Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

With my intervention, she completed her Bachelors, then her Masters. In April 2017 she will complete her Doctorate in Crop Development. With no support from anyone, she managed to stave off family pressures, and a succession of doubtless extremely disappointed suitor strangers.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

After 2009, five years passed before my latest set of visits. I continued my various financial interventions. Meanwhile, Nirmal had passed away at the age of 101.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Then, in January 2015, Mridula suddenly died at the age of 46.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Ironically, she had always thought that I would go before her, and was constantly telling me to take care of my health. I barely made it to her funeral in time. If only I had been there more when she was living!

 

[Flex Mentallo]

One of my earliest memories of Mridula is at her house. It is night, and she holds aloft a lantern to guide my way along the dark path to her door. She has been waiting for me, because "load shedding" (the nightly power cuts) is going on. It is pitch black, and she is concerned I might trip.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

I always thought of myself as her guardian angel. But now, only after she has gone, I realize that Mridula was my guardian angel. Despite the years, and the distances, she never put the lantern down...

 

 

Life, like a child, laughs, shaking its rattle of death as it

runs; it beckons me on, I follow the unseen; but you stand there,

where you stopped behind that dust and those stars; and you are a

mere picture.

 

Can it be true that I forgot you? We haste on without heed,

forgetting the flowers on the roadside hedge. Yet they breathe

unaware into our forgetfulness, filling it with music. You have

moved from my world, to take seat at the root of my life, and

therefore is this forgetting-remembrance lost in its own depth.

 

You are no longer before my songs, but one with them. You came

to me with the first ray of dawn. I lost you with the last gold of

evening. Ever since I am always finding you through the dark. No,

you are no mere picture.

 

Tagore

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Mridula came late to local politics but in a short career she planted trees, helped the poor, and built a road to enable children easy access to their school in Balarampur, which for generations they had tramped across the muddy fields to reach.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Then in March of this year, Lucina and Purnabha got married. Family parting, both drama and reality.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

They had met years before at college, but since he is a Hindu, they had to keep it secret. Eventually, he converted to Islam for her sake.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Who offered this maiden? To whom is she offered?

Kama (the god of love) gave her to me, that I may love her

Love is the giver, love is the acceptor

Enter thou, the bride, the ocean of love

With love then, I receive thee

May she remain thine, thine own, O god of love

Verily, thou art prosperity itself

May the heaven bestow thee

May the earth receive thee

I take thy hand in mine, yearning for happiness

I ask thee, to live with me, as thy husband

Till both of us, with age, grow old

 

[Flex Mentallo]

[Flex Mentallo]

After they returned from a brief honeymoon in Darjeeling, the three of us decided that we would try to find others with a similar aim to work in the community.

 

On the day before I left, we found Roshni. Or did Roshni find us?

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Since then, many of you have joined in supporting them with us, as have Luke's parents. They say that Roshni has given them fresh hope.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Serendip has become a vast tapestry of unforeseen richness, where many disparate lives across the world unite in a common cause. The tale has grown, and will outlast me. It is of the living, and of the dead, who are still living.

 

'I am alive like you, and I am standing beside you. Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you."

Kahlil Ghibran

It is now yours as much as mine.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Now, this November, I returned to them, a tale briefly reported while I was there, now unwound in greater depth from tomorrow...to the great relief of many of you, it will be told mainly in photographs.

 

[jhutton2]

Merry Christmas my friend and God bless you and all of those your actions touch in your life.

 

Warmest Regards,

 

Jason

[Flex Mentallo]

Merry Christmas to you and yours Jason!

[MrBedrock]

Merry Christmas Michael. The love I have for you and Roshni is immeasurable.

[Flex Mentallo]

Thanks so much for your friendship and support, Richard. Merry Christmas to you, Tracy and the cats!

[Flex Mentallo]

A detailed report on my visit to Roshni, November, 2016

 

It is Saturday evening on the 12th of November 2016, and in a dark and crowded corner of Rajabazaar, Roshni opens its tiny space, and turns on the light.