Project Hope: Your Little Loan Will Light Up a Village

I write this to request you for a little loan. Yes, I write this to ask you to lend a little of your hard-earned money - money that will help light up many a dark homes of Jaynagar, a poor far flung West Bengal village.  It will help Ayonara Molla buy a solar lantern for her home.

Ayonara Molla and her neighbours in the village of Jaynagar are frequently bogged down by the irregular electricity supply to the village. Like in many other parts of the country, electricity supply is erratic here, with frequent power cuts that many a times last up to 12 hours at a time. Other power alternatives are either expensive and so beyond their meagre means or are less heavy on the pocket but unhealthy. These women now wish to buy solar lanterns for their homes and it is for this reason that they are looking for a loan of Rs. 8000 - to buy solar-powered lanterns. These lanterns last up to 8 to 10 hours on full charge and need no additional fuel except the light from the sun.

Having a cheap alternative source of light will not only improve the quality of life of these villagers but would also help them to efficiently continue with their daily work even after sunset. Having a regular and cheap power alternative will also ensure that their children can continue with their studies despite the frequent power cuts.

The Hope Project: To help Ayonara and many needy women like her, Milaap has come up with the Hope Project - a campaign to inspire urban masses towards empowering rural women through small monetary contributions.  Your contribution , or loan as we call it - would be just that, a loan, and not charity or donation. Once the need of the borrower is met, the money you loan would gradually be repaid to your Milaap account. Subsequently you will have the choice of either re-lending your money to some other needy borrower or withdrawing the amount from your Milaap account.

Here's how Milaap's loan cycle works

Choose a borrower from the listed profiles, based on the impact area you are most concerned about

Make your loan online, all of your money get disbursed through field partners

As the borrower repays your loan, the amount get accumulated in your Milaap account 

You can either withdraw the repaid amount, or re-lend to another needy borrower.

The Hope Project: To help Ayonara and many needy women like her, Milaap has come up with the Hope Project - a campaign to inspire urban masses towards empowering rural women through small monetary contributions. Your contribution, or loan as we call it - would be just that, a loan, and not charity or donation. Once the need of the borrower is met, the money you loan would gradually be repaid to your Milaap account. Subsequently you will have the choice of either re-lending your money to some other needy borrower or withdrawing the amount from your Milaap account.

Your little help will go a long way in helping someone lead a better life. Please do your good deed of the day, and contribute whatever you can to light up Ayonara and her neighbours' lives. The payment can be made through Debit/Credit cards and net Banking, and you can make the payment in Indian currency or US dollars.

Here's the link to make your contribution: http://milaap.org/fund/anoyara-molla-and-group/2096?&referrer_id=8827

Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.

'If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.' - Mother Teresa

This post has been written for the Hope Project undertaken by Milaap on Indiblogger.

Blogging: Writing, Inspiring, Networking

As I think about what to write for this prompt, my mind wanders down memory lane, and stops around the nooks of the building where I am a trainee journalist writing report after mundane report on this and that, and sulking about the inanity of it all. Some where around this time a colleague introduces me to the big and wondrous world of blogging. A blog, he explains, is an online diary of sorts where one could share their writings and photos. And that if I wanted, I could start my own blog and could unleash the creativity that I always cribbed about. And that's how I make my own blog - finalizing a name for it, gradually putting all the layout together, and finally getting down to write the first tentative uncertain posts.

Now that I reminisce about it all, my blog was my virtual diary indeed, where I could pour my heart out - I could WRITE about anything and everything. Random conversation with the rickshawala, an hour spent observing the mad woman across the street, a story about a lovelorn girl, musings about a hindi film from the 60s, comments on the lyrics of a particular song - my blog was the place where I could write anything without the fear of it being edited or modified to suit someone else's fancy.

Blogging for me initially was just about venting my observations and musings, and readers did not really matter. Though I must acknowledge that when friends and random readers came visiting and left a comment or two, it felt good and I would beam around a bit and would read and re-read my own posts, wondering what was in there that captured someone's interest.  The comments and interaction encouraged me to write more. It also helped me NETWORK with many fellow bloggers - blogger shared what they wrote, who read my posts, helped when I faltered, complimented when I won and pulled me up when I fell short of words. Bloggers, who with the passage of time have now become my buddies. 

