Ellen Besso Coaching

We had the most amazing morning. As I mentioned in my previous entry, I wanted to go to the centre for street children which is near here & was asking directions at the front desk. They told us the owner of the hotel works with street children & took us to his basement office where he told us all about his volunteer work & explained about ‘giving back’ to others to repay bad karma from past lives. He said a 27 yr old daughter, only child like our daughter, who is born into wealth (his take on it) to loving parents in a country like Canada has good karma.

Brij belongs to a volunteer organization. He’s a former auto rickshaw driver from Paharganj (but an unusual one in that he’s college educated) & supports many, many charities for the poor. He took us to 4 in the basement of the hotel…tutoring for young kids, computer training for men & women, sewing training & a dr’s office!

Then he drove us to the orphanage in a nearby hindu temple; he showed us the infants’ room (the other , older kids were at school I think; they live in another part of the temple in an ashram). There were 8-10 babies & one 10 yr old girl who’s slightly mentally handicapped. The babies are rescued after being abandoned; the police call the association & someone goes immediately with a nurse to pick them up. One baby was very white skinned & I feel that may be the main reason for her abandonment in a park. They were mostly girls as people don’t want them…I’m not sure why. The babies are cared for lovingly by paid nurses, given good medical care & food. Then they’re adopted out to Indian families who are unable to have their own babies. The youngest are only given to couples who’s 2 ages do not exceed 90; if they’re older they get older kids. The babies were so beautiful & seemed so peaceful; the energy of the whole temple was like that.

We met a dutch woman who is volunteering for 6 months. She’s doing the website for the children’s centre as that’s her work + she works with the kids too. She doesn’t go every day as she gets too attached & then they’re gone. We may want to do volunteer work through this organization.

Our afternoon was an enormous contrast to the morning viewing the facilitities for poor people in Paharganj. We took the subway one stop to Connaught Circle as Don wanted to see what an Indian subway was like. (The subway stations & toll booths resemble Bart in San Francisco in apperance) & are 5-6 years old. They help relieve the bazaarly congested traffic on the roads we were told). Connaught Circle is a very upscale area of stores as I believe I mentioned earlier & expensive hotels & restaurants. We walked around, had a pizza at Pizza Hut (my choice, I’m beginning my re-entry!), then had dessert & coffee at a new chain of Indian cafes. I wanted to take a bicycle rickshaw back to our hotel for one last ride, but they’re not allowed into that area, so we took an auto rickshaw. After returning we walked through the busy lanes of the Paharganj bazaar again for an hour…our last time…& took a few pictures in the waning light.

I think we both feel ready to leave India & return to the peace of our rural British Columbia town to ponder & process all of our fascinating experiences. We’ll post some more pics next week.

Warm wishes to all.

Namaste