In camps housing Pakistani Hindus that I visited in Delhi & Jodhpur in 2019, mostly there were people on visas waiting for the day when they could become Indian citizens. But in Jaisalmer, I saw another side which made me rather despondent. (1)
medium.com/@sahana.singh/…
At Bhil Basti at Jaisalmer I came across some 1,000 Pakistani Hindu families living in pitiful conditions. A massive slum exists near a major international tourist destination like the Golden Fort of Jaisalmer & the inmates are all Pakistani Hindus! (2)
Many of the refugees became citizens in 2005 or later but still had not received any benefits in terms of water, electricity, education or employment. Their huts look so vulnerable and unprotected from the elements. (3)
Even though rural Rajasthan has achieved open-defecation free (ODF) status in 2018, and cities such as Jaipur, Jodhpur and Bikaner have become ODF, the people living in Bhil Basti in Jaisalmer have no option but open defecation. (4)
It broke me to learn that most of the men in Bhil Basti earned their living by breaking rocks manually. Pathhar todna (Breaking rocks) is an expression we casually use in Hindi as in sentences like “Itna bhi kya kaam hain, koi pathhar to nahin todna hain na? (5)
It can be translated to "Why are you complaining about work; you are not having to break rocks, are you?" The utter despair written on the faces of the men I met seemed so justified when seen in the context of sitting in the sun all day long breaking rocks till their arms hurt(6)

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More from @singhsahana

9 Dec
One year ago, I met this man who had fled from Pakistan after a targeted campaign was unleashed on Hindus as revenge against the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992-1993. His shop was set on fire. With his wife and children, he managed to reach Jodhpur and stayed with an uncle. (1)
Keeping his pride aside, he decided to sell sundry things from a reda (mobile cart). It was a hard life especially as he wasn’t from a poor family in Pakistan. Eventually he saved enough money to rent shop space. Today, he has 3 shops and is of course, an Indian citizen. (2)
From selling 200 Rs worth of goods in his reda he went to 50,000 Rs. “My advice for new refugees from Pakistan is they must work hard at any job and keep at it. My friends who were ready to stick on have done well; those who gave up & went back to Pakistan are regretting." (3)
Read 7 tweets
20 Nov
48 hours since I posted my article on Medium and it has 26K views - highest ever I got on Medium. It's mindboggling - the emails/messages I'm getting from people who wish to start their own gaushalas or contribute to Texas Gaushala. (1) medium.com/age-of-awarene…
Some say they broke down and cried while reading my article. Some want to simply drive down to Texas Gaushala. I have no idea how Abhinav or Pratibha are going to handle this flood - but I am sure Krishna will show them the way. (2)
Many non-Indians have appreciated & highlighted portions of the article which you can yourself see. These are people who recognize that the Vedic framework is so broad it goes beyond dichotomies of east-west, human-animal & every other dichotomy to embrace the whole universe (3)
Read 5 tweets
20 Nov
On World Toilet Day I am thinking of Ram Krishn Prasad the cab driver who drove me home from Delhi airport in 2018. He was such an amazing son of India that I requested him to come inside and allow me to record his message. (1)
How much he has learned by listening & observing even though he never went to school! He built a toilet for his house in the village at a total cost of 75,000 Rs. It's probably a twin pit latrine with pour-flush system. The stabilized waste is used as manure in the fields. (2)
Additionally, he made arrangements for grey water (bathwater, kitchen wastewater etc) to be filtered and used in the fields. He also reuses some water for cleaning indoors. He says he got the idea to reuse water when he stayed at the house of a Mukhia in Rajasthan. (3)
Read 8 tweets
8 Oct
Friends, do you know that each time you buy from Amazon you can ensure that 0.5% of the eligible price goes to your favourite charity? Right now Amazon has partnered with Christian missionary charities like World Vision. (1)
Why not let your money go to organizations like @IshwarSewa working with Hindu refugees from Pakistan to develop their skills? All you've to do is go to smile.amazon.com and select Ishwar Sewa Foundation as your charity to support with yr Amazon purchases. (2)
Then make sure that when you buy from Amazon next time, order via smile.amazon.com (it goes to the same Amazon) & check that ISF is the beneficiary. Send some joy to people who have suffered great humiliation in Pakistan and moved to India to rebuild their lives. (3)
Read 5 tweets
12 Jul
Shocked to learn that Sri Tapan Ghosh is no more. I will never forget that powerful moment when I met him in Houston in 2015. I knew I had to write about him. It was eye-opening to learn about his work in rescuing Bengali Hindu girls who were becoming victims of love-jihad. (1)
Until I met Tapan Da I'd never heard 1st-hand information about Bengali Hindu girls being kidnapped, raped & converted. Tapan Da had names of girls