A slice of humility with my toast

Hello and greetings from my laptop that has finally been connected to the office internet! It only took six weeks and was the single greatest force in getting me to adapt to the Indian lifestyle...a tad bit slower than life at home. Anyway, this picture is the daughter of one of the women who works at Deepa (the block printing group). She was running around the work site yesterday when I was there and I couldn't resist taking her picture because she just looked so adorable.

I wanted to tell a little about what I learned this morning about Lalita, the woman who cooks for the Simhas and me. Aunty Simha was sitting with me at breakfast and decided to tell me Lalita's 'story,' which was actually a little bit heart wrenching. When she first came to work for the Simhas five years ago she's recently left her alcoholic husband after she got tired of being used as a punching bag. The man would steal Lalita's earnings and drink too much and finally she had the guts to defy her mother-in-law (the true powerhouse of any Indian family) and leave her husband. She took her two children and moved in with her mother and brother who were very supportive. Lalita can't read nor write and the Simha's actually had to teach her to cook when they hired her. The Simha's decided to pay for Lalita's children's education provided she promise not to pull her daughter out of school before she's 18. That's actually a big problem, even in the cities, and especially in poorer families - girls get married off anywhere after ~age 10, though sometimes even younger. Thankfully the youngest marriages typically only happen in the villages and are more common in the north, but leaving school to get married is still fairly normal. The women who get married at very young ages usually don't move in with their husbands until 'prastha,' which is usually after age 16. Unfortunately for Lalita, her brother is getting married soon and if he decides their mother's house is too crowded for his new wife with Lalita and her children, he has the authority to kick them out.

Aunty Simha and I started talking about girl's education and she told me that a few years ago she and some of her family were so frustrated with the situation of girls in India that they started a charity to sponsor education. They adopt children, girls and boys, and cover their school fees and require that the parents promise not to pull the kids out of school before they're 16. It costs 5000 rupees per year (about $125) for one child's education, though one could donate any amount to the charity's kitty.

After meeting a coworker's cook, Shyla, and learning that her situation was almost the same as Lalita's (minus the guts to leave the husband), I realized how badly I wanted to give young girls a chance to have better prospects than their mothers. So in that regard, I'm going to use my blog for good and solicit donations or commitments to sponsor children. The Simhas are good people, the charity has virtually no administrative costs, and I really believe that the money goes to one a good purpose. Education for girls is one of the few things that I still truly believe in and if you're interested too, send me an email and I share more details.