You will have seen the devastation of bombed flats, hospitals, kindergartens and factories in Ukraine. Millions of mothers, children and older grandparents have escaped to Poland and smaller countries on Ukraine's borders, leaving their husbands and over 16yr olds behind to help defend Ukraine with the Ukraine army and air-force.  The women may well become widows and their children orphans as thousands of their men are being killed in the Russian bombing raids on the Ukranian  towns. Today a scheme began in the UK to let ordinary citizens offer a room to Ukrainian and Afghani refugees for 6 months. In the first hour 20000 people have registered to have a refugee. My daughter has offered her spare room.  On Saturday there was a candlelit gathering in the town centre of people holding candles to show solidarity and compassion for the people of Ukraine, to pray for them and all those killed in the fighting, Russians as well as Ukrainians.  People are wearing blue and ba...

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  You are probably looking forward to Holi, though as senior citizens you are probably not going to be throwing coloured powders at another. You may however, enjoy the bonfire of the Holika. I wonder if you have ever had one of the traditional foods, jacket potatoes, that are associated with Britain's Bonfire Day  on November 5th?   A jacket potato is a large one that is cooked in its own skin, though these days usually wrapped in aluminium foil (to prevent it getting black and ash covered), after making a few holes with a sharp knife in the skin, to stop the potato from exploding! It is then placed in the bonfire's red hot and glowing embers until cooked. I think that sweet potatoes could be cooked in a similar way.  Another British Bonfire Day tradition is eating to ffee apples - apples coated with a crunchy sugar-syrup toffee, on a stick. In the north of England ginger cake is traditional - rather like the cake we had at Christmas.   So my dear Awaas Par...

  I  confess to taking lots of photos but that is only when I am on holiday. I take them home and eventually get round to editing them and deleting the worst. My favourite editor was Picasa but that early Google product has been abandoned and replaced by Google Photos. If, like me, you take crooked buildings and un-parallel columns, you would have liked easy to use straightening tool. However, although my old photos are safe with Picasa, my new ones seem to be demanding a place on a cloud or asking me for money to increase my space! I noticed that most residents have smartphones so I wondered if they, like the younger generation, were 'snap happy' - meaning that they took lots of photos.  Judging to the response to the invitation to enter a photo competition, it seems not. I have come to the conclusion that smart phones are mainly used to send videos to one another on Whatsapp, accompanied by an invitation to forward them to friends near and far. Being free it is well use...

 I would like to share my Himalayan trek experience in Awaas News. The experience I had covers the splendour of nature, the mystics I met, the courage people showed while facing obstacles, landslides, broken bridges, hailstorms, wild animals, the mind transcending the body, the angel-like people of the Garhwal region and the help we received when trapped.  Some 13 years before my retirement, in 1988, I read a book                 " Wandering in the Himalay" by Shri Tapovan Maharaj, the Guru of the great modern saint, Swami Chinmayanand.  It fascinated me so much that I decided that after retirement I will also trek extensively in Himalay.  I knew that I would have to be extremely fit to start treking at the age of 60, so I stopped smoking and drinking liquor. I learnt and practiced Yoga and took daily 10km walks. When I retired in 2001 I was raring to fulfill my dream. Luckily two of my friends were also keen. We planned t...

  She came like lightning and tomorrow she is going back. Yes! I am talking of Manya. Just as lightning brings light and electricity, she also brought light in the life of Ashram inmates. Also electrified the atmosphere. So many games and tournaments. Connect 4, Walkathon, Scrabble, Snakes and Ladders, Ludo and Carrom. Literally single handedly she arranged decorations, 10 days were filled with excitement. Finally the evening Christmas Party was the icing on the cake. She could manage to pull everyone out of their rooms and made us participate in games, OK Manya, in India we never say bye but we say come again (aawjo) to charge our batteries.

  I have only been to church once since Covid began to infect the world. Last Christmas I went to Midnight Mass at my church in Bury St Edmunds. Everyone wears masks and they are 2 metres apart from the next person in all directions. There is no singing so that breath is not projected into the space around you. There are no books to handle and risk spreading infection either. All this means that only 100 people can fit in the church. Most churches have the same problem and so it is common for  church services to be recorded onto You Tube. Even the cathedral in Mumbai is on You tube for me to follow if I want to. I watch my church services from England because I recognise my friends who take part in the readings. On  Christmas Eve, on 24th December I watched a service for children from my church and later  I set my alarm so I could watch the Midnight Mass too. I didn't think that the Lonavala church would be very safe, as generally people are not social distancing in ...

  Our Celebrations were unexpectedly  delayed by an accident that Ashok, the Manager, sustained. Various rumours were flying around  and the most accurate said that  he had broken his leg in three places. Ashok was whisked off to hospital by ambulance for x-rays etc.  We learned that he had broken his ankle and would need it surgically pinned and would have to spend several days in hospital.  The staff were very concerned and came to tell me that they would not be able to take part in the concert and prize giving planned for my last day, the 26th December,  because they thought that singing and dancing should not happen while Ashok was ill in hospital. All the residents were asked if they wanted to continue with the rest of Christmas celebrations and the concensus was Yes!  Prem Hirandani organised and ran the Housie (Bingo) as usual. With a jackpot of 1500/- we were able to have two games with extra bonuses. Those playing insisted that I play to...

