we bought the Jalebi's after the 45 minutes walk to make up for the calories burned :) )
Woke up in the childhood home and went for a walk at the Yashwant Club. The membership to the club is on invitation only and has been closed for last several years. I went with my brother and sister in law and met lot of their friends there. A Cricket team was practicing , some people were doing Yoga and other exercises. After the 45 minutes of walk it was time for tea and fresh Jalebis ( to make up for the 10 calories burned .:)
At home, another breakfast and some catch up work for SEWA and Explorabox etc. I may have found the prefect person for the Expolabox manufacturing. More will follow later. These days most people have internet access and few have WIFI also. Got a call from JAgdish to come for his friend's birthday so off to another eating session of breakfast number 3.
My sister in law had made my favorite Eggplant dish ( Bangan Bharta) so I had to eat lunch as the fourth meal of the day and it was not even 1 pm yet. I was to go to my sister's home for a second lunch ( fifth meal ) but got saved by my long lost and newly found friend Sadhna. She came over to take me to show her farm and off we went in her OLD TINY MARUTI ( small car) Stick shift, no Air Conditioning etc. She skillfully weaved through the traffic onslaught and we drove through the city to the ring road and on to Bombay Agra freeway ( called AB Road) . In the process she gave me a guided tour of my own home town which has grown beyond recognition ( but she kept pointing out the old landmarks and very soon the town is all familiar once again) The farm was a mile off the highway and it was a delight.
She had bought this farm a year ago and has been learning by making mistakes : But now she has a care taker who lives in one room mud house with three kids and attends to the farm. They did have several vegetables , Wheat, Methi and Garbanzo beans. It was clean air ( after a loooong time) and a nice smell of green things. We talked and hung around for a long time. Her life , as of many women in India, is out of a sad fiction novel but it is inspiring to see the resilience and drive after all misfortunes ( some real and others man made) .
Her two sisters ( separate stories ) are professors at the University. One of Statistics and other Physics. We sat in a coffee house for the sixth meal of the day ( a trendy hangout for the students) and I brought out the subjects of Exploraboxes and Solar Lanterns and cooker. To my surprise , all of them thought the exploraboxes will not work here because the emphasis is on getting good grades and getting into management or any other high paying jobs. They said, " kids are too busy and stressed by the pressure to get grades and schools and tutions and extra activities that they will not have time to "learn". May be they are disgruntle professors but clearly they think that quality of students has degraded beyond hope.
But , all three women are very interested in Solar Light for the village women. They think it is not just the village women but the city women need help too. It was getting late so I got dropped off to my sister's home . Got a call within an hour from the Physics Professor sister , she wants to discuss more of Solar Stuff and really wants to get involved :)...I am very happy and will follow it up , hopefully something will come out of it.
We had dinner ( my seventh meal for today) with my sister and brother in law and cought up with more family gossips. It is time to go to bed, dogs are going insane outside but I think I am tired enough to fall sleep soon. Good night and नमस्ते ( namaste) ....derived from the Sanskrit word Namoh-Te ( meaning i pay my respect to the person that is you...)
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