As I saw it

Back in 1999-2003 I used to work in the prison reform sector while I was working in the NGO - Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. In February 2001 I undertook a trip across some of the prisons in Madhya Pradesh, namely the Jabalpur, Mandla, Satna and Rewa prisons. Before that I had been to Tihad jail in Delhi, Haldwani sub jail in the then undivided Uttar Pradesh in February 2000, the Latchmere House open prison in England in September 2000, Gwalior central jail and the Ujjain central jail in Madhya Pradesh. The main insight I got while visiting the prisons in February 2001 as well as interacting with the home and health secretaries and other government agencies in Bhopal in the same leg of the tour was that I needed to spend at least a month each in at least one of the central, district and sub jails of the state as a trained prison staff, living in the same kind of squalid accommodation as the prison staff, following the same punishing schedule that they followed. That’s when one d...

Originally written on 22nd March 2016 in Pune: Given the traffic outside the restaurant, it took me a couple of seconds to figure out what he said. Even then I wanted to be sure of what I heard and asked him to repeat. And what he repeated sunk my heart in a peculiar way. He said: "Sir, bete ke liye aur kya hukum hai?" (What's your command for your son?) Even as it did not sink in fully, I hugged him quickly and told him that there are no commands for a son, only wishes and blessings - 'sirf dua aur aashirwad rahega'. He then said: "Har koi paraya maanta aaya hai aaj tak. Aap woh pehle insaan ho jisne kal mujhe gale lagaya." (Everyone has considered me to be distant. You are the first one to have hugged me yesterday.) By then, my heart was sunk and my emotions were a complete jelly pudding and my throat was beginning to choke. It still is choking even an hour later as I sit down to type this. "Aap aate rahen to mujhey zaroor bataiyega." (Let me...

The Dholakia family does this regularly. They had sent another of their sons to experience the same in 2016 in Kochi. Best MBA experience comes from the School of Hard Knocks. I was lucky to experience the same in a different manner back in 2006-2007 during my time in England. Will always be grateful for that experience. The boy’s grandfather is right, you start thinking only when there is a problem. Otherwise we all go into the shell of comfort. Thanks a lot Samji for sharing this in our Uplifting Soul Stories group on Whatsapp. Had seen it on FB a few days back and was planning to find a way to download this. 😌 🙏🏽 🙏🏽 🙏🏽