The train folks did absolutely nothing to help. Part of me thinks that the train staff might have been the ones; or these young guys with very heavy bags who got off at Agra. When we got to Mathura, we went to the Train Police and filled out a report but that took them over 4 hours to complete. They really wanted us to go away. The man in charge of writing the report, told me that losing the cameras shouldn’t mean anything to us since we were rich Americans. But when they found out what these cameras cost, they did change their attitudes. It was like a horrible comedy of errors and they really wanted to wait us out and have us leave so they did not have to investigate. He explained to Keith that this would make him look bad since he knew the camera stuff was as good as vanished. And since we have insurance, he really did not want to waste time.
This morning, we went out to find a point and shoot and got a little one. There were practically no choices but we got one and went out this afternoon to visit with the widows at their shelter house. The wonderful woman who is responsible for creating this safe haven is this fireball of a 72 year old who one cannot say no to. She is smart, charming, and kind beyond belief. When I asked her how she got interested in doing this work, she said she was a widow, and raised by a widow and when her mom was raising the seven children, it was very very difficult. She got educated and decided to make a difference. Her name is Dr. Mohini Giri. She is with the Guild for Service which has other projects beside the shelter. The shelter is out in the country and is in new buildings where she has 125 widows. The widows live for free in shared rooms but have joint building kitchens, showers, toilets and some courtyard space. They are provided with medical care, physical therapy, and two healthy meals a day. They are mostly pretty old and were destitute on the streets before coming there. They had no future at all. Now they have a place to live out their lives and die with dignity.
Dr. Mohini Giri
Mohini comes to the US regularly since she has a daughter in Michigan near Detroit. She lectures and fund raises for the projects with the widows and other poor women and children. She says she can come when I have my exhibit up and do a lecture to our community. This will have to be worked out but my thoughts are that she is such an interesting person, I don’t doubt her sincerety.
The librarian in the doorway of her room
Today she had a banker out to open bank accounts with nothing in them to be ready for the pensions she worked out for each of them with the government. Up til now, they were not eligible for them since they had been homeless. Now they will each receive 1-500 rupees per month. One of the women we met had been a lecturer at one of the universities and also a librarian. She spoke perfect English and spoke it with a more or less American accent. I don’t know what she was doing there but I will ask Mohini when I email her. She was accompanied down from Delhi with some of her staff and the wife of a famous Indian photographer. Right now, I cannot remember her name or his. All I remember is he did a famous book on the Taj Mahal and she wrote the text. I will search for this book when we have internet access again. This hotel seems to have none.
The widows greeting us
the shelter
I am feeling under the weather again tonight and am sick of feeling sick. Could be that I should not have had fresh milk with my cereal. Who knows. I thought I was going to throw up all day. I would like to be back home just now so I could eat and drink whatever I felt like and have some fresh vegs and salads. Maybe this will pass by the morning.
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