A time and a place

By Dipti Dayal.

Its been six months since my stint at Chirag and this note has been long overdue. These thoughts have been hovering in my head waiting for a catalyst in the form of an inspiration, but I think am ready now, maybe its my new job that’s made me reflect on my time in the hills or maybe I just want to clear my head.

One striking memory of the one month that I spent on the hills is an open suitcase that lay on my bed, a reminder that I was here only for a finite time that I was a guest no matter how much I longed to belong to the place. It was the first time I was interacting with children on a daily basis let alone teaching them. I learnt something, I gave up sometimes, I learnt not to give up, It strengthened my beliefs and I faced my prejudices.

Now I look forward to a new chapter in my life, hopefully I’ll find myself during the process as I make my way into uncharted waters.

“There is a place where we are always alone with our own mortality, where we must simply have something greater than ourselves to hold onto—God or history or politics or literature or a belief in the healing power of love, or even righteous anger…. A reason to believe, a way to take the world by the throat and insist that there is more to this life than we have ever imagined.”  – Dorothy Allison