It's now been a few years since I have been blogging. From writing about random observations and musings, I have moved on to experimenting with many creative themes and prompts, all thanks to the many blogging communities. From posts on big and small social and political issues to fictional tales about car tyre going flat on a deserted road, these communities give me ample opportunity to write more often and write on topics beyond my comfort zone. Just recently I got an opportunity to write on gendercide - deliberate and systematic killing of the female child, and the post was very well received and remains one of the most read post of my blog. The detailed post inspired many readers to do their bit against this heinous practice. It gave me a high too. Yes. A sense of pride in the fact that the what I write is motivating enough to INSPIRE people to do their bit towards the cause. Isn't it an exhilarating feeling to read comments where readers say that your post was beautifully written and it has inspired them.  You bet it is! :)

I am no slogan shouting, placard holding activist, neither a big-shot writer who has best-sellers to her name. I am just another eager soul who wants to share the incessant monologues that go on inside her head. Incesant monologues, random asides, musings, sane thoughts and insane tirades, quips, banters and what nots. It feels nice to scribble them down on the blog. And it feels even nicer when somebody stops by to read them all and leaves a warm comment or two. 

Blogging indeed has been a big, big blessing. 

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

This week the entry must contain the words - write, inspire  & network.

Love

Love helped sell everything - from cosmetics to lingerie, from whole wheat bread to even washing powder - one just had to weave a story around love and it would sell.

And now, after years of helping sell commodities, love too was reduced to being one of the lot - a commodity that could be sold, bought, showcased and flaunted. They who materialized the world, had now materialized love too. Like you flaunted your worldly possessions, you had to flaunt love too - to show the world that you loved to love. Whether or not you carried the flame in your heart was a a different story altogether.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

This week's word prompt is love and sentence limitation is 5.

Gifts I Would Gift Thee

Dear Rehaan

What gifts do I give thee?
A cupboard
full of books
or a hundred
seas to see?
Or do you want something
that excites you more
Dora's company
and a new world to explore!

My nephew Rehaan is a curious little boy of four. As a toddler he developed a liking for books, thanks to the many bed-time stories that his mother read out to him, night after night. As he grew older, the love for books too grew and soon enough he was taking unsteady steps towards his book shelf to pull out random books and browse through the pages. Many a times, thrilled by the big colourful pictures, he would bring back the book to whoever was sitting close enough and would make them read out the stories therein.

Now as he is getting older, his interests are getting diverse and much more amusing. From dismantling his little bicycle to joining track after tricky tracks of his toy train set, he enjoys it all. Then there is his ever increasing love for story books. Besides the many books he keep getting as gifts, he also enjoys the company of Peppa Pig and Dora the Explorer, popular kid characters from the world of cartoons. 

For long  I have wanted to gift him something special and often wonder - what should I gift a young boy of four? Toys, toys and some more toys? Box-full of favourite animation series? Chocolates galore? No, if I am his Santa, I'd rather give him something else. Something more lasting than a toy or chocolate hamper.

1. Gift of Healthy Body, Mind and Spirit

Oh this sounds pretty philosophical, right? But wouldn't these make just the perfect gift for a child! Body, mind and spirit, all healthy and in sync with each other. Since childhood we have been fed on the adage - 'Health is Wealth', and yes it indeed is. All our worldly riches and material possessions are pointless if our fragile health does not permit us to enjoy them. So as Santa, I would want to bestow my little Rehaan with good health, and with it a healthy mind and a positive and happy outlook towards life, that is, a positive spirit - for this triumvirate indeed holds the key to lead a happy and harmonious life.

2. Gift of Good Conscience

This might start sounding like a moral science lesson now! Preachers say conscience is a gift of God, and by default it guides as to do good and avoid all that is evil. But as we grow older and the material world starts manifesting itself on us in its myriad ways, many a times the conscience finds it difficult to have a stronger say during moments of evil temptations. Gift of good conscience will ensure that while ambling along in the journey of life he sticks to the road of goodness. The gift will stand him in good stead when faced with treacherousness choices between what is good and what is just seemingly good.

3. Gift of a Strong Spine

No, no - I am not talking abut some magical relief for back pains here! Rehaan has none and I thank God for that! I want him to be someone who is not afraid to take a stand. Some one who is not weak-willed or 'spineless' so to say. As Santa, I would gift him with the gift of a strong spine, to ensure that he grows up to be a brave young man, someone who has a good mind of his own and who knows to stand for what is right.

