मुझे अपनी दुकान पसंद है

Empty shells are not just academic

Soft collisions, repetive and cold

Loud blares, scraping and accelerating

Warning signs ignored

Saw a man and woman holding hands today

It was the first I'd seen

Comfortably, easily

It can be here

It all may be here

But how do you find it?

In them of course

But is there 1 in every community?

And how do you recognize them?

The difficulty can be labeled a model

But that's a shell,

Opaque and academically hollow

It's really a wriggling, mass of masses

Shaped by past, present, future

Controlled by laws, structures, culture

The only things constant are nothing,

No matter how deep or inanimate

So how can you hold things constant?

Our territory

Not your type restaurant

They are always causing trouble, not us

Here, clean your sister's poop of with this water

Go scoop the buffaloes poops

And smell, this is where we defecate

Oh we're great we've made such success

And we did this the community will tell you

If it weren't for us and your money, oh what would become of them?

1500 Rupees promised per, where has it gone you see?

He takes the money from the tourists, then takes some his own

The Mughal Heritage Walk, but is it alive or even there?

No not really, but the people are there

Project katum, but the people are there

We'll do great work, just give me the check

Professional outsourcing, lofty words

Expenses best is a must

And 1500 Rs I got per day to help them solve their worst

2500 Rs is good for them, but I'll be the one to deliver it

Such hopeless eyes they look at me

I will struggle on, paying the consultant to write my emails

Big projects I want, whole world to know

Oh we will change the world you see

And my daughter will in the US

And we'll move there to be with her

This is how its structured you see

Without us, who else will fight Casteism

There are no others like us, not untouchably internationally known

My family is very greatest here

Brahmin by name and uplifted by dress

But, I'm effective because I am from that one.

And know those people, but don't use

Oh no

Is this really all there is?

Unment promises, nice office self

Here I benefit, and you'll get some too

Empty shells are seeming pandemic

Easily, walking, hand-in-hand

Deftly scooping, tray-to-head

Numbly cleaning, hand-in-crack

But one happy boy, to short to reach

Another boy keeps his balance

Guiding from behind, contentment on his face

And one calm look, eyes resolved

Laksham Das Dastri-2, just see the Taj and there you'll know

Quietly speaking

Yes I like my store too.

Delhi bahut bariya hai

I have been busy running around lately. First Kolkata - where I had a 2 night journey from hell which rendered me with my first full-blown fever in 5 years. Then back to Agra. Then to Delhi where I am right now.

On the way back from Kolkata I was better prepared. I had a blanket, dinner packed away (thanks to Auntie Swati), 2 jackets, 2 pairs of pants socks and possibly most important - earplugs. This trip was nearly pleasant - and this time I was also carrying 2 50lb airport bags with all my stuff. Thanks to locks that Suprio helped me purchase I chained them up and was able to keep a close enough eye on them to not overworry about them.

Agra for a couple days to check base with SNBS, who is having issues finalizing the rent of the workshop, and then off to Delhi to deal with changing my Visa and finding/droppping off christmas presents with my sister who happens to leave to the US soon.

Tiffany is working with Waste Ventures, a start-up that wants to facilitate and profit (in a nonprofit kinda way?) from composting and recycling in urban-but-not-too-big areas. They offer a holistic service to setting up the infrastructure and organizing the wastepickers to form their own official company. Their office is nice their people are nice and they seem like they've been picking up useful people on their side as they have been developing their team.

Their office in Delhi has comfortable couches and english is all around me, there is a very very nice subway in Delhi and I had lunch at Subways today. I am in a whole new world. People everywhere speak english like its their first language - often to each other and with shopkeepers.

The train ride in from Agra was very early morning and freezing. The cheapest seat is a 67 Rs/$1.5 ticket. I paid the price but never found a seat. The Delhi metro is basically connected with the train route so I just hopped off and went down into a 22nd century subway, leaving my head realing. They have subway cards and track your station in and out to charge you precisely and there are lcd lit trains with nice maps and spotless tracks, everything in English and Hindi, I was stunned. My slums in Agra seemed so distant all the sudden. Even my crammed car in the back of the train seemed anachronistic.

Then the doors opened and I was carried away by a stream of people exiting the subway. Laughing, someone pulled me out and tossed me in with the stream entering. I had my first good laugh in awhile.

The Big and Little Picture

Three people in the last week have asked me to re-explain what it is I was doing in India, so I thought I might as well make it clear - both to you and me.

Why Am I here?

The Big Picture: Design a new model for urban poverty alleviation through facilitation of community design and technology workshops.

What is PANCH about?

Panch stands for People's Action for Clean Hands and it is a more contained version of the Big Picture where the idea is to test and see what the potential of a community design workshop is in the context of real life. How will people respond? What would it take for the community to really value and use a workshop in their community?

There are many questions so I will refrain for now. I'll be putting up a more detailed explanation to get people's thoughts on the big and little picture - but maybe not till i have a picture-taker.