July 25, 2011
Dear brothers and sisters,
It is a long time since I wrote to you. I hope that all of you are well and having internal peace. Our work here in Siliguri, North Bengal of feeding the hungry people has completed one year. We went to many villages, slums and small hamlets in and around Siliguri and fed the people Five Star Khichree. You can now find the recipe for that on our website. We tried twice to pay other people to help with the cooking, but it just didn’t work. They just didn’t understand that it had to be the best khichree, the most delicious khichree in the world. They just didn’t understand that while cooking they had to pour two tons of love into the pot and stir that in with all the other ingredients, so that the love would also be there to offer to the hungry. So again, my son and I are cooking the food by ourselves, on the floor of our kitchen, on two tiny stoves in two very large pots and taking the pots out three times weekly and finding the hungry to feed.
In May we went to a place called Ganganagar, near the Mahananda River. We came to the end of the road in front of the river and then showed some men our pots of rice and asked, “Kohon garib lok?” Where are the poor people? The men looked at each other and then said, “You feed our children!” So we stayed right there and the men called the people out from their little bamboo huts and we fed all of them – except for one. During the feeding, one woman was standing a little behind the others and she kept smiling at me beautifully and doing namaskar. I would fill some more sal leaves and give them, but then again make eye contact with this lady and again she would do namaskar and just keep smiling. Finally after about ten-fifteen minutes the food was finished. Everyone left except that one woman. Then she said to our rickshaw driver, “Everyone received food except for me.” I felt just terrible. What to do? I told her, “Kul Iyeh”, meaning “We will come back tomorrow, okay? But still I felt very bad, also because I knew we would not be back the next day. There are so many places to go to and only three times a week we go out. After two weeks we returned to Ganganagar and drove deep inside on the footpath. The children saw us and the people began coming. Again it became a thick crowd of children, women and men around the rickshaw, all with hands stretched out waiting for the sal leaf full of rice to be put in those hands. Lo, I saw once again the lovely woman who did not get food the last time. This time, like the others, she also pressed forward physically and stretched out her hands to receive the sal leaf of rice. Last time she didn’t do this, and for that reason I thought that she was not interested to have food. But this time she did like the others. But you know, it looked so unnatural for her to stretch out her arms and wait for the food in that manner. I piled a sal leaf sooooo high with khichree and put it in her hands. She smiled sweetly and then left. But, I was disturbed, because it was clearly so unnatural for her to stretch out her hands to receive food. Though extremely poor and in her mid fifties, she was a very dignified, noble woman. It was as if by doing this she lost her dignity. Can you understand? Then I kept thinking, nobody should have to eat like this or receive food like this. All should be invited to sit nicely at tables or even on the floor as is customary in India. But – there are so many hungry! And right now we have no building and no tables and chairs for these dear people who are so very poor through no fault of their own!
Last winter it often happened that when we delivered the khichree, a few women would come forward and say, “Give us blankets. We need blankets.” But we had no blankets. We had only our khichree. A good warm woolen blanket costs Rs. 500 at the local market. Remembering these appeals and with the approach of winter coming, I was feeling recently, the level of our service must go higher. Serving khichree to 2000 people monthly is not enough. I decided to select just ten communities, the poorest villages of all we visited over the past year, and give each person in the village a warm blanket. On our website the slogan of Hearts Healing Hunger is “Right to food, Right to life!” Now we will add another slogan under a new section called Blankets for All. It will be called “Right to warmth! Right to life!” What do you think, brothers and sisters? The funds required for this project are far more than for feeding khichree to 2000 per month. To provide one blanket each to 500 persons in just one village will be Rs. 250,000 or 2.5 lakh, which comes to US $6,250. I have never raised such an amount before. But, we have to try, isn’t it? We want to distribute five thousand blankets to the hungry, cold persons in and around Siliguri during December and January. Can you help me? Please you think to help me now. Please put me in touch with others who can help. Providing five thousand blankets to the people here may seem like a small thing. But it is one step forward on the road to their longer survival.
The final goal, brothers and sisters, is for these sweet suffering souls to build with us a new world where economic suffering is a relic in the history museum, where instead we form cooperative commonwealths in each and every village, where everyone owns the coop, where everyone has a vote, has a voice, where money is decentralized all over the world. No more economic centralization! We want economic decentralization! So let us talk to the presently poor about the solution called cooperative commonwealths. Then let us work our hearts out to manifest this dream. We will call it the Dream of the 21st Century. Please, you all come here to Siliguri and help me to manifest this dream. Help me to rekindle the jeweled lamp, the unparalleled magnificence and beauty that is North Bengal.
