there anything I know that might help these youngsters, brimming with youthfulness?

No answer.

Ok, what if I go back to myself, when I graduated. Is there anything of value that I can give to my-younger-self, twelve years ago? When exactly did I graduate? How come I don’t remember? Oh, yes. I was sitting with Ramesh those days, like full time, every single day. And I couldn’t pull myself out of Mumbai to go to Poona even for a day, to get that Film Institute diploma.

Those were the days, dipping, pouring with Guru-bhakti. The fascination with his feet. I remember knitting him a pair of ankle socks with the thickest wool you can find, for Guru Poornima. In retrospect, I must admit Ramesh is an extremely tolerant fellow. Who would need woolen socks in Mumbai? But he accepted them, he even let me touch his feet on numerous occasions when I ‘tried on’ the socks to check for size! And to think I put on those socks on him on Guru Poornima, and prevented the rest of the seekers from touching his bare feet.

Getting back to the point of the advisory board. If there is anything I would like to say to myself at that point? Prof, dear sir, it would take less than two minutes.

In one word, ‘Salaam’.

However, I understand that those who turn up for the graduation ceremony, are, like, not sitting at their Guru’s feet. So here is a nice, long piece of inspiring talk. Shorten it, and put it in your socks!
This was a speech made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anna Quindlen at the graduation ceremony of an American university where she was awarded an Honorary PhD.

‘I’m a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don’t ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also your soul.

People don’t talk about the soul very much anymore. It’s so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on a winter’s night, or when you’re sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you’ve received your test results and they’re not so good.Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cut out. But I call them on the phone, and I meet them for lunch.

I would be rotten, at best mediocre at my job if those other things were not true.You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So here’s what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger house. Do you think you’d care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm this afternoon, or found a lump in your breast?

Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger. Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beer and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister.

All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough. It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the colour of our kids’ eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again.It is so easy to exist instead of to live.

I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby’s ear. Read in the back yard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived’.

(Posted by Grasshopper from Baktoo.blogspot.com)

I insist u to read the author of this letter  after u completely read it… 

                  Do you have a minute ???

My Dear One,
As you got up this morning, I watched you and hoped you will talk to me, even if it were just a few words asking my opinion or thanking me for something good that happened in your life yesterday. But I noticed you were too busy trying to find the right outfit to put on and wear to work. I waited again. When you ran around the house getting ready, I knew there would be a few minutes for you to stop and say hello, but you were too busy.
At one point you had to wait fifteen minutes with nothing to do except sit in chair. Then I saw you spring to your feet. Thought you wanted to talk to me but you ran to a phone and called a friend to the latest gossip.
I watched as you went to work and I waited patiently all day long. With all your activities I guess you were too busy to say anything to me.
I noticed that before lunch you looked around, maybe you felt embarrassed to talk to me that is why you didn’t bow your head. You glanced three or four tables over and you noticed some of your friends talking to me briefly before they ate, but you didn’t. That’s okay .There is still more time left and I have hope that you will talk to me. Yet, you went home and it seems as if you had lots of things to do.
After a few of them were done you turned on the TV, I don’t know if you like TV or not, just about anything goes there and you spend a lot of time each day in front of it, not thinking about anything- just enjoying the show. I waited patiently again as you watched the TV and ate your meal, but again you didn’t talk to me.
At bed time, I guess, you felt too tired. After you said goodnight to your family, you plopped in to the bed and fell asleep in no time. That’s okay because you may not realize that I am always there for you.
I’ve got more patience than you will ever know. I even want to teach you how to be patient with others as well. I love you so much that I wait every day for a nod, prayer or thought or a thankful part of your heart. it is hard to have a one-sided conversation.
Well, you are getting up again, and once again, I will wait with nothing but love for you, hoping that today you will give me sometime. Have nice day!!!!!!!
                                                                Your God.

The original Idea is taken from Chhoti-Chhoti baatein magazine (vol.3, 2003). In Todays, fast world we have no time to sit and pray God who drives the whole world. If any uneven condition occurs like earthquake, riots then only we remember him. If we remember him in our pain then why not during happy moments??

A selfish world, fake identities, stolen insights, fraudulent thoughts was all I knew that prevailed in this world… I always thought that in this world of competition and money minting the only person kept in consideration was “I”…. I never ever thought people would be considerate about the ”living around”. I joined Shvaas as an internee from Nirma as a part of my summer internship programme and realized that I had to undo the text that prevailed in my HDD and I actually needed a quick format to my growing thoughts about this cruel world.Not only Shvaas but also many people who were associated with some other related organizations worked day and night just to bring a smile on a child’s face or to bring out a sigh of relief!!! To my surprise the world wasn’t bad the way I used to perceive it.. It was just a matter of filtered sight I needed.