4. Gift of Good Humour

Gift of laughter and the ability to make others laugh - this would make for a wonderful gift for anyone. In recent times good sense of humour is slowly turning into something of a rarity. Sarcastic jokes, racial slurs and jokes replete with innuendos often pass off as humour. No, none of these for Rehaan. The gift of good humour would ensure that he brings cheerfulness and gives out positive ibes wherever he goes. This special gift would not just help him make light of life's difficult phases but would also help him cheer up others too.

5. Gift of a Deep Piggy Bank

Since childhood we were taught or rather preached about not attaching much significance to money. 'Money cannot buy you happiness', was every elder's constant refrain. But the way things are in the present scenario, it seems money, even if not the only means of happiness, sure is a deciding factor in sizing up your happiness quotient. The new mantra people are debating now is whether or not money makes the world go round. Well I have my opinion reserved on this, but yes, one must add here that with the inflation rate skyrocketing, I would most definitely gift a deep piggy bank to Rehaan to inculcate the habit of saving from an early age. The piggy bank would ensure that he not just learns the importance of saving but also the importance of spending money wisely.

 So these are the 5 gifts I would gift my baby nephew Rehaan. Of course this is not a definitive list and there's so much more to add here - the good values of honesty and integrity, good education and of course sound and secure insurance and investment plans. By and by these would be joining the gift list too. For now let me watch him practice being an elf for the his school Christmas play!

Alice(s) in Wonderland

While growing up in the far-flung areas of our country, I never really had a best friend. Best friend in the sense many speak of the word - one friend that you have grown up with, that one friend you went to school with, the one who knows you inside out. This lack of a best friend was one of the many pitfalls of being born to parents with transferable jobs. Nonetheless, though I did not have a best friend so to say, I did have lots of good friends - friends from all across the country.

It was only when I started college and shifted into a hostel that I met the girl who was to turn into my proverbial best friend. Our friendship started with random hi, hellos, graduating to exchange of class notes and in no time we were bonding over endless chat sessions about latest political updates, the exhaustive books collection in the college library and the current affairs - yes, you read that right - as mass communication students, these topics were the things that kept as pre-occupied! 

Fun for us was doing all quirky things! Getting up at 6 in the morning to check-out our favourite News anchors, watching movies all night long, buying matching stuff from the stores and threatening auto-drivers with dire consequences if he did not abide by the traffic rules!

When it came to girly things like make-up and fashion, we were like Alice(s) in Wonderland! We would wonder with amazement at every little thing we would discover in our friends' make-up boxes! And on the make-up counters at the malls! Stuff that was fancier than your regular kohl pencil, eye-liner, and lipstick!  There were hundred different brushes to put the make up on, there were exotic concealers to hide marks and blemishes on your face, eye-shadows, blush-ons and what not! An array of products to turn you from a plain Jane into a glowing princess in no time - provided one knew what to apply and where! 

So Alices(s) in Wonderland we were, wearing down the sales-girls at different brand counters with our nincompoop queries about some product or the other! More often than not, we did not buy the products despite our incessant questions, for we knew we will not use them after all. And the rare occasions when we let our minds and hearts be convinced about a product, all sorts of experiments would start once we reached our hostel rooms, and these experiments would then soon turn into laugh riots! 

Once we got this fancy face-pack from some cosmetics shop and it promised super glowing skin within minutes of applying and lo and behold, as soon as we reached our room, we were all set to put it on! But once we had applied it on our scrubbed faces we forgot about the goodness of the product or wondering whether it will actually work wonders on our skin like it promised, our new experiment was to see who looked more ghastly or rather GHOSTLY with the face pack on! In a while friends from adjoining rooms too joined us in our experiment and one ghostly sight we all made with this black mud pack on our faces!

And now when I see this beautiful Dove soap hamper, I know how this new experiment is going to turn out! My best friend is again going to be the guinea pig for this experiment! As my partner in crime in many offbeat experiments, she will be game for this one too! Anything for good, glowing skin, and quirky photographs! 

For Love

So there was this time when I was reading a lot of Vikram Seth - more poetry than prose - and got so influenced by his crisp thought-flow, that I would try and pen down verses in his style. Here's one such example. Have written a few more, will share by and by.

For love, a few hugs

and a little kiss,

I let him

Like me.

Heart rose to the occasion, indeed,

And so I liked him,

For love, a few hugs

And a little kiss.