Love,
Garda Ghista
Hearts Healing Hunger
Siliguri, North Bengal
Email: gardaghista@gmail.com
Mobile: 98510 90212
Skype: garda.ghista
If outside India, you can send donations by check made out to ‘Hearts Healing Hunger’ to:
Max Kantar
PO Box 1002-C
Big Rapids, MI 49307
Alternately, you can send from inside or outside India by direct bank transfer to:
Account Name: Hearts Healing Hunger
Account Number: 910010027551810
Axis Bank
Swift Code: AXIS INB035 (for donations from outside India)
Siliguri, West Bengal
India
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Please Come and See Their Faces
Dear brothers and sisters,
Once again, many days, weeks and even months have passed. Still we are feeding the hungry people here in Siliguri, North Bengal. Today we went to the old Siliguri Train Station. So many shops full of lovely sarees, so many vegetables for sale everywhere, spread out on the ground by the road – and then suddenly grinding poverty. There are scores of extremely poor people living just next to the station, just behind the bazaar.
We parked the rickshaw, and a few children came immediately saying “Khichree! Khichree!” It is because we have gone there before and they know us. We go without any signs, without any identification, we go only with our khichree – rice, beans and vegetables. We opened the first pot and began piling rice on one sal leaf after the other and putting the leaves into outstretched hands. After five minutes the bodies of children were pressing tightly against me as they came right inside the rickshaw, and ten sal leaves were thrust in my face, then metal bowls were also coming in front of me. So many people to feed. So many outstretched hands. Many old people came. Some were desperate to have the rice. I wondered how many times the old people go without food so that the young children can have. The old women and even old men came and quietly insisted to be given food, despite that scores of children were also clamoring for food. Always I gave the old people first. Please come and see their faces, brothers and sisters. Their tired, sweet, hungry faces.
Please you just come and see this work. You come along and help to feed these people, brothers and sisters. It can change your life. It can give you great happiness and peace inside. You will not have to search any longer to find mental peace. It will be found in the faces of the people you feed. It will be found in the sweet voices of the children clamoring “aunty aunty, give me food!” and then being able to fill up the sal leaf with tasty rice and vegetables and giving to them. What else do we need to do in our life besides this?
We need more funds, brothers and sisters. There are too many hungry people here in North Bengal. We are feeding only a handful – only two thousand per month. It is a drop in the ocean. The original dream remains to feed one thousand hungry people every single day. Please help me to materialize this dream.
We can protest so many injustices in the world, in our respective countries. We can fight the economic exploitation everywhere in as many ways as we can – by raising the consciousness of the masses. But finally, we have to feed the people. We want every human being to live and to become strong physically and mentally so that collectively we can build a new world together where exploitation of any kind will not dare to raise its head, where if a single person is hungry people will run to feed him. This is the new kind of morality we want to spread, brothers and sisters. It will be a great fight to establish this far higher standard of morality in the society. Please you join me in this fight, this struggle to end the economic exploitation of the masses. And above all, join me in feeding the hungry here in Siliguri, North Bengal.
Love,
Garda Ghista
Hearts Healing Hunger
Siliguri, North Bengal
You can send funds via Paypal through the Donate button on the HHH site. Or you can send by Western Union to Firdaus Ghista, Siliguri, West Bengal. You can send by direct bank transfer with details on the website. Or you can send a check made out to Hearts Healing Hunger, c/o Max Kantar, P.O. BOX 1002-C, Big Rapids, Michigan 49307, USA.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Be Inspired Out of Your Minds!
Written Feb 5, 2011 at the peak of the Egyptian revolution
For God's sake, brothers and sisters, watch this video and be inspired out of your minds! And after watching Asma, click on “The Most Amazing Video on the Internet” and be even more inspired!
http://www.countercurrents.org/mahfouz040211.htm
And please understand, to support the revolutions conducted by the masses, by suffering humanity, is to follow Dharma. To support governments oppressing those masses, oppressing the suffering humanity, is Adharma. If we support the Adivasis, the suffering millions of impoverished villagers, the 200,000 suicided farmers, all the starving farmers of india, the one million Indians who die of starvation every year, we are supporting Dharma. If we believe the lies of the media that brainwash the middle class into believing that those impoverished villagers are "Naxalites" or "Maoists" or "terrorists" or "enemies of the state" and guilty of "sedition" - we have failed in our duty to suffering humanity. Just see who is poor, just see who is hungry, see who is suffering, and support those people alone. Never support the middle class and never support the rich. It is Adharmic to do so. It is a crime to support oppressors anywhere. And those who remain silent, those who do not care, those who are busy being "happy" and having a good time, they are also participants in oppression.
It is also a crime to believe the lies of the media everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of precious, beautiful Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, their way to survive, their way to eat, and it is a crime, a huge crime, and it's time now for all suffering Americans to start a revolution in America and end all this insane suffering wrought by just a small handful of the wealthiest men in the world. We have to stop this man-made suffering, we have to take back our country, take back our lives, take back the wealth that rightfully belongs to the suffering, struggling people and not to a handful of greedy men. We need to follow in the footsteps of our dearest Egyptian brothers and sisters, please. We need to start revolutions everywhere so that we can start distributing food to all the hungry and end hunger forever on this earth. And after that we will create jobs for everyone who wants one. It starts with revolution, brothers and sisters. We can't wait for evolution. There is too much suffering now. As our Egyptian brothers are saying, there is no turning back now. For us also, for the starving in india, for the freezing and homeless human beings in America, there is no turning back now. We need to move forward and usher a world revolution to end all revolutions, to end all economic exploitation, to end all suppression, oppression and repression of sweet, tender humanity.
