Judgmental opinions

We have heard of stories in the past when trains or planes were delayed waiting for some Minister or VIP to board But yesterday, one train waited for 30 minutes for group of 10 labourers who could not reach the station in time! We are getting to hear and experience a number of such stories which are very touching Another group of labourers, who were to leave 2 days later, actually gave away their money for travel expenses to some labourers who were leaving the same day, even though they were not known to them We, of course, reimbursed the money to them, but this selfless helping each other is so contrary to the belief we have about the labourers Though I appreciate the anxiety behind the reason for being judgemental, what we are doing is only providing the migrant workers a means of reaching home. We are neither providing them a career at the cost of locals, nor relief in their luxuries And this is not done at the cost of anyone, but merely facilitation of a service what the Governm...

Yesterday was a very hectic but rewarding day of work of registration of labourers for their transit permit Before noon, we were inundated with names of 50 labourers to be registered At the same time, a frantic call came from 10 labourers who were not able to get transportation to go to karmali from margao to board the train Someone managed to negotiate with a bus driver who was willing to transport them for Rs. 4000, cost of which we decided to bear ourselves Meanwhile, we also got the information that these 10 labourers would need some money for their travel expenses, but the question was how to get the money to them Meenal and a colleague of hers decided to go to Verna with the money themself and hand it over to them on their way to the station And this decision has had a tremendous effect on Meenal, for when she returned from Verna after delivering the money to them, her face was ashen She said, when the bus came, these 10 labourers, all between 19 to 20 years of age, look...

A year ago, it was a different world altogether Different social etiquette Different rules Different feelings But some things help from that world I am reproducing below something I had written a year ago "I remember reading Leo Tolstoy's novel "How much land does a man need?" We had a part of it as a lesson in school . And I remembered it again as I reached the peak of a Himalayan mountain 60 km from Gangotri at 12100 feet . We had been trekking 4 days to reach the peak. Living in tents. Eating rice and dal. Using dry toilets. Drinking water from the spring. Carrying our backpacks with our worldly possessions. One water bottle. A bowl to eat from. Two shirts. Two trousers. It looked difficult. Legs straining to climb. Back aching with the load. Lungs panting for air. But, I found that I had A song in the heart, My eyes were smiling. And As we reached the peak, we burst into the national anthem. Our eyes get moist. A lump forms in the throat. Indeed Four da...

For students of Almeida, Angle Sir and Borkar Sir were unforgettable Both taught us English and were always seen together During my school days, both were bachelors English was my favorite subject and I preferred Borkar Sir than Angle Sir Our school competed in elocution competition organized by various schools The star of our school was a girl Vasundhara who was a very good orator Even though I was pretty dumb, Borkar Sir would ask me to accompany the elocution team I remember visiting Mary Immaculate in Panaji and one school in Agassaim where Vasundhara won prizes I was a vociferous reader but poor in communication And I was scoring below average in exams basically because I was not mature enough to take exams seriously After school, I next met Angle Sir suddenly in 2014 or so I was waiting for a colleague at Dhavali when I saw Lawande Sir (Headmaster of Almeida in my school days) and Angle Sir walking I approached them to wish them and introduce myself But I was pleas...