I Err, I Learn

Ah, speech time. I will try and keep this short. And simple. I say simple because many a times in the maze of fancy words, the essence of what you really want to express gets lost.

It gives me immense happiness to win this blogging award, though a part of me - that always keeps nagging with its incessant questions - is also wondering if I really deserve this one. But now that I have actually won the award, for a while I have all the authority to ask that incessantly blabbering part to shut up and let me enjoy my five minutes of fame.

I cannot thank BlogAdda enough for acknowledging my blogs and my intermittent efforts at penning down all my big and small, random and concrete musings therein. I created my first blog way back in 2007, when almost every other person around me was creating a blog to show off their extensive grasp about every topic under the sun. But my blog was primarily to vent and ramble, for I had no expertise on any subject that I could show off. And this remains the case even today. I remember, the first labels I used for my posts were ‘random’ and ‘musings’, for that’s what they were - random observations about this and that.

I was never a very focussed blogger, abandoning quite a few blogs before finally creating one that I decided to stick to. And the good people at various blogging forums ensured that I kept scribbling regularly there – through their various writing prompts and blogging drives. A great high was when I won the blogging competition to be a part of the MTV travel show - Nano Drive with MTV Season 2, and got to represent BlogAdda on the incredible 21-day trip across India. The memories of that beautiful journey, I will cherish forever. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity I was bestowed with.

I am not the brightest of bloggers around but I am happy that whatever little I write and share is coherent enough for readers to read and appreciate. I err too but then I look around and learn from fellow bloggers and from concerned readers. Whenever I have doubts, they are addressed pronto by the good people here. Thank you Team BlogAdda for driving all bloggers to write more and write better. Blogging is one of the best medium for self expression, and it’s humbling, rewarding and motivating to see your efforts getting rewarded. Thank you BlogAdda. Keep motivating us all. 

This would be My Winning Speech on being rewarded the BlogAdda Blog Award!

Till Death Do Us Apart

A walk down the mountain trail,
with the sun shining bright,
the squirrels playing peek-a-boo
flock of birds in flight.

The twinkle of the little stream
running down the vale
patterns of our shadows,
telling many a mushy tale.

Tea by that quaint shack
resting against a tree
manned by that old couple
warm and full of glee.

The day spent traversing,
many a mountains wide
talking of this and that
letting the time glide.

Love, let us celebrate love,
with nature in our hearts,
hand in hand in the mountains,
Till death do us apart.

Those who seek love, find love. Though true love can seem elusive to many, but it does find us all seekers nonetheless. So eventually when it does discover me, I want my platinum day of love to be spent in the bosom of nature, for nature is eternal - it's bounties are infinite. How beautiful it would be to sit by a mountain brook, hear the birds sing and watch the world go by. 

True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations; it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart. 

 -- Honore de Balzac

Our Hearts Will Go And On

I write this
to thank thee
for the selfless love and care,
I never said
I love you,
But you never seemed to care.

The tantrums,
the silly jibes
never perturbed thee
the affection was showered
forever,
and with glee.

My mood swings
come and go
leaving me unsure
wish I could
love you more
wish there was some cure.

Sad to bid
goodbye to thee
but the time has now come
Do miss me
a little
And I will miss you some.

This spirit is
immortal,
we keep reading on
It’s the body
that lets go
Our hearts will go on.

So my heart
will go on,
to thee I now proclaim,
I will not be
here again
But I will love you
all the same.

Love begets love, they say. They, the enlightened ones. No feeling in this world can be as fulfilling, as the feeling of being loved, being cherished by that someone special. And trust me, you are one of the luckiest people on this earth if you have found love. Wo kehtein hain na... har kisi ko nahi milta yahaan pyaar zindagi mein...sahi kehtein hain.

So if you have found the love of your life, celebrate that. Express your love, cherish your love for there's nothing as pure and as powerful as true love. Express your love before it is too late. Express your love for that is a beautiful thing to do. 

Let the Love Last

Love embraces me today -

eternal, strong and pure, 

spring in my steps can vouch

I have never been so sure.

Sticks of Bougainvillea, 

hanging big and bright

Jasmines in full bloom, 

This never felt so right.

My man standing thrilled here

has given me this ring,

the proposal of lifelong love,

has made me dance and sing!

The platinum in my finger

enduring is its cast,

We will not last forever, love

Let’s let the love last.