Just see, the government is armed with tanks, tear gas and AK-47s and suffering humanity is armed only with stones. But suffering humanity is winning! By the grace of the Almighty they are winning! Here are the real men and women of the world, the embodiment of courage. They are ready to die now for freedom, dignity and nobility. Now is the time for SENTIENT RAGE. SENTIENT RAGE does not mean we sit on the sofa and watch a pile of mind-numbing trash on television. SENTIENT RAGE means we shed boundless tears of joy in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of Egypt, and due to our universal minds we long to join them to be a part of the most glorious revolution in 200 years! This is a revolution for freedom, real freedom, and for dignity. It is to re-establish the unbounded nobility of human beings everywhere, to re-establish our humanity because governments everywhere destroy our humanity, our kindness and our love by their endless brutality, oppression, suppression and repression. They keep us wallowing in poverty, never knowing where money will come from for survival. This is not the way to live, brothers and sisters. No one should be compelled to live like this. We need to start RESISTANCE everywhere and bring down all malevolent governments that are corrupt beyond endurance. We need to do exactly what our beloved brothers and sisters of Egypt are doing, so that finally exploitation ends and we have the glorious opportunity to build a new world on the ashes, the brutality, the tortures, the renditions of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings whose name is SUFFERING HUMANITY.
Did you see the man in the wheelchair, brothers and sisters? Everyone is there in Tahrir Square, even the crippled and disabled. Every Egyptian wants freedom. It is unstoppable now. We need to all of us pray from the core of our hearts that this glorious revolution spreads right around the world and brings an end to all empires, because empires by their very nature are brutal beyond belief. We need to pray from the core of our hearts that this revolution starts a world revolution that brings an end to all tortures, all renditions (what is more evil than renditions!) I am appealing to you all, I am begging you all, please start revolutions wherever you live. There is no other way to end the suffering of millions of precious, tender, beautiful human beings. We have to stop the suffering, brothers and sisters. Put it on your blogs, put it on Twitter, use the Internet like you never did before, to start revolutions in every country of the world! Tell your immoral governments that you also have had enough, because the time has come to live a glorious life, a divine life. When suffering ends, we can live out the true goal of our lives, which is to fall deeply in love with the Supreme, so that like Sufis everywhere, like the great Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Lalan we can dance in ecstasy and reach unparalleled states of bliss through meditation on the Supreme. But we cannot do this until we wage the revolution to end all human suffering, brothers and sisters. Help me, help all of us, to free the oppressed, exploited, starving humanity from their suffering. There is no other path to take now. There is no turning back. Please, we need to seize this moment of history.
_____________________
Garda Ghista is author of The Gujarat Genocide: A Case Study in Fundamentalist Cleansing, Wife Abuse: Breaking it Down and Breaking Out, and Srii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar: Beacon of Hope For Suffering Humanity. She is also President of World Prout Assembly and more recently of Hearts Healing Hunger, whose sole aim is to feed the hungry everywhere. If you can help her in this work, please contact her at gardaghista@gmail.com.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Please Be Crazy Enough to Dream This Dream With Me
December 20, 2010
Dear brothers and sisters, just hear the music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY8J35OXVxg
The song is a classic for all those who love justice. It sustained the African Americans for decades as they fought for their minimal right to life, to freedom from lynching, freedom to hold their head high as they walk down the street, freedom to vote. See the lyrics brothers and sisters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcZrXZx3hO4&feature=related
Please remember, in times such as these, we need to be incorrigible optimists. You can feel it in this song. When you hear this song, when you listen to the words, please, I appeal to you, dream the dream that you can change the whole world.
Please remember, the only people who ever did change the world in any sphere were the people crazy enough to think they could. We all need to be that crazy, brothers and sisters. We need never worry what others think of us. We need never bother if others think we are crazy just because we dream dreams. And this is the biggest dream of all, brothers and sisters – the dream to change the whole world.
We have to do it because the present world is unacceptable. It is intolerable. We have one million people in India dying every year due to simple starvation. We have 30 and 40 year old men and women in America, in Chicago, freezing to death at night in the snow, in an empty field all alone, or under a bank of snow next to a closed min-imart. They are the new homeless, and they were abandoned by us, brothers and sisters. When we read these things, we should not tolerate it.
We should take a fierce, a ferocious, determination that we will change all of it. To change the world means to start a revolution on every level, brothers and sisters. Not just a political and military revolution. We also need an economic revolution, a cultural revolution, a moral revolution, and above all a spiritual revolution. To conduct a military revolution without a new standard of morality and without an elevated spirituality means we will fail, brothers and sisters. To build a new world on the ashes of the old means we need to elevate ourselves morally and spiritually to a glorious stature. We need to become so sensitive to human suffering that we do not allow a single person to go hungry anywhere. Hence, we need a multi-faceted revolution. We should not be afraid to start. It is my appeal to you.
