Sermons in Stones
Patience Taught By Nature ‘O dreary life,’ we cry, ‘O dreary life!’ And still the generations of the birds Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds Serenely live while we are keeping strife With Heaven’s true […]
Unobtrusive
It’s difficult not to be noticed in a wheelchair. Moy Moy and all of us love her chair, and are grateful for the way it lets her get around and be part of everything we do. But unobtrusive it ain’t. That means we are a production wherever we go. And how we feel about it […]
Monsters
We had a ball when Vinod Iyengar, an advisor to the Satyam Foundation, came to visit last week. Vinod and I were on the assessment team for the NGO of the Year award and we had so much fun traveling together to visit different voluntary organisations I asked him to come to Dehradun and visit […]
Due Diligence
The Fundraising course I took in Delhi last year catapulted me into some very interesting company. Resource Alliance, the organisation that ran the course, also gives an award, in partnership with the Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation,to the NGO of the Year. As part of that, I was asked to be an assessor for organisations […]
Half a Century, or Happy Birthday Mom
Moy Moy isn’t so into smiling these days, so I was very pleased to get this half grin from her in honor of my birthday. What a darling she is and what a lucky mom! And yes, she is trying to tell you all to send a donation to Karuna Vihar in honor of […]
Team Green!
I love celebrating St Patrick’s Day in India because it never fails to impress people here that we in the wicked west also have festivals as whimsical and fun as Holi and Basant Panchami. The entire family from Mummy to Moy Moy dresses in green and we eat scones for breakfast (when the kids were […]
Train Bai
Remember Train Bai? The baby born on a moving train a few weeks ago? Her mom went to the loo and gave birth to a daughter so tiny she slipped down the toilet and landed on the tracks below. And survived! This is not Train Bai, but like her, this little girl was born two […]
Three Dazzling Boys (and A Beautiful Mom, too)
Two years ago, Anna Tanvir came to visit Karuna Vihar. Anna is a musician from France (though she has roots in England through her mother, Jill and in India, through her father Habib). She plays the harp and the guitar, she sings like an angel and she is completely enchanting. So I was prepared to […]
Clement J Dowling
My sister called very early this morning to tell me that Uncle Clem had just died. That’s him in the photo on the left – he’s the bald one, the one with the beard is my dad. Uncle Clem was 93 and he and Dad had been best friends for sixty years. Lucy’s voice broke […]
Braille Visiting Cards!
Several years ago, I met my friend Alana Officer, then Director of Handicap International’s India office, for the first time (there always does have to be a first time!). She handed me her visiting card and there, to my amazement, I found her name (I assumed) printed in Braille. “I once gave my card to […]