Kolkata Happy new year everyone! I have finally got around to writing down some of the things I have been up to over the last few weeks. Looking back they've been fairly hectic! After a month of project work in Jharkhand and Bihar I was really looking forward to meeting my Dad in Kolkata and having two weeks of just being a plain old tourist! (The prospect of a stay in a luxury hotel was also quite appealing!) My Dad and I were booked to stay in the Oberoi Grand...

Hi Everyone! Sorry it's been ages again since I've posted anything, and for the lack of photos. I've been saving up lots to tell you about (as you can see below!) but I'm afraid there is really no hope of me posting anymore pics until I manage to find a computer that works faster than, well faster than a very slow computer! As soon as I can I'll pop them up but for the meantime I promise I am still in India and still alive…..For the last month I have been s...

My time in the north….After Delhi and Janadesh I was looking forward to getting away from the chaos of the city, if only to have some time to reflect on everything I'd done and seen. At the end of October I travelled northward with the AVI group to the state of Uttarachand and the small hill town of Kausani. Kausani is an overnight train ride and five and half hour pot-holed road journey from Delhi but feels much further away from the dust, dirt and car hor...

Janadesh - Part 2; Delhi 29th October 2007Joining the march…. We were driven by jeep to meet the march, a human wave of 25,000 people that was snaking it's way down a dusty highway some 50km outside of Delhi. Packed and prepared with water, hats and sunscreen in our bags, full of anticipation. I'd been caught up in all the excitement surrounding the yatra (march) in Delhi-I'd read about Janadesh, heard about Janadesh, seen pictures, but the whole concept w...

Janadesh - Part 1; Delhi, 23rd October 2007'Everybody should be able to get sufficient work to enable him to make two ends meet. And this ideal can be universally realised only if the means of production of the elementary necessities of life remain in the control of the masses. These should be freely available to all of us as God's air and water are, or ought to be; they should not be made a vehicle of traffic for the exploitation of others. Their monoplisation b...