Please remember also that we have to do this for humanity. Some good souls, some saintly souls, are not getting sleep at night for feeling the pain of suffering humanity far away in Chile, in Brazil – all over the world. We want everyone to sleep at night, isn’t it, brothers and sisters? We have to make this dream now – for those who suffer and for the saints walking on earth who love the suffering.
Right now as I write this, a young woman is asking me please to take her to buy one blanket for her. And when we go out to feed the people, the women there are also begging us to bring blankets. They are too cold. Some of the old ones and the young ones, they will die in the cold now – just like in Chicago. They are too malnourished to survive. Their names will not come in the newspapers.
Please you listen to the song. Read the words. Then you make the dream. It is the dream of all dreams – the dream to change the whole world. I want to do this. But I don’t know if I will get the chance. Please you help me. Be crazy enough to dream this dream with me, brothers and sisters.
And please help me to feed the hungry in Siliguri, North Bengal. Now they feel very cold. They need blankets also, brothers and sisters.
Love,
Garda Ghista
Hearts Healing Hunger
www.heartshealinghunger.org
Garda's Blog - http://gardas-blog.blogspot.com
Website: www.heartshealinghunger.org
Email - wpaeditor@gmail.comMobile - +91 98510 90212
Skype: garda.ghista
Dear brothers and sisters, just hear the music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY8J35OXVxg
The song is a classic for all those who love justice. It sustained the African Americans for decades as they fought for their minimal right to life, to freedom from lynching, freedom to hold their head high as they walk down the street, freedom to vote. See the lyrics brothers and sisters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcZrXZx3hO4&feature=related
Please remember, in times such as these, we need to be incorrigible optimists. You can feel it in this song. When you hear this song, when you listen to the words, please, I appeal to you, dream the dream that you can change the whole world.
Please remember, the only people who ever did change the world in any sphere were the people crazy enough to think they could. We all need to be that crazy, brothers and sisters. We need never worry what others think of us. We need never bother if others think we are crazy just because we dream dreams. And this is the biggest dream of all, brothers and sisters – the dream to change the whole world.
We have to do it because the present world is unacceptable. It is intolerable. We have one million people in India dying every year due to simple starvation. We have 30 and 40 year old men and women in America, in Chicago, freezing to death at night in the snow, in an empty field all alone, or under a bank of snow next to a closed min-imart. They are the new homeless, and they were abandoned by us, brothers and sisters. When we read these things, we should not tolerate it.
We should take a fierce, a ferocious, determination that we will change all of it. To change the world means to start a revolution on every level, brothers and sisters. Not just a political and military revolution. We also need an economic revolution, a cultural revolution, a moral revolution, and above all a spiritual revolution. To conduct a military revolution without a new standard of morality and without an elevated spirituality means we will fail, brothers and sisters. To build a new world on the ashes of the old means we need to elevate ourselves morally and spiritually to a glorious stature. We need to become so sensitive to human suffering that we do not allow a single person to go hungry anywhere. Hence, we need a multi-faceted revolution. We should not be afraid to start. It is my appeal to you.
Please remember also that we have to do this for humanity. Some good souls, some saintly souls, are not getting sleep at night for feeling the pain of suffering humanity far away in Chile, in Brazil – all over the world. We want everyone to sleep at night, isn’t it, brothers and sisters? We have to make this dream now – for those who suffer and for the saints walking on earth who love the suffering.
Right now as I write this, a young woman is asking me please to take her to buy one blanket for her. And when we go out to feed the people, the women there are also begging us to bring blankets. They are too cold. Some of the old ones and the young ones, they will die in the cold now – just like in Chicago. They are too malnourished to survive. Their names will not come in the newspapers.
Please you listen to the song. Read the words. Then you make the dream. It is the dream of all dreams – the dream to change the whole world. I want to do this. But I don’t know if I will get the chance. Please you help me. Be crazy enough to dream this dream with me, brothers and sisters.
And please help me to feed the hungry in Siliguri, North Bengal. Now they feel very cold. They need blankets also, brothers and sisters.
Love,
Garda Ghista
Hearts Healing Hunger
www.heartshealinghunger.org
Garda's Blog - http://gardas-blog.blogspot.com
Website: www.heartshealinghunger.org
Email - wpaeditor@gmail.comMobile - +91 98510 90212
Skype: garda.ghista
Lyrics to Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Four Months Later - Feeding the Hungry in India
My dear friends,
I started a blog and wrote to you all April 21st regarding my intention to start feeding people, with the dream to feed one thousand hungry people every day. Four months have passed. We began feeding people on May 27th. We tried to go daily, but the work of cutting vegetables and cooking for 150 people was too exhausting. We reduced to three times weekly. Now we go out either two or three times weekly, depending on availability of funds. For the period July-August we fed three thousand people. But, it is not enough.
