Sony Stark has a great blog, it really moves along at a fast pace. A recent dispatch:
“Mahatma Ghandi referred to them as “God’s Children” and after eating, sleeping and meditating on their turf, I can see why. They are warm, kind, respectful and proud. They are called Untouchables or Dalits, a Sanskrit word meaning ‘to split, crack, or open’. Figuratively, they are persons who are cut, split, broken, or torn asunder, scattered and destroyed. They live below the four castes, treated with social discrimination and brutal violence. It’s one of the last contemporary forms of slavery; rooted in an ancient system that’s condemned people to dehumanizing conditions for over 2000 years.
Of the 300 million Dalits in India, we met 1,047 in Kodur, a village of limited electricity, no running water, no sanitation, no phone, TV, school or medical services.
They live in mud huts with thatch roofs and eat from the land. But don’t mistake them as poor; they’re not beggers. They’re rich with curiosity, intellect, creativity, humility and generosity. Nothing but friendship was exchanged and I couldn’t stop hugging these so-called ‘untouchables’. The next evening I ate dinner with a greedy real-estate mogul who had a lousy disposition and a poor excuse for the Dalit’s situation. “I don’t feel sorry for them” he argued, “I can’t because in today’s unstable economy, I could be there tomorrow”. Right……”
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