Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

Finally we transition to the flat alluvial plain, and relative tranquility after the hair raising journey down the mountain road.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Then just as we reach Siliguri, the road becomes so choked that we are forced to detour via lengthy ring road to get to the station. We board the train with 20 minutes to spare.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

All the while I have been thinking of Roshni, of Nikat and Zeenat and all the other girls suffering back in Rajabazaar. If Sittong is my Heaven, surely Rajabazaar is their Hell.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

I have one final idea to share, a proposal to make. I will see Roshni one last time before I fly out.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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.

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

The trip takes place on Christmas Eve.

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

 

 

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[Flex Mentallo]

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

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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.

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

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