We feed the adivasis (tribals) who stay on the tea plantations just outside of Siliguri. Some say that they are the poorest people in Siliguiri, What we learned is that of all the people we’ve fed so far, they are the most noble and dignified. They quietly and seriously come and take the sal leaves filled with rice and vegetables. Sometimes one will tip her head as a way of saying thank you. Then they walk a ways and sit down in circles on the ground and eat their rice together. It is heart-warming to see. They do not know who we are. Still we did not spend money to get a sign or banner to put on our rickshaw identifying ourselves as Hearts Healing Hunger. So for four months we have been going out completely anonymously to feed the hungry. It is a good feeling. I wish even just one of you could come here and experience that good feeling.
We also go to the New Jalpaiguri Train Station to feed the coolies and beggars. The first time they were undisciplined, twice knocking the rice off the spoon and sending it all over the rickshaw, thrusting their bowls right in our faces. Finally we gave up and left. But, I took it as a personal challenge and we returned the next week. First the coolies came, Then the same unruly beggars came. But by a miracle, this time they controlled themselves, standing along the rickshaw and holding their bowls, waiting for the rice. They had huge smiles on their faces. I felt, they knew I wanted to feed them.
Sometimes we go on the back roads to a poor village. The people live in houses made of bamboo mats. I don’t know how they are protected from the heavy monsoon rains. Yesterday we went to such a village. The people were the poorest we’ve seen. The large pots of rice and vegetables were finished in a heartbeat and many did not get food. They told us to return Friday and to bring clothes also. What to do?? The demand is so great here. It pulls hard at the heart to see these people and to try and figure out how to meet their urgent demands at the earliest. What kind of world is this that millions starve while other millions live in plenty? What kind of world is this that the hungry are completely forgotten by the affluent, the middle class, the media and most of all by the politicians? What kind of world is this that due to extreme poverty women have not only gnawing hunger in their bellies but only a thin piece of cloth to cover themselves? And what kind of world is this that we all forget our suffering brothers and sisters and move on with our peaceful, happy lives? This all has to change. We need to change the entire economic structure such that economic power rests with the local people and not with central governments. We need to change the political structure such that compassionate moralists come to power and take care of all local economic deprivations immediately.
Regular soundbites are now telling about the starvation deaths of adivasis in the tea gardens two-three hours north of here, particularly in the Dooars region near the Bhutan border. In the past ten years thousands of adivasis have silently starved to death. Is it not mad to move on with our peaceful happy lives in the very face of thousands of starving and dying human beings that rock India’s moral fabric to the core?
I request you, if you cannot feed these people yourselves, then please help me to feed them. Please send funds. We need additional funds now that will enable us to go north one time weekly to the closed tea gardens to bring the people food and to further study how we can help them. We need funds so that we can increase our feeding trips from two-three times a week to four-five times a week. This is a project that needs immediate, urgent expansion. As I wrote before, while we work to bring humanity from present oppression to future liberation, please let us feed the people. It is the first order of business. It is our bounden duty to feed our hungry brothers and sisters.
You can send funds through the www.hearthealinghunger.org website via Paypal. You can send a check made out to “Hearts Healing Hunger” to Nancy Burgin, PO Box 533, Silver Grover, Kentucky, USA 41085. If in India you can send to the Hearts Healing Hunger bank account at Axis Bank, Account Number 910010027551810, Siliguri, West Bengal. For those sending from outside India please use Swift Code AXIS INB035. Funds can also be sent from outside India directly to Siliguri via Western Union. Please write me for details.
If you feel to send in kind, we need rice and dal urgently. That is, all kinds of dried beans. We also need powdered milk and dessicated coconut, which we put in the rice to increase the food’s nutritional value. We also need oil and spices. These are the very basics. If you have old clothes you no longer need, please send them to us. If you like to buy cloth, we will distribute it for you. Many other useful items are listed on the site in the section “How You Can Help.”
A recent article by Jay Janson states that one million people starve to death annually in India. At the same time the Indian Parliament is discussing a “right to food” bill that would guarantee every needy person 30 kilos of grains per month. It is in discussion stage only. In the meantime, let us all feed the people. And if you are too busy to do so, then I am requesting you, please help me to feed the people. Please send cash in the way easiest for you. Otherwise, please send in kind. The needs are too great. The abundance of food in the US is too great. We need to take some of that abundance and bring it here to India. Just help me to do this work, brothers and sisters. I am waiting to hear from you.
Love,
Garda Ghista
www.heartshealinghunger.org
Email: wpaeditor@gmail.com
Tel-India: 98510 90212
Skype: garda.ghista
I started a blog and wrote to you all April 21st regarding my intention to start feeding people, with the dream to feed one thousand hungry people every day. Four months have passed. We began feeding people on May 27th. We tried to go daily, but the work of cutting vegetables and cooking for 150 people was too exhausting. We reduced to three times weekly. Now we go out either two or three times weekly, depending on availability of funds. For the period July-August we fed three thousand people. But, it is not enough.
