Quartet in Autumn- Barbara Pym

I picked up the book in the book fair as I had heard a lot about Barbara Pym.  This is her penultimate book.  It is the loneliest book that I have ever read. Loneliness seeps through every pore of the book.  But it is not a sad book for the story is told with just a dollop of humour. It is just lonely.
Four office workers- 2 women and 2 men- share an office. It is never made explicitly clear as to what they do. Indeed even the office seems unsure of exactly what they do.  It is the 70s Britain and computers are beginning to make their presence felt.  The office is clear that these four people will not be replaced.  And the four are nearing their retirement. Plans have to be made. Two of them- Marcia and Edwin- have their own homes.  Letty and Nicholas live in a bedsitter and thus, their position is precarious.  Letty's position becomes worse when her landlady sells off her house to Nigerians and Marjorie, her old friend with whom she was planning to retire to a small cottage in the village, decides to get married.  Edwin, whose hobby is to attend Church Services- indeed he makes a list of all the Church related events through the year- finds her another bedsitter.  Letty moves into this place as she has nowhere else to go. This move coincides with her retirement.  Letty makes plans for she knows she should never let time hang heavy in her hands. She decides to read books on Social Studies but finds them too heavy and too boring...
Meantime, Marcia too has retired.  Her life moves in a different direction. Spurning everyone, becoming depressed, ultimately, she stops eating.
On her death, the remaining three find that Marcia has left her house to Nicholas on whom she had a crush long time back.
The book ends in a slightly upbeat mode.  Marjorie, Letty's friend, informs her that her engagement is at an end and would she come and live with her.  Letty realizes that life holds infinite possibilities. She might or might not move back.  Nicholas might or might not sell the house. Marjorie might or might not find another partner. In fact, life is alright. There are so many things to look forward to.

March for Science India

The Breakthrough Science Society called for "March for Science, India" 6 months after the event was held globally.
I marched.
There were about 100-200 people who marched from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar in Delhi.  For the number of institutes and universities located in Delhi (including the NCR), the participation was pathetic.  Most of the number was made up by non-science faculty. My own school was represented by two of us and handful of students from one of the lab (the faculty was marching and he asked them to come).  And when I think of the demonstration the students held on Science day couple of years back demanding for fellowship, I really do wonder about priorities.  I also wonder about our (teachers) priorities.  We grumble and groan about fund cuts, about poor quality of students, about life as a scientist but really, aren't we ourselves responsible for the abysmal situation?  When it comes to crunch time, when we have to speak up, we don't.  We back out.  We worry about promotions, about membership to various academies, we worry about grant (oh, if we speak up the funding will be cut.  It does. I have had first-hand experience in this matter but...)...in general we worry about everything but about science. 
So the government continues to spend 0.8% of GDP on Science, knowing fully well that there will be no protests.
Rubbish continues to thrive. Vaastu Shastra masquerades as science. People flock to astrologer and numerologists- change the spelling of your name and your fortune will change. As my brother pointed out, only the English spelling seems to be targeted. There are astrologers who promise that fortune will change if one uses their particular brand of ash (vibhuthi).  Then there gemologists who promise that the fortune will change if one wears a ring of particular stone.  Wait a minute. I know of scientists as well as students who wear these rings.
I rest my case.
 

The unanticipated problems that we sometimes face

I have been associated with an NGO partner for almost 10 years now. Initially, we funded them as part of Asha-Delhi project. But when our funds dried up, we found them new funding partners. I continued as the point person and have been visiting their project for many years now.
When we started, the children were in primary classes. I still remember the project director telling me that her realistic goal was to ensure that the children remain in school till class 12th.  They focused on girls as they were the most vulnerable. There are many reasons why a girl will be pulled out of the school- there are younger siblings, the economic situation in the house, the mother needs her help with the household chores, and of course early marriage.  So the goal was straight-forward. Let us ensure that the girls remain in school. The way to ensure it was to provide free tuition in the afternoon. It would also be a safe place for the girls to spend time. 
There have been successes. The early batch of girls- 3 in number- have now graduated from school. One is working and studying. The others are studying. All the 3 have enrolled in Open University.  We feel happy.
And then there are unexpected situations.  Today, when I did the site visit, the director gave me the first bad news. One of the girls- she is in the 12th class- had been married off in the Summer. The family went to their village and there was a mass community marriage organized in the village. The lure the organizers dangled was that they would pay the dowry and bear the costs of the marriage. It was a good offer as the mother is the sole bread winner. She agreed and the daughter was married off. She has been pulled out of school and sent off to live with her in-laws.  The entire visit I was haunted. Lot of publicity has been done about the evils of child marriage but the laws and the publicity have only limited impact. The family weighs in many factors- the safety the girl is paramount. What if she gets molested?  What if some body kidnaps her?  Wouldn't it be better if she is married off? Also, it would be one less mouth to feed.  And then somebody is paying the dowry and bearing the cost of the marriage (I really wonder about these organizers!  Did they bother to check whether the bride and groom were of legal age for marriage? Shouldn't they be held culpable?).  So child marriage continues.  I have no clue how to deal with this issue?  Of course, the girl could have protested. The media reports at least one such case every day where the girl refused marriage. A student of mine, I am really proud of her, told me that she fought with her Uncles when they were planning to get their daughters married. She got her cousins to Delhi and got them educated on her  Ph.D. fellowship. How many such girls exist?  How do we raise them?  How do we teach the girls coming to the tuition centers to protest if their parents force them into early marriage. Of course, the NGO has done plays with them, talked about these issues but theory and practice are entirely two different entities.
The second bad news was about a girl who was kidnapped by her neighbour and molested. Fortunately, her parents were able to recover her back. But she has now dropped out of school. She comes to the center but she is traumatized and scared.
As the girls grow up and as we add boys to the mix (the center has now expanded their attention to the boys too and I am culpable for it. I felt that the boys too needed attention and badgered them into opening their centers to the boys also), I wonder how do we handle this explosive mix. The media, the freely available internet has ensured that the world is no longer as innocent as we thought.  So now we are facing unanticipated problems and charting a path that we have no clue how to navigate.