Next & last day for us.
The famous or infamous, much publicised,the biggest of the Dooars gardens & according to many, the most affected of all gardens lay ahead for us .
This was a sunday- sunday is the day when relief comes here from Siliguri.
Siliguri Welfare Association has been organising relief in a grand scale for the past two weeks & this is the 3rd consecutive week running.
Sumanda was taking time on the way--breakfast at Hasimara (It surprises me how they make same rotten puri/sabji everywhere--a shit of a breakfast--but we had no option), photosession near Rajabhatkhawa-- he wanted us to reach Bharnobari ( pronounced as Vernabari )only after SWA reached there.
The apprehension of looting by the hungry people of the garden kept him worried.
However help/relief from many corners had improved the situation a lot. The SWA was already there with there truckloads of foodgrains, medicines & doctors.( later I found out it costed them around 13 lakhs for a day's relief in that scale).
Naturally we didn't have much to do there. Myself & Sumanda was taking Ht/Wt/Mid arm dia/abdomen girth of the patients before sending them to the doctors from Siliguri.
But it was a very boring & tiresome job-- made doubly boring as I myself could not see any purpose of the whole exercise of calculating Body Mass Index & from there Malnutrition correlation.( In this context I would like to add that I have asked in private Sumanda & Sankarbabu of Raimatang about what they thought about the whole exercise--What they replied is not of prime importance as this was a directed question & they knew what reply would please me--- but , in all honesty I would like to know from a definitive source whether such endeavour from a small group like ours serves any immediate purpose for the affected people or not.
I hi-lighted "immediate" as it definitely serves a long term purpose- that of encouraging the young people of the group in question-- who knows out of 100 such groups a few philanthropists won't come out?--& it serves many other purposes , all for the betterment of the society--- But all I am interested to know whether a small group like ours with little financial strength-- going to an affected spot (be it a closed garden/factory or an area hit by natural calamity) for a limited time-- dose really help the victims---or do our presence hinder in getting better relief ?
And what about the statistics that we collect ? How good are they? In what way our reports mend govt. policies? Does any Govt. gives a shit (sorry) to what we publish ?
Shadows of Hunger
The famous or infamous, much publicised,the biggest of the Dooars gardens & according to many, the most affected of all gardens lay ahead for us .
This was a sunday- sunday is the day when relief comes here from Siliguri.
Siliguri Welfare Association has been organising relief in a grand scale for the past two weeks & this is the 3rd consecutive week running.
Sumanda was taking time on the way--breakfast at Hasimara (It surprises me how they make same rotten puri/sabji everywhere--a shit of a breakfast--but we had no option), photosession near Rajabhatkhawa-- he wanted us to reach Bharnobari ( pronounced as Vernabari )only after SWA reached there.
The apprehension of looting by the hungry people of the garden kept him worried.
However help/relief from many corners had improved the situation a lot. The SWA was already there with there truckloads of foodgrains, medicines & doctors.( later I found out it costed them around 13 lakhs for a day's relief in that scale).
Naturally we didn't have much to do there. Myself & Sumanda was taking Ht/Wt/Mid arm dia/abdomen girth of the patients before sending them to the doctors from Siliguri.
But it was a very boring & tiresome job-- made doubly boring as I myself could not see any purpose of the whole exercise of calculating Body Mass Index & from there Malnutrition correlation.( In this context I would like to add that I have asked in private Sumanda & Sankarbabu of Raimatang about what they thought about the whole exercise--What they replied is not of prime importance as this was a directed question & they knew what reply would please me--- but , in all honesty I would like to know from a definitive source whether such endeavour from a small group like ours serves any immediate purpose for the affected people or not.
I hi-lighted "immediate" as it definitely serves a long term purpose- that of encouraging the young people of the group in question-- who knows out of 100 such groups a few philanthropists won't come out?--& it serves many other purposes , all for the betterment of the society--- But all I am interested to know whether a small group like ours with little financial strength-- going to an affected spot (be it a closed garden/factory or an area hit by natural calamity) for a limited time-- dose really help the victims---or do our presence hinder in getting better relief ?
And what about the statistics that we collect ? How good are they? In what way our reports mend govt. policies? Does any Govt. gives a shit (sorry) to what we publish ?
Shadows of Hunger
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