Flex Mentallo

Fatma Kanis 'I want to be a football player'.

Only a normal life without hunger and pain is what Nahid now dream as both poverty and humiliation is part and parcel of her life. Quite unlikely as a Rajabazar girl she passed eight standard but was deprived of higher education as her family thought she read enough and more education will disqualify her candidature for early marriage in their community. In her family she had a younger brother aged 16 now and mother. Her brother earns a meager income by working as an apprentice in a nearby shoe factory and her family suffer from immense scarcity of necessary resources. As a result, after coming in contact with Roshni she didn't think twice before agreeing to take the training opportunity to become a commercial cab driver. Roshni selects young girls and women (who have at least passed eighth standard - a prerequisite to get a license in India) from their community for this training program supported by ThoughtShop Foundation, which gives training to become a commercial driver in the future. Her journey from a normal woman to a cab driving trainee was always complicated from the very beginning. According to her, in the beginning her brother forced her to stay at home and work as a household aid but her mother agreed to her that she at least should take the training. Later, her mother changed her mind. When Nahid argued she got beaten by both her mother and her younger brother. "I didn't accept their arrangements - even I rejected a man whom they chosen for my marriage and continued my training by fighting all the odds. When they find they can't stop me this way, they increased the intensity of beating me and one day when I thought I couldn't bear anymore I broke and told Shahina appi from Roshni about my immense pain and agony ." Shahina took immediate step and talked to her family and said "if I see you have beaten your girl like this in the future we'll surely take necessary steps against you." Nahid is now continuing her training and fulfill her dream to become a driver to end her bigger fight against poverty.

Nahid's Story However, before introducing the young scholars, I would like to tell you the story of Nahid Parvin, a young woman with her own abiding aspirations, and what has happened to her recently. Nahid is representative of all the oppressed women in Rajabazaar... Through the scholarships Roshni seeks to persuade families that a different future is possible for all their daughters.... "I cried to my mom. I tried to convince her day and night that a woman can drive car without exposing her to the outside world wearing her Hijab. I also told her that no one from our community will ever know my identity and what I'm doing. Apart from that I'll always do what I did so far to assist our family. Importantly, whenever, I'll start making some money from this job we can have a better living and get rid of our poverty."

The Scholars For the past six months or so, Roshni has been working to establish the Luke Holland Scholarships. Meanwhile, having finally completed their PhD theses, both Purnabha and Lucina have quickly found jobs far from Kolkata. Lucina went to Cuttack - a city in the adjoining state of Odisha. Cuttack is close to Puri, a holy city I visited and described here in Serendip a year or two back. Meanwhile Purnabha is in Jamshedpur, the first planned industrial city in India, located in Jharkhand - most famous for being the home of Tata Steel Corporation. They still await the formal outcome of their PhDs. Some time ago I had asked for biographies of the scholars to share here, which have been slow in coming because they are all so busy. The quality of the English varies according to whether it is in Shahina's or Lucina's translation. Hopefully, the voice of the young scholars will come through regardless... There are now 17 scholars, two more than we'd planned, so they are finding ways to stretch our donations for maximum impact. Here is a photo of eleven of them. I will begin to post their stories here as and when they come through...

Nice one, Rick. Scarcer issue, and an underrated cover. Looks like a very nice copy with great page quality.

Magnus RF was a favorite SA title for me when I was a kid. Gold Key were hard to find compared to the big two. I thought the Valiant reboot of Magnus, Solar and Turok was pretty interesting to begin with as well. Caught 'valiant fever' in the Unity period, and thought BWS's take on Solar was epically high concept for the first ten issues. I managed to get pretty much everything bar a few 0 issues and gold foil whatnots. Archer and Armstrong were pretty terrific for about 10 issues. Eternal Warrior never quite lived up to its promise. But the sheen fell away quite steeply after Unity. The art and stories proved to be less engaging. I think XO stood up better than most for longer. But it was the armor that intrigues, rather than the man inside. I never quite got in to Harbinger for some reason, though I collected them as well as all the rest. Might have been different if Smith had drawn the title! I guess the intrigue was to do with the exposition of a new comic universe. London Comic marts for a brief time had feeding frenzies - Rai #5!! Or was it #4? As if they could be genuinely scarce when honestly they werent. Villains wise, I 'liked' the spider aliens, in a boo hiss sort of way. Spider femme fatale that started out as a runway model and gradually 'spiderfied' over time I stopped collecting about the time Bloodshot and Ninjak were launched. Still have all the ones I bought. I think one of the last issues I bought was a Harbinger #1, gritting my teeth at the price. No bang for my buck there at all. Dont think I will ever get my money back. I remember the 'Valiant Verse' spawned other ready made universes one summer - Malibu, Dark Horse. Then it all seemed to fade away, or I stopped paying attention, maybe both... Quite surprised to see a reboot of the verse minus Solar, Turok and Magnus. The Valiant reboot seems to get uniformly rave reviews as far as I can see. With a bit more delving I find its not even the first reboot, with the Gold Key trio having been relaunched some time back. Were they any good I wonder?

Bedrock City is a family affair, and I've seen first hand how you support your staff, Richard. And it's heartwarming that CC responded in this way. within the community, we may have our various differences, but overall, I've always wished to believe that we have a genuine community spirit here. Like all the others who've responded earlier, I hope this strategic sacrifice enables you to get back on track as quickly as possible.

Pleased for you Rick - that looks like such a nice, fresh copy!

Killer book

It's sort of like Munchausen syndrome by proxy...

Thanks Rick. If I recall correctly that was a 9.0? Heavy price if so - or a sign of the times.

Can we see a photo of you lying down taking the , er, photo? Just kidding, just kidding. It's actually very ingenious.

Wonderful copy, Kelly.

Good snag, Rick. I had my head under a pillow with the bedroom locked from the outside so I couldn't be tempted. What did the #58 go for? I didnt track that one.

After Harvey comes Irma, Jose, and Katia. Even from a safe distance, it is hard to watch. To everyone here who might be affected, to everyone not here who might be affected, as Irma bears down on the Florida coast, we can only pray that everyone has found a place of safety.

Beautiful books Kelly!

Of course, there's more than one way to handle a crisis.

Welcome to Bedrock City Zoo!

Of course, it could have been worse... hippos are mean.

Those fire ants are freaky - how does such a survival mechanism evolve? They even change position so each ant takes a break to get dry. Downright unsettling.

Well, on a - hopefully - lighter note, this could be your once in a lifetime opportunity to befriend an alligator, Richard! Just be careful in the kitchen!

I feel your pain - I had tears in my eyes posting, and I've only visited Houston twice.

We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike. Human family Maya Angelou

We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.