The preamble machine of the Nawada village

By: Rajesh Kumar

A five and half years old rustic boy, wearing torn shorts and shirts. He wipes his free running nose on his shirt's sleeves. With a shabby, disheveled hair and dust smeared all over his body, this is Deepak Ram, the Preamble machine of the Plight village of Nawada, Samastipur district in Bihar. At his age, despite being counted as mentally unstable by the village folk, Deepak can recite the complete preamble of the Indian Constitution without even a slighter mistake.

Deepak in front of his school in Nawada

People in the village call him 'Batha' (a person who does not have mind to think and do the work properly) . But officially, in the records of at Rajkiya Utkrmit Madhya Vidyalaya in Nawada where he is enrolled as a student, he is Deepak Ram, son of Ramanand Ram and Somani Devi. 

The day starts for Deepak when he reaches school at 8.30 in the morning, too early, since the class hours starts at 9.30. “Though he is not very bright in the studies due to his mental condition, he comes to the campus early in the morning, often by 8.30”, says Vikash Gupta, a teacher at the school. “He never skips the school assembly and the mid­-day meal also”, adds Gupta. It is his love for the school assembly that inspired his love for the preamble. The preamble is being recited every morning in the school assembly and thus Deepak has learned every sentences and words of it by-heart.

Food factory for the foodies

By: Arslan Samdi

Rakesh Kumar preparing Naan

Rakesh Kumar wakes up at 4'o clock in the morning and cuts 10 to 20 kg vegetables, prepares 30 kg rice and deals with 50 kg of wheat flour which will later turn into hot chapattis. No, this is not a part of his diet, but this is what makes the routine diet for hundreds of students in the University, when they eat from the lone canteen in the campus of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP).

As the only cook in the University Canteen, work is hectic for Rakesh Kumar. According to him, on an average day, he works for almost 13 hours. “My typical day starts at 4 or 5 in the morning with my tussle with the vegetables, and by the time I wind up the day to leave, it gets to 6.30 in the evening”, says he. Well, that makes it longer than the actual office hours of the University.

Is he ok with that? Well, like the subji he makes, his feelings are a mixed bag. He is happy because he gets his time to spend with the young students in the campus. “Students here in the campus treat me very well. That makes me feel very good working here”, says he. But he knows the good treatment is not without reasons. “I know they look back for small favours”, says a grinning Rakesh; “Hot chapattis, jumping the crowded lunch-line, tea on demand; yeah, small favours”.

Buttons of bliss

By : Rishika Sharma

Jitendar Koundal, in his shop with his collection of buttons at Dharamshala.

Buttons. They may seem insignificant to you. After all, aren’t these just plastic bits with a couple of holes for stitching up in your clothes? Ask Jitendar Koundal and he will vehemently protest. He is a button collector, one who passionately accumulates buttons as a hobby. For him buttons are tiny little fragments of joy that mean the world to him.

Jitendar is the typical middle-aged businessman you find in the sleepy towns of the Indian Himalayas, sitting in his shop with a welcoming smile to his customers. He does not look like someone who would venture on a road less travelled in India, that too for collecting buttons of all things collectible.  However, the moment you ask him about his collection you can spot a sparkle in the eyes of this 47 year old from the hill station of Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. It switches his five foot frame to a different level of almost child-like energy as he tells the story of how it all started.

Life at little-Lhasa: a confluence of cultures

By : Surinder Thakur

TIPA Secretary Tenzin Lhaksam Wangdue at his office

Mcleodganj is India’s little-Lhasa, a name given by the travel guides for the large settlement of Tibetan refugees here. Living that name to its fullest, Mcleodganj is now a Tibetan celebration of their own culture, religion and the way of life, in its full bloom.

Seeing them living their life in Macleodganj, is a beautiful image of the confluence of two cultures on a sharing mode. But is it that easy for people coming from another culture to adapt and carry on?

“Most of the Tibetans don't find much problem here in regard to communication or whatever”, says Tenzin Lhaksam Wangdue, Secretary of Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA), a major cultural entity for the Tibetan community in Dharamshala. “However, for new comers, language is a major issue”, says Wangdue.  According to him, there are NGO's who are conduct language training sessions for these new comers, trying to bridge the gap. “Teaching English and Hindi to the newcomers often takes lots of time”, adds he.