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

www.heartshealinghunger.org

Siliguri, North Bengal

Garda’s Blog

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.