STORIES UNTOLD.....

I know that whenever you are attempting to start a blog, you have a duty towards the readers not to abandon the blog. But I would like to start up this with an apology on the same aspect. I am not myself these days … and I am going to tell you a bit about this…

 This is my vacations. So I planned of working and after several stories (which will be lengthy if I dare to say those), I went in to my work as a research assistant in a very renowned and mighty institution. My work nowadays is conducting social awareness programmes, educating rural women and youth, taking surveys to know about people of rural areas etc. Currently I am working with 60 panchayats of kerala.

 For people who are outside kerala,  refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Kerala

 As Gandhiji Said, the soul of India lies in villages, we went into the villages to find out actually where the soul is! But what welcomed me are stories, some told and a lot more untold.

 One day I went in to a hut. Before reaching there itself, I knew how the home might be because our surveys are like that which gives us even the picture of where the water pot of the house lies. So we went in, I saw the Mother, I saw what I exactly expected itself, a girl, younger than me(i.e., below 21 yrs). And having 4 children and the eldest is 7 years old. While my team mate was  asking them about why they are not sending the children to schools etc., my eyes were searching for a 4 year old boy whose details are included in the survey form and who I could not find out. At last the young father, who is severely alcoholic, told me that the child died. Simple the child ‘died’. (“When we walk down the streets, suddenly, due to some mysterious magic.. POOH! The person vanishes.. again tomorrow when you wake up, you might be, POOH! Vanished” – potion master to Harry potter, Harry potter and the deathly hallows) He added, “it was ill, we didn’t even had the money to feed the child, so due to no medicine.. it died”. “He died there” – He pointed towards the mat in which I sat.

 After a week when I went to an Aadivasi ‘ooru’ I saw a small girl who looks about 12 yrs old with a big belly. I started discussing with one of my team mates who is an MBBS student about rickets. And he started to search in to his laptop on how to eradicate the terrible disease. While we were seriously ‘searching’ , we came to know that the girl’s disease is not rickets , but she is pregnant, and unmarried too…

 I didn’t dare to go for kasargod ‘enkamaje’ which is the endosulphan affected area. I took the decision at the same moment in which I got the filled up survey form itself. I understood that I am not ‘big’ enough to bare the stories waiting for me there.

Last day when I got in to the bus, I saw a lady with a burnt face. While she was trying so hard to cover her face and my fellow passengers striving not to look at her face, I was thinking of a story… untold..

 So friends… excuse me…. Because now I am busy chasing some  STORIES UNTOLD…