We submitted this photo essay about our India trip to Prospect Journal of International Affairs at UCSD. It highlights the multiple facets of leprosy and how patients and their families function in daily life. The pictures show the realities that the people in Anandwan face.
Want to learn more about Project RISHI but don’t know where to start?
Project RISHI Info Packet 2011-12
Read through this PDF document which covers topics including:
- The various levels of involvement
- The summer trip
- Our events at UCSD
- Our ongoing projects
If you weren’t able to attend the info night, this PDF has all of the slides that we reviewed and has lots of information about Project RISHI.
RISHI Leadership Application 2011-12
Please read the directions on the application closely before submission.
List of Open Positions:
Finance Chair
Marketing Chair
Project Management Chair*
Travel Coordinator
Corporate Sponsorship Chair
Private Sponsorship Chair
Fundraising Chair
Secretary
Historian*
Webmaster
All officers are expected to attend two weekly meetings (one leadership meeting and one committee meeting) regularly and provide valid excuses for absence.
The following is a quick bullet list of many of the things that we did during our trip in summer 2010.
1. Worked in the nursery
2. Leprosy work
3. Children’s hospital
4. Education
5. Toured the facilities
6. Recreation
7. Visited Mulgavan
8. Visited Somnath
9. Visited SEARCH in Gadchiroli
I don’t mean to trivialize our daily lives, but in comparison to the problems people face at Anandwan, many of our issues seem minute and whiny. While we fret over whether we will get an A or a B in a class or whether our favorite contestant will be voted off of American Idol, people on the opposite side of the world worry about whether or not they will be alive the next day. With tragedies such as leprosy, hunger, disability, sex trafficking and even slavery still occurring in our world, we can’t even begin to grasp the struggles of people in less developed countries. But let’s not make ourselves out to be the villains. It isn’t our fault that we were born lucky. It’s not our fault that we live lives in which the daily necessities, food, clothing and shelter are a given. However, it is our fault that we know so little about the suffering of others around the globe. If poverty, disease and hunger don’t affect us, we tend not to worry about them. That’s where the flaw lies. Since we are not affected by these things, we are in the best position to try to fix them. We have the resources and the power to spread awareness and correct injustices. That’s one of the core beliefs of Baba Amte, and the reason that I started Project RISHI at UCSD.
When I think about this power that we have, to mold and change the world, I think about the purpose of my life, and I am reminded of this Jim Henson quote:
”When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for having been there.”
Leaving the world a little better than it was when we came into it. If everyone was to live their life with that principle in mind, perhaps the problems of the world could slowly begin to erode away with time. I’m not saying that one person, or even a generation of people has the power to conquer poverty and hunger, but if we chip away at these problems bit by bit, we can make the world a better place. Perhaps my youth and lack of experience is causing me to be idealistic and naïve about the world’s problems. Perhaps our human nature dooms us to always have problems and inequities. Perhaps the world will never be a peaceful utopia like Anandwan. But how will we know unless we try?
-Nikhil
Tu kay kartiyes? After your name, this is usually the first question people ask you here. The literal translation is ‘what are you doing?’ but it’s meant to ask what you’re planning to do in life. Seems like a pretty pressured question to ask someone you’ve just met, right? ‘What are you doing (have you done) with your life as of now?’ Here, though, many people decided their potential future career somewhere around tenth grade. Like, when the rest of us are busy worrying about who’s asking whom to school dances. I always respond with a sort of stilted, ‘Oh, I’m doing a B.S. in Biology, and am pre-medical.’ This, I think, is getting me into trouble, because then I end up having to give every person I talk to here the five-minute-version of how the collegiate/medical school system works in the U.S. This question, though it seems tough, is usually not meant to judge and here more than other places, I’ve found people asking me out of a genuine interest in my future.
Independence Day Ceremony
In Anadwan, more so than in other places in India, I’ve noticed a distinct abundance of genuinely nice people. I’m not sure if this is something that comes from having faced many hardships, but I’m not used to the amount of friendliness toward complete strangers that I’ve seen in Anandwan. In many of the cities in India, you don’t get many people who’ll nod to you on the street and ask how your day is going, but here, almost every person whom I’ve seen before will at the very least say hello.
Tuhina and I have been teaching several girls in the performing arts program Bharatnatyam because they’ve never had anyone with much classical Bharatnatyam training able to teach here. Many of the girls who come to our dance class are partially blind or cured leprosy patients. The circumstances in which we were introduced to some of these girls were…a little embarrassing and involved impromptu dancing on stage and then being shown up pretty badly, so I won’t go into it. However, this meant that the first day we went to teach these girls, I was expecting some of them to have a little bit of an attitude of superiority toward us. After meeting them all, I was surprised to find absolutely none of that. I think us being willing to make fools of ourselves contributed to their comfort-level with us later, but joking and some cheeky banter aside, they treated us with the same respect they would show to any guru. This was a gesture by which I was genuinely impressed.
This wasn’t the only gesture by which I’ve been impressed. Every single day, the people here continue to inspire awe in me on a regular basis. Many of them seem to really be the ideal of exemplary citizens. They work hard, have a lot of fun, are immersed in culture, are eager to learn and progress, and look out for their friends and community. Honestly, if every community around the world could be like that at Anadwan, I think we’d be significantly happier people.
Lotiraman Guest House
Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, I think we have discovered the new poster child for 7-Up.