We feed the adivasis (tribals) who stay on the tea plantations just outside of Siliguri. Some say that they are the poorest people in Siliguiri, What we learned is that of all the people we’ve fed so far, they are the most noble and dignified. They quietly and seriously come and take the sal leaves filled with rice and vegetables. Sometimes one will tip her head as a way of saying thank you. Then they walk a ways and sit down in circles on the ground and eat their rice together. It is heart-warming to see. They do not know who we are. Still we did not spend money to get a sign or banner to put on our rickshaw identifying ourselves as Hearts Healing Hunger. So for four months we have been going out completely anonymously to feed the hungry. It is a good feeling. I wish even just one of you could come here and experience that good feeling.
We also go to the New Jalpaiguri Train Station to feed the coolies and beggars. The first time they were undisciplined, twice knocking the rice off the spoon and sending it all over the rickshaw, thrusting their bowls right in our faces. Finally we gave up and left. But, I took it as a personal challenge and we returned the next week. First the coolies came, Then the same unruly beggars came. But by a miracle, this time they controlled themselves, standing along the rickshaw and holding their bowls, waiting for the rice. They had huge smiles on their faces. I felt, they knew I wanted to feed them.
Sometimes we go on the back roads to a poor village. The people live in houses made of bamboo mats. I don’t know how they are protected from the heavy monsoon rains. Yesterday we went to such a village. The people were the poorest we’ve seen. The large pots of rice and vegetables were finished in a heartbeat and many did not get food. They told us to return Friday and to bring clothes also. What to do?? The demand is so great here. It pulls hard at the heart to see these people and to try and figure out how to meet their urgent demands at the earliest. What kind of world is this that millions starve while other millions live in plenty? What kind of world is this that the hungry are completely forgotten by the affluent, the middle class, the media and most of all by the politicians? What kind of world is this that due to extreme poverty women have not only gnawing hunger in their bellies but only a thin piece of cloth to cover themselves? And what kind of world is this that we all forget our suffering brothers and sisters and move on with our peaceful, happy lives? This all has to change. We need to change the entire economic structure such that economic power rests with the local people and not with central governments. We need to change the political structure such that compassionate moralists come to power and take care of all local economic deprivations immediately.
Regular soundbites are now telling about the starvation deaths of adivasis in the tea gardens two-three hours north of here, particularly in the Dooars region near the Bhutan border. In the past ten years thousands of adivasis have silently starved to death. Is it not mad to move on with our peaceful happy lives in the very face of thousands of starving and dying human beings that rock India’s moral fabric to the core?
I request you, if you cannot feed these people yourselves, then please help me to feed them. Please send funds. We need additional funds now that will enable us to go north one time weekly to the closed tea gardens to bring the people food and to further study how we can help them. We need funds so that we can increase our feeding trips from two-three times a week to four-five times a week. This is a project that needs immediate, urgent expansion. As I wrote before, while we work to bring humanity from present oppression to future liberation, please let us feed the people. It is the first order of business. It is our bounden duty to feed our hungry brothers and sisters.
You can send funds through the www.hearthealinghunger.org website via Paypal. You can send a check made out to “Hearts Healing Hunger” to Nancy Burgin, PO Box 533, Silver Grover, Kentucky, USA 41085. If in India you can send to the Hearts Healing Hunger bank account at Axis Bank, Account Number 910010027551810, Siliguri, West Bengal. For those sending from outside India please use Swift Code AXIS INB035. Funds can also be sent from outside India directly to Siliguri via Western Union. Please write me for details.
If you feel to send in kind, we need rice and dal urgently. That is, all kinds of dried beans. We also need powdered milk and dessicated coconut, which we put in the rice to increase the food’s nutritional value. We also need oil and spices. These are the very basics. If you have old clothes you no longer need, please send them to us. If you like to buy cloth, we will distribute it for you. Many other useful items are listed on the site in the section “How You Can Help.”
A recent article by Jay Janson states that one million people starve to death annually in India. At the same time the Indian Parliament is discussing a “right to food” bill that would guarantee every needy person 30 kilos of grains per month. It is in discussion stage only. In the meantime, let us all feed the people. And if you are too busy to do so, then I am requesting you, please help me to feed the people. Please send cash in the way easiest for you. Otherwise, please send in kind. The needs are too great. The abundance of food in the US is too great. We need to take some of that abundance and bring it here to India. Just help me to do this work, brothers and sisters. I am waiting to hear from you.
Love,
Garda Ghista
www.heartshealinghunger.org
Email: wpaeditor@gmail.com
Tel-India: 98510 90212
Skype: garda.ghista
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Running Back to India - To Feed the Hungry
Dear friends,
I was in Hyderabad, India, from May through December, 2009. I returned to the US for January through March, and by April 2nd was again back here in Hyderabad.
I spent the last ten years studying - getting a degree in journalism and following that up with an MA in Integrative Studies. I wrote many articles and essays, wrote two books, and organized a national conference. I came to Hyderabad to organize the second conference.
