My Son Grant’s Remorse by Anuradha Bhosale Married women involving themselves in genuine social activism face a daily dilemma. Their family responsibilities and their extra – familial duties clash like cymbals, sometimes ear – splitting so. Living tends to become more a racket of conflicting interests rather than an ensemble of harmonizing sounds. At the extremes the […]
Two Leaves and a Bud (cont)
October 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
— Two leaves and a Bud (continued from part-1) Free English rendering : Arun Chavan Original Marathi by : Anuradha Bhosale Akshay’s granny is no longer working for a living. Age has finally caught up with her. For the past two years she is more or less tied to her hovel. I was able to persuade Saurabh […]
Two Leaves and a Bud
October 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
TWO LEAVES AND A BUD AVANI office and school is at one end of the town, the southern end. The main market, the shopping centres and the government offices are near about one another and are situated at its other end. My work often takes me into these sections. Our main stationery supplier, Neta Stores, the printing service […]
Remembering Little Krishna
September 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Six years ago I had been to the village of Udgaon to have a look at the brickyards on the river bank. There I came across two kids in a family of migrant labor employed at the brick kiln. There I met Krishna of 6 years and his younger brother. Upon asking if they were […]
Beware of Pity Part 2
September 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
> Continued from Beware of Pity part-1 … We looked to her for the past few years as our showpiece, our success story. We have tried all possible alternatives but to no avail. She likes cooking. Therefore we thought of giving her training in hospitality or catering. but she did not show any interest in building […]
Beware of Pity
September 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Original Marathi by: Anuradha Bhosale English rendering: Arun Chavan Come to think of it, the students of AVANI Residential School are the flotsam of the turbulent oceans of life. They are living embodiments of pain-filled stories and traumatic upheavals that are far beyond the tolerance thresholds of their tender souls. Having known the stories whose pathos […]
Pariah By Association Part 2
September 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Original Marathi by: Anuradha Bhosale English rendering: Arun Chavan For a long time the nethermost deprived sections of society were not taken notice of by the economic planners of the country. Now we are in the XII five year plan period and the 66th year of independence. Yet the special development needs of these sections, which mainly comprise nomadic […]
Pariah By Association
September 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Anuradha Bhosale continues with another story of life and the struggle to bring a better life to the nomadic children of Kolhapur India…. There was a bit of controversy about the prevalence of child labour in Kolhapur district. When I enquired of the concerned wing of the district administration about the incidence of child labour […]
Hoping Against Hope
September 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In 2005 we received heavy showers within a short time span. Kolhapur’s main river, Panchganga and its major tributary, Bhogawati, burst their banks and flooded vast areas. That year is particularly memorable for me and my co-workers because our fledgeling residential school for deprived children near the river’s high floodline at Donawade village got severely damaged. We had at that time 23 […]
AVANI’s First Graduate: Sunil Kamble’s Story
June 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Sunil Kamble was the first in his family to graduate from school. The SSC exam (Secondary School Certificate) is a state board final exam all students must pass out of their 10th grade of secondary school education. Once a student passes the exam, they are eligible to enroll in junior college for the next […]
Summer Camp is a Special Time
May 29, 2013 by 5 Comments
Every year in the month of May, AVANI organizes summer camp for the children. The duration of the camp is 10 days. The objectives of this “camp” are to help children to develop a variety of different skills, as well as to make each of them aware of their own special talents, potentials and uniqueness. […]
The Meaning of Death
February 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment
USHA & ANJALI THE MEANING OF DEATH Women are on the lowest rung of the exploitative social pyramid. When married off, they enter a form of serfdom under the patriarchal grip which has more than one prong. The male and female in-laws and the master of the set-up, the husband at the top, together rule the roost and the […]
Nepal ‘Adoption Trafficking’ Big Business in Nepal
October 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment
From Ramesh Saud, GWEI correspondent in Kathmandu – Nepal became an important source of children for international adoption in part because adoption is not widely practiced or accepted among the Nepalese, an attitude that is prevalent across South Asia. But the United States and several other countries have recently stopped adoption of abandoned children from […]