Flex Mentallo

'Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.' Mark Twain

You are more than welcome! But I shudder to think what Mark Twain would think of me.

links for the new site on page 244

Well, that brought me out in a hot flush!

'It begins with the king as a boy, having to spend the night alone in the forest to prove his courage so he can become king. Now while he is spending the night alone he's visited by a sacred vision. Out of the fire appears the holy grail, symbol of God's divine grace. And a voice said to the boy, "You shall be keeper of the grail so that it may heal the hearts of men." But the boy was blinded by greater visions of a life filled with power and glory and beauty. And in this state of radical amazement he felt for a brief moment not like a boy, but invincible, like God, so he reached into the fire to take the grail, and the grail vanished, leaving him with his hand in the fire to be terribly wounded. Now as this boy grew older, his wound grew deeper. Until one day, life for him lost its reason. He had no faith in any man, not even himself. He couldn't love or feel loved. He was sick with experience. He began to die. One day a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. And being a fool, he was simple minded, he didn't see a king. He only saw a man alone and in pain. And he asked the king, "What ails you friend?" The king replied, "I'm thirsty. I need some water to cool my throat". So the fool took a cup from beside his bed, filled it with water and handed it to the king. As the king began to drink, he realized his wound was healed. He looked in his hands and there was the holy grail, that which he sought all of his life. And he turned to the fool and said with amazement, "How can you find that which my brightest and bravest could not?" And the fool replied, "I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty." The Fisher King

Nikat on a carousel in her Sunday best. My Holy Grail.

What difference would it make if you owned the object which is a symbol of what lies within us?

Though likened to a mystical cup that held the blood of Christ, the grail is after all not an object.

I have my share of these 'grails', and they give me great pleasure to own. But the true grail is not a possession, and of course we all know this.

In collecting we frequently talk about a grail, associating this with a longed for collectible.

The trip takes place on Christmas Eve.

With our fundraising target achieved, I suggest to Shahina that we might hire a bus and take as many children as possible to Nicco Park. It is a local theme park, barely three miles across town, but I know that none of these children will have ever been there.

I'll take your dictum get your filthy talk out of this family friendly forum!

I'll take your dictum and raise you an apothegm.

I save my leaky eyes for the flight home, when the children loom large in my mind's eye. It is almost as if they are with me on the plane. I pretend to have a headache, and cover my eyes. Thanks to many of you, a sales thread for Roshni achieves and exceeds the target needed to fund the scholarships before Christmas. The surplus will go towards various other essential works Roshni plans, and the first quarter's installment has already been sent and received. (They don't want the funds all at once, because of ongoing difficulties with the currency, so I have it safely stashed away.) Soon I will be able to share details of the girls selected for the scholarships. In addition, other boardies have become involved in a variety of ways. One, a publisher, has sent a large bundle of educational comic books to Roshni. Another wants his school class to share in a project with Roshni's children. Still another has arranged for his daughters to be pen pals. Another wants to take his daughters there and volunteer. To everyone who supported in so many ways, thank you once again: by donating comics and artwork, by buying said items, by donating funds, and supporting by other means. Thank you for your willingness to support a group of perfect strangers you may never meet, in a faraway land to which you may never go.

After the meal, we look for a place to talk, and such is the noise and bustle, that the best place we can find is a back alley near the mall in which we ate. Here I tell them what I have been thinking. I say to them that the only way I can see to genuinely make a difference for Nikat, Zeenat, Arshi and others like them in the most difficult circumstances is by establishing individual scholarships. They agree. We discuss costs and logistics, and eventually decide that we need 15 scholarships, each of Rs 15,000. Some of these funds will pay for school fees. Most will go on essential tuition. (Some of this tuition will be provided by the Roshni volunteers, who will be paid for their dedicated work for the first time. This in itself will make a significant difference to their circumstances.) They are happy and proud to name the scholarships after Luke Holland. The work with the scholars will be based in the new centre, which at the time of writing has not yet been found (though we have until the end of March before the current base must be surrendered). It suddenly becomes clear just how much all this means to Roshni. Just after I took the photograph below, I tell them I will find the scholarship funds somehow. Shahina has held onto her emotions until now, but as we get ready to say goodbye, she flings herself with no warning into my arms and bursts into floods of tears. Within moments, others are crying too. She will later say to me, after I am back in England, that the connection we share is 'from the heart'. Being me, I try to make light of it; being her, she solemnly chastises me

Back in Kolkata, Sittong feels like a dream, Rajabazaar an all too grim reality. On my last evening, 1st December, I take the whole gang for a meal. Their preference? KFC.

“Where must we go, we who wander this wasteland, in search of our better selves?”

Haven't bought from Heritage in ages but still on their mailing list: Our next catalog signature auction is scheduled for February. We are happy to announce that the auction will include a single-owner catalog of one of the most historic collections ever assembled.

I feel sad to have said goodbye to Sittong but I am also glad to be returning to them. I barely know them, yet I have missed them.