A song of optimism .......

Sau mein sattar aadami filhaal jab nashaad hain
Dil pe rakh kar kaath kahiye desh kya aazad hai

Kothiyon se mulk ki mayaar ko mat aankiye
Asli Hindustan to gaaon mein aabaad hai

Reh gayi hai jo ulajh kar fileon ke jaal mein
Roshni us gaon tak pahunchegi kitne saal mein

Mere seene mein nahi to tere seene mein sahi
Ho kaheen bhi aag lekin aag jalni chahiye

Sirf hungama khada karna mera maksad nahi
Apni koshish hai ki ye soorat badalni chahiye…

Sau mein sattar aadami filhaal jab nashaad hain
Dil pe rakh kar kaath kahiye desh kya aazad hai

Ek chingaari kahin se dhoond laao doston
Is diye mein tel se bheegi hui baati to hai…

MERE SEENE MEIN NAHIN TO TERE SEENE MEIN SAHI
HO KAHIN BHI AAG LEKIN AAG JALNI CHAHIYE…

I visit the boys' home in Dakhin Durgapur to rejuvenate and revive myself. After visiting it I feel alive;I start living rather than existing. The innocent kids and their pure soul induces me to see the brighter side of life.I go there to give love and in turn receive unconditional love. To be honest I benefit more from the visit than the kids.

Bhavya

Here goes my experience on DD

The science workshop organised for the kids at Dakshin Durgapur was very successful.

The kids were very happy to see the visitors talking to them and spending some good time with them. They really need someone to talk, teach and play with them. It was a learning experience for the kids as well as the volunteers.Thanks to the efforts made by Apurva sen Gupta and Prasanto Maiti of BSS. . The man behind the school - Daadu as they call him looks very young at heart, though he is aged. The school atmosphere was awesome. We had a good lunch and the day was fun filled. At the end of the day I had a sound sleep.

Hope we come out with more number of such workshops in the near future.

Regards

Veeran

Experience of Dakshin Durgapur was realy great. I was really amazed to find out that there are so much talent hidden in our country. Thanks to AID-KOLKATA and all its members that they are working in such an area and with children who possess so much talent. I noticed that these children are eager to learn and our AID-KOLKATA members are equally eager to teach them whatever they ask for. Moreover AID members enjoyed with these children by singing, dancing, playing, chatting, taking photos together etc.

We enjoyed our lunch together which is a very bright moment to remember.

I feel really proud to be a member of AID- KOLKATA, and hope we will be doing these WORKSHOP more and more in the coming days.

SUPARNA

An evening at Action 2007 - 27th March 2007

A day at Action 2007

For those who don't know what Action 2007 is, here is a good link, taken from their official site
. Basically it is a common platform of many people's movements from across the country who have started an indefinite struggle in Delhi starting from 19th March 2007 to fulfil their objectives. For the sake of giving updates, over 60 activists from the this gathering were arrested on 22nd March by the police. Their fault? They had sought an appointment with the Planning Commission and didn't get it ... and they were peacefully demonstrating in front of the planning commission building. That's when the police arrested them, in the process manhandling several, even about 50 women. The arrested were transferred to Tihar Jail. The charges under which they were booked included rioting and violation of act 144. For some people like Medhadidi, old charges were brought up again. It was good that many people all over the city reacted promptly at this outrageous incident, and most of the people were freed today.

Today was the last day of the Jan Sansad. There were some very informative and to-the-point presentations made by people from Orissa, and also by the people from Manipur (there were also other sessions going on before we arrived). The theme was state militarisation and repression. An audience comprising of ordinary people struggling for years against adversity (brought on by the administration) listened with rapt attention to the description of how the Armed Forces Special Powers Act had been making life unbearable in Manipur (here is a good site on this struggle). After the Jan Sansad was over, Anand bhai announced the good news that the arrested people were being released on bail and that they would be welcomed by all present with red handkerchiefs.

Here's a very short video of what we saw. In the background you can hear the beautiful song 'Jaan ne ka Haq' being sung.

AID Kolkata puts up a stall at Jadavpur University on 26th and 27th February

AID Kolkata chapter put up a stall at the film festival Juxtapose arranged by the arts students' union FAS (Forum for Arts Students) at the Vivekananda Hall in Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Sonia, who is volunteering with AID San Diego, helped us immensely. She, along with Bodhisattwa, Indraneel and Debabrata managed the stall. Rahul, Ritesh, Juhita, Sombodhi and Satabdi also helped them to set up the stall and manage it. Malay Bhattacharya from West Bengal RTI Manch visited our stall on the second day. We put up 5 awareness posters, 3 on Bhopal and 2 on RTI. We also had AID Kolkata pamphlets, which were distributed by the FAS volunteers to the people who were coming to watch the movies. FAS also kept announcing about AID in between the film screenings.

We had khadi clothes, pottery items from ARTRC, AID Orissa, t-shirts from Folkmart, a few notebooks made by DRCSC (Development Research Communication Services Centre) - an NGO operating in West Bengal. We also had a few calendars on Singur made by Kolkata Nagarik Manch, books and calendars on the struggle of Mehdiganj people. Our main aim was to spread the word about AID and various issues on which we are working.

For more photos, visit the AID Gallery

AID Folkmart products at Kolkata Book Fair

Don't miss the Earthcare Books stall (no. 425/1) at the Kolkata Book Fair 2007, the largest attended book fair in the world. Select products from AID Folkmart will be on sale at the stall. The stall also sells many excellent books and resources on education, development and related topics.

War against cola giants by people of Mehdiganj, UP

Coke is quenching our thirst by making thousands of rural people thirstier. The people of Mehdiganj village in Uttar Pradesh, near Varanasi, are fighting Coca Cola whose plant near the village has caused massive groundwater depletion in the entire area (the plant draws 5 lakh litres of water everyday, even going by Coke's own figures) . According to a study, groundwater levels have come down by 18ft in 1996-2006 and only 1.6 feet in the decade before that. Furthermore, the plant dumps toxic waste (containing lead, cadmium and chromium) which they once used to give to farmers as fertiliser. Also coke is guilty of tax theft and has illegally occupied panchayat land.

Strangely enough this issue has been ignore by the mainstream media, and very few people know of any crime committed by cola companies apart from the one concerning pesticide levels. Frontline covered it in their May 20 - June 02 2006 issue. The Bangla daily Aajkaal covered it in their 16th February 2006 issue (see copy below).

Visit http://www.mehdiganj.org for more updates on this struggle


















Noted activist Sandeep Pandey has commented on this issue in an interview on the ills of unchecked water commercialisation.