Professionals from a highly acclaimed background tried to bring out goodness in people and shared love!!! They contrasted my views of their community being a selfish one..This was something that gave me a reason to think .

I worked with Samvedana for a while with children who had lesser importance in their world and it was amazing to see that there were lecturers from well known colleges, students from reputed institutes, chaipersons of various institutions all set to give “IMPORTANCE” to children who had lost their identities in the sphere of  acute poverty.

It is a matter of fact that we do not realize what is going around us, we do not want to know the statistics of deaths caused due to poverty  in our neighbourhood just because we want ourselves to be guilt free of not doing anything for our countrymen…

Lets open our eyes, feel the earth, realize whats around us and help this earth to be a better place to survive by spreading happiness and joy amongst all those who are deprived of their share….

Lets bring a spring of happiness in the cold winters of sorrow!!!

This is a follow-up on the story posted: http://shvaas.org/blog/?p=81

Where there is hope, there is love, where there is love, there is faith and when there is faith, miracles happen.

Every doctor who examined Rohan before his eye surgery was skeptical if he would regain vision. Some also advised us, in good faith, against doing the surgery, so as to save us the unnecessary effort and expenses involved. However, defying all odds, light emanates from darkness. Hope prevails, nourishes and blooms.

After the operation, (read Rohan’s Story) there is a definitive and quantum shift in his vision. Rohan cannot speak or hear either. So to clearly measure the improvement becomes a little more difficult.

Hence on Dec 28th ‘07, Dr. Ashish Nagpal, once again put him under anesthesia to  check the raised pressures in his nerves (glaucoma); and to determine what kind of glasses should be prescribed. He was prescribed to wear +10 number glasses.

Since a few months now he is admitted as a student with the Blind People’s Association, Vastrapur. The teachers say that he has sharp grasping abilities.

This month again, Rohan went through another surgery in his right eye for his Glaucoma. On Monday, Dr. Ashish Nagpal put him under anesthesia once again to review. He is surely doing better.

Rohan is now our brother, our son, our friend and an inspiration for Shvaas volunteers. However, none of this long term care and follow-up was possible without mentioning two very important people: 1) My cousin, Dr. Ashish Nagpal (who has never charged a penny for all surgeries and medicines & 2) Sunil, from Manav Sadhna (who has tirelessly taken care of Rohan throughout these months).

Currently Rohan has vacations in school. He lives at the community center at Manav Sadhna, in an environment of love and attention. There are also many children his age who visit the center daily.

Most Importantly: Thank you everyone for your faith. For your love. For your prayers.

-Nirali Shah

It is a small room of the Brahm Vidhya Mandir at Pavnar, where Vinoba Bhave spent the last 12 years of his life. We are having an intimate conversation with Kalindi Tai, who walked tirelessly along many great revolutionaries of her time throughout the country during the Bhoodan Movement. For the last several years she has also presided as the editor of the Maitri Magazine.

Today in her late 70’s this woman sits before us with an unapologetic alertness combined with simple grace. Her gentle unflinching voice challenges me. It awakens my every cell to pay attention and move deeply into questions that shape our life.

As our dialogue walks through various ambits, I ask, “What are the time tested tools that we can use in modern times to differentiate between right & wrong?” She responds , “This is a very complex question which would require more time for us to inquire thoroughly. However, an immediate answer is that there will always be relative truths that change with context. But in order to start one has to align with at least these three absolutes: ‘Love, Truth & Compassion.’ This is the minimum that one has to accept, if one wants to go into any further inquiry. Without this foundation, any deeper understanding is impossible.”

As we penetrate Truth further, she quotes an example that Gandhiji once gave: “What would you do if you see a cow passing by; followed by a man with a knife running behind to slaughter it. Considering your intention is to save the animal, if the man comes to you and asks if you saw the cow: (a) would you tell the truth or (b) would you lie and say that you didn’t see any cow pass by?”

When after some deliberation I replied that I would lie, she said, “Well there is a third choice that Gandhi gave us. He stated that he would tell the truth to the man with a firm condition that in order to get to the cow, the man would have to kill him first.”

This left me thinking and connecting the dots in my own life. I began to question my own integrity and also the lack of it. If truth is what I expect from others, than how far am I willing to go for it myself?

In this context, I was also reminded of a related article by Osho sent to me by a very special friend.