  Our champion walkers of 2019 Christmas were absent this year and left the field open to some of our recent residents. Twenty residents signed up for the competition but on the day two of the regulars were absent and last years winner had a bad back! The competitors were not told that all the entrants would get 100 Rupees so that. and the numbers of elderly ladies, cut down the entrants too. It is amazing what the offer of money does!! I asked  Lahu, the Awaas driver-cum -handiman, to bring 25 oranges from the market and I armed myself with a register to note down the number of rounds of the jogging track completed as each person passed me sitting with the oranges. I was willing to help any entrants who were not sure if they could manage to track but this year there were no beginners needing my arm! Mr Deshpande was the first to report at the trackside and was eager to start at 4pm. He was joined by Sainath, Vilasji and Mr Panjabi.  two ladies, Leela and Pushpa joined th...

Sainath went to the Lonavala Post office and hit his head on a  on a projecting metal and tile roof, He is 6 foot 1 inch tall. The equivalent of Paracetamol in India is Crocin hence the black crow! The doctor really did put his plaster in a cross shape like we show show in cartoons. I have often seen plaster applied in this way in India!

  Awaas from the Manya Garden   We have still  four people to play Scrabble.and then the walking competition will begin. oranges will be given to all participants. Awaas has an all weather walking track around the Prem Toshniwal garden . Residents have estimated how many rounds of the track they will complete, but they can do more if they feel capable. Altogether 20 residents are taking part this year.   Another addition to the Christmas programme this year, besides  Connect 4, is a Photo Competition. There will be three subjects, portrait, nature and general. So far there are only two photos submitted but I will have to persuade some of  the smart phone owners to take part.. It seems that the older generation are not snap happy! You may be wondering where I got the 4000000 rupees to send to India for Covid treatment in Bihar. I set myself a challenge. In 2019 I cycled just over 1000 miles in England and France to raise money for Awaas. This time I had...

 Dear Awaas Residents and Staff I am very pleased to see all my old friends and hope to get to know the new residents and staff very quickly, especially as I can only spend one month with you. I was very disappointed to find out that the Indian government is only allowing visas for one month instead of the usual six months.  As you know I left Awaas on March 2nd 2020 and a few weeks later the UK was in lockdown. People with serious heart, lung conditions or cancers were unable to leave home. Over 70's were also confined to home but allowed out for an hour of exercise, if they stayed within 5km of their homes, I sometimes walked my daughter's dog  but he kept stopping at every tree and lamp post so I didn't get much exercise! I ordered food to be delivered once a month from a local supermarket and my medicines were delivered by post. I kept busy, painting the kitchen cupboards and making curtains and cushions, from old curtain material. I wrote stories about my previous ho...

Those of you with sisters will have been in touch or perhaps visited? You may be an only child, or not have a sister at the present time, but   can we perhaps, in these modern times, substitute a missing sister for some other dearly loved person. A relation or a friend? No rakhi?   What about a phone call, message, letter or other form of communication to someone you hold dear? Share a few memories, re-tell some of your escapades, have a good laugh? Manya’s Latest Cycle Ride News My cycle ride for Covid treatment in a remote corner of Bihar State continues. I started it on May 10 th and today, 22 nd August I still have 428 km to do to reach my target of 3000km. With the £4000 that has been donated to me from friends, relations and other supporters for this cycling effort I have to date provided masks and soap for the people of 5 villages and three urban areas on the edge of the district town, where itinerant people live in temporary tarpaulin sheltered accommodation. We,...

 My bike ride for Village India An update on my progress so far. When the ravaging second wave of Corona Virus hit India’s metropolitan cities the TV cameras showed us people waiting in the streets outside government and private hospitals, in private cars, in ambulances, and on trollies.   All waiting for someone to die so that a bed would be available for themselves, a sick mother or father. We saw queues of people with empty oxygen cylinders waiting to get them filled. These were people who could afford to pay, or took loans from relatives. People who had cars or could hire private ambulances. Hospitals ran out of oxygen. Desperate people resorted to stealing cylinders and hijacking oxygen lorries. Trains brought oxygen tanker lorries to Delhi and Mumbai from industrial works thousands of miles away. As the infection rates dipped the cameras went away, instead of turning their attention to the fate of the vast rural hinterland with a fragile and ill- equipped rural health ...

 An Update from June 1st 2021   June 1 st 2021 Dear friends and sponsors   Thankfully the weather is better now so yesterday I did a marathon three-and-three -quarter hour ride yesterday. Last week my total miles were 133 but I had two days without riding because I needed to catch up on housework and shopping, as my brother was coming to visit me. My total for the first three weeks is 412.31 miles.(661km).My bike needs a new gear cable so Friday will be a short riding day and I hope I don't break down in the meantime as the gears keep slipping.  My brother lives in Devon and we don't have the opportunity to meet often, with my visits to India and his to France,  It was nice that we were able to have a family get together under the rule of 6. Rajni prepared a written report which I will attach to this email. Since he wrote we have continued with the mask making and the education about how Covid spreads, what to do etc...