But, something happened along the way. One Sunday morning in September 2009, my son and I decided to cook imli rice (rice made with tamarind pulp and other good things like sesame seeds, peanuts, green chilies, coconut) and take it to a nearby slum and distribute. We cooked for about six hours on one small stove on the floor of our kitchen here in Hyderabad. We never did get a "gas connection" which would have allowed us to get the regular two-burner gas stove used here in India.
We made about 120 rice packets, put them into a bucket and went with the bucket by auto rickshaw to the slum. Getting out of the rickshaw, my son set the bucket on the ground and began to distribute the packets of rice. Within seconds, scores of women's hands were stretched out in front of him. Within another minute, two women had been knocked to the ground in the pushing and shoving to get close to the rice packets. Another minute after that the women grabbed the bucket from my son and helped themselves to the packets, sometimes breaking the packet and sending rice flying in the air.
I cannot put into words what I felt. It was all over in five minutes. I simply could not tolerate witnessing such hunger. It was just right in my face. Within one week I created my new NGO, Hearts Healing Hunger. Feeding 120 people just was woefully inadequate for me. It had to be more. I began dreaming that I must feed one thousand people every single day. This remains my plan.
See, we can write all we want about the politicians, the national leaders, the state leaders, decrying their lack of empathy for the poor and deprived segments of humanity. But in the end, where are we, and more important, what is the status of those poor and deprived except the same? They remain hungry as ever, poor as ever, cold as ever in winter with not even a blanket, wet as ever when monsoon rains come, hot as ever in their tents or mud and tin huts when temperatures reach 40 degrees celsius and beyond. Is it not inhuman to allow any human being to live in these conditions in the 21st century? Something must be done, and waiting for politicians to do something concrete is not the answer.
Despite huge obstacles, and above all no funds to even begin this project, I am simply determined to move ahead. I lie awake at nights wondering how I can find the funds, whether I could also bring some water and soap to wash the person I am feeding, whether I could bring scissors to cut their hair, as these most neglected human beings certainly have no money for a visit to the barber. I lie awake at night wondering if the food I cook will be tasty enough for them, and wonder over and over how only one meal a day will suffice them. I want to find the people who are silently starving and bring them back to the brink of life, and move from there to three meals a day and giving them a life of meaning, of love, of mental peace, and even of some joy. Is it too much to do? Perhaps. Some tell me yes. But.... just let me try. My dearest friend in the world once told me, if you want to do something bad, think many times before doing. But... if you want to do something good, don't hesitate even a second.
I want to start this project in Darjeeling District, Siliguri Subdivision, West Bengal. Actually it is North Bengal near the top of what is called the "chicken neck," a thin stretch of land stretching up from the southern body of land that comprises most of West Bengal. On the east is Bangladesh and Bhutan, to the north is Sikkim and above Sikkim is Tibet, and then on the west is Nepal. Refugees never stop coming into Darjeeling District from these neighbouring states. Most come looking for a way out of acute poverty in their country of origin. Or they come as political refugees from Tibet. Then, already living in Darjeeling District are the original inhabitants of the land, the adivasis. A friend in Siliguri told me that "the adivasis are starving." How can it be? How to accept it? So then, is the work not cut out for us, or at least for me?
The four major problems in Darjeeling District are (1) malaria, (2) tuberculosis, (3) HIV/AIDS and (4) human trafficking. Well, we can work on these problems. But first, it is about simply feeding the people. Isn' this the first call of duty for us all?
I want to start feeding five people on May 27th, 2010. It is just about four weeks from today. It is all I can personally afford right now. The day is Ananda Purnima, the night of the full moon. Perhaps I feel that it is an auspicious day to start. We will have a website up soon. http://www.heartshealinghunger.org. On the website will be a link to this blog. Why? Because I have a need to tell you, to write somewhere, to the world, about this project of feeding the people. I want the world to know what it is like to feed the poorest of the poor, the most neglected, downtrodden, half-naked, starving humanity. Our world is already facing water crisis in many regions. Food shortages will follow close on the heels of water shortages. To face the reality, it means that millions may starve, may perish, due to lack of food and water. Instead of waiting for that day to come, let me, let us together, start to feed the people. It may be only a few, it may be only a hundred, or only a thousand. It doesn't matter. We are not to worry about short or long term costs and benefits. Our job is only to serve the suffering humanity in whichever way we can.
So please, do not mind if I take the liberty to write here on a regular basis about my experiences in feeding the hungry people, just a handful of them, in a remote part of the world called Darjeeling District, North Bengal. I am hoping and believing that more and more of you will join me in this work, this glorious work, of feeding the hungry human beings.
With love,
Garda Ghista
Garda's Blog - http://gardas-blog.blogspot.com
Email - gardaghista@gmail.com
Mobile - 9989 7538 22
I was in Hyderabad, India, from May through December, 2009. I returned to the US for January through March, and by April 2nd was again back here in Hyderabad.
I spent the last ten years studying - getting a degree in journalism and following that up with an MA in Integrative Studies. I wrote many articles and essays, wrote two books, and organized a national conference. I came to Hyderabad to organize the second conference.
But, something happened along the way. One Sunday morning in September 2009, my son and I decided to cook imli rice (rice made with tamarind pulp and other good things like sesame seeds, peanuts, green chilies, coconut) and take it to a nearby slum and distribute. We cooked for about six hours on one small stove on the floor of our kitchen here in Hyderabad. We never did get a "gas connection" which would have allowed us to get the regular two-burner gas stove used here in India.
We made about 120 rice packets, put them into a bucket and went with the bucket by auto rickshaw to the slum. Getting out of the rickshaw, my son set the bucket on the ground and began to distribute the packets of rice. Within seconds, scores of women's hands were stretched out in front of him. Within another minute, two women had been knocked to the ground in the pushing and shoving to get close to the rice packets. Another minute after that the women grabbed the bucket from my son and helped themselves to the packets, sometimes breaking the packet and sending rice flying in the air.
I cannot put into words what I felt. It was all over in five minutes. I simply could not tolerate witnessing such hunger. It was just right in my face. Within one week I created my new NGO, Hearts Healing Hunger. Feeding 120 people just was woefully inadequate for me. It had to be more. I began dreaming that I must feed one thousand people every single day. This remains my plan.
See, we can write all we want about the politicians, the national leaders, the state leaders, decrying their lack of empathy for the poor and deprived segments of humanity. But in the end, where are we, and more important, what is the status of those poor and deprived except the same? They remain hungry as ever, poor as ever, cold as ever in winter with not even a blanket, wet as ever when monsoon rains come, hot as ever in their tents or mud and tin huts when temperatures reach 40 degrees celsius and beyond. Is it not inhuman to allow any human being to live in these conditions in the 21st century? Something must be done, and waiting for politicians to do something concrete is not the answer.
Despite huge obstacles, and above all no funds to even begin this project, I am simply determined to move ahead. I lie awake at nights wondering how I can find the funds, whether I could also bring some water and soap to wash the person I am feeding, whether I could bring scissors to cut their hair, as these most neglected human beings certainly have no money for a visit to the barber. I lie awake at night wondering if the food I cook will be tasty enough for them, and wonder over and over how only one meal a day will suffice them. I want to find the people who are silently starving and bring them back to the brink of life, and move from there to three meals a day and giving them a life of meaning, of love, of mental peace, and even of some joy. Is it too much to do? Perhaps. Some tell me yes. But.... just let me try. My dearest friend in the world once told me, if you want to do something bad, think many times before doing. But... if you want to do something good, don't hesitate even a second.
I want to start this project in Darjeeling District, Siliguri Subdivision, West Bengal. Actually it is North Bengal near the top of what is called the "chicken neck," a thin stretch of land stretching up from the southern body of land that comprises most of West Bengal. On the east is Bangladesh and Bhutan, to the north is Sikkim and above Sikkim is Tibet, and then on the west is Nepal. Refugees never stop coming into Darjeeling District from these neighbouring states. Most come looking for a way out of acute poverty in their country of origin. Or they come as political refugees from Tibet. Then, already living in Darjeeling District are the original inhabitants of the land, the adivasis. A friend in Siliguri told me that "the adivasis are starving." How can it be? How to accept it? So then, is the work not cut out for us, or at least for me?
The four major problems in Darjeeling District are (1) malaria, (2) tuberculosis, (3) HIV/AIDS and (4) human trafficking. Well, we can work on these problems. But first, it is about simply feeding the people. Isn' this the first call of duty for us all?
I want to start feeding five people on May 27th, 2010. It is just about four weeks from today. It is all I can personally afford right now. The day is Ananda Purnima, the night of the full moon. Perhaps I feel that it is an auspicious day to start. We will have a website up soon. http://www.heartshealinghunger.org. On the website will be a link to this blog. Why? Because I have a need to tell you, to write somewhere, to the world, about this project of feeding the people. I want the world to know what it is like to feed the poorest of the poor, the most neglected, downtrodden, half-naked, starving humanity. Our world is already facing water crisis in many regions. Food shortages will follow close on the heels of water shortages. To face the reality, it means that millions may starve, may perish, due to lack of food and water. Instead of waiting for that day to come, let me, let us together, start to feed the people. It may be only a few, it may be only a hundred, or only a thousand. It doesn't matter. We are not to worry about short or long term costs and benefits. Our job is only to serve the suffering humanity in whichever way we can.
So please, do not mind if I take the liberty to write here on a regular basis about my experiences in feeding the hungry people, just a handful of them, in a remote part of the world called Darjeeling District, North Bengal. I am hoping and believing that more and more of you will join me in this work, this glorious work, of feeding the hungry human beings.
With love,
Garda Ghista
Garda's Blog - http://gardas-blog.blogspot.com
Email - gardaghista@gmail.com
Mobile - 9989 7538 22
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