Thoughts of a minibus traveller

You wake up. Sometimes the body feels a bit achy at the joints. But deep down you know that you have one routine. The surya namaskara. I aim to do three rounds, but these days fight through one. But the day I do none, is the day I would have lost my battle with working for wellness. I try not to think of those days. Some days, it takes longer because thoughts are floating around. Other days, the routine goes smoothly and nicely. om mitrāya namaḥ (ॐ मित्राय नमः) I promise that I will get through the day. I feel bad that I did not go to mandir last night. I have been disconnected from 'God' recently - Tuesday I found the Hanuman Chalisa in Hindi and read it, rather than listen to it. A kind of grounding. I promise to get through the day. om ravaye namaḥ (ॐ रवये नमः) I am glad, a kind of uneasy truce was reached with a former friend and loved one who wants to be friends. We will not be friends but for a brief exchange of text messages, it felt like old times. There is ...

The man walked past me. His head was tilted one side. I recognised him - he used to live near me. About 10 years ago he had an accident - he used to work as a tax officer. He was badly injured, resulting in severe  disability. His mental health was also affected. The last time I saw him , his brother was helping him to walk on the seawall. He could not talk since his face muscles were not working properly. So it was good today, when he reached out his hand. We shook hands and he started talking about recovery. The doctor had told him to keep walking. He had lost his job he said, his family took his papers and certificates.. he said his brother took them for himself. He lives on a pension. He used to be independent, now he is trying to walk to recover because the people he is staying with want him to leave as soon as he gets better. He did not like walking - he was scared that people would want to call him a mad man and to pelt him. It has never happened to him. He is sur...

The men stopped me on the road, both 'high' but wanting to gaff. One of them had passed me before and asked if I needed a lift. That is the thing with the Rupununi, you never pass people who walking. The men started gaffing and wanted to know what I was doing. I told them I was doing a website and they wanted to see it. I took out the laptop from the bag and showed them the website which was far from complete. They liked it - but I not sure if that is the alcohol or their real views. The Rupununi is good for the soul. The break was good. This long bricky road I walked on.. it takes longer but it felt good to walk on it in the evening. Walking on this road, I started to feel good again, planning life, work, getting things back in order after months of painful separations and other losses. Everything was now behind me, I think everything was in order. Eulogies I come back to town and I see the SASOD eulogy. A man emailed for the third time to ask me about resignati...

This week is the third anniversary of the launch of the blog. I like that I kept this up for the last three years. There is a mix of narcissism and megalomania in my blogging . I like that I can air my views out, put them into cyber space so that unsuspecting Google users will come across the writings. I think I am important so that people will want to read what I write. There is this other thing about standing at a road corner and shouting or speaking or singing and having the words out there for people to hear. 27000 page views - though I am sure thousands of those are from spammers and so on. But still, it is nice to know - a spammer might become inspired to write their own blog. Some of them have made nice comments and put links to their blogs for Dunhill cigarettes. Most posts seem to get an average of 15 or so hits in the first few days after they are made. I am still surprised sometimes at what people like to read the most. I had two letters recently in the papers and the ...

The law student looked at me as though I was mad when I asked him if he would come spend a few minutes at the People's Parliament.  We were talking about law and so on and rights.  But this is not how he imagines public discussion about rights. The carpenter said that he passed plenty times but never stopped. He said is a good thing to have this thing where people talk. He finds that Guyanese are not proud of their country like how Jamaicans and Trinidadians are. He said that this race thing got to stop.. he is mixed race and he learns from everybody. He says that we need each other - he said that as a carpenter he could look down on the labourers who work on his worksite, but then the carpenter would not do the labourer work. He has a lil cough though, so he going home. He cannot stay on. He did not want to be recorded. The teacher is young. He pass and then stops. He teaches at one of the problem schools - he has been a teacher for 7 years. He does not have to beat chi...

[ A student,  Vieira Linderova,   is doing a survey of telecentre use around the world and sent this questionnaire to ask for my views. I had worked on one telecentre run by the Cummings Lodge Hindu Society and organised by SEWA. The telecentre closed for various reasons. There are many other telecentre models in other parts of the world.  1. What role can MCTs play in social and economic development, particularly in rural communities of developing countries? I believe there is evidence that in many parts of the world, telecentres have been part of the economic and social development of rural communities. Rural economies have faced serious challenges . The theory goes that communities with limited access to telecommunications and technical capacity can use the MCTs to access information and knowledge. There are telecentre models in urban communities as well with poverty.  2) In your experience, what have been some successes (especially concrete examples) o...

Two guys this week asked how things .. and when I told them, I got the kind of shocked question and reaction which implies that there is nothing for me to be depressed about. I agree.. there is nothing for me to be depressed about. However, I have to manage the depression which creeps up from time to time. Sometimes it is easy to do, sometimes it is not. Masking depression is often easy to do. Sometimes it is not. Sometimes the masking leads to more feelings of anger and failure that I am not being honest and just pretending. Or when I do talk and get a reaction, I feel I should not be imposing my miserable self on people - that is not mannerly.  It might be easy to say to avoid people. Coping mechanisms do work but sometimes, they do not. The important thing is to realise what is happening and to do healthy things to manage the feelings and the mind. Don't indulge in the sweet or the crunchy snacks.  Avoid people who seem noisy and loud. Go and feel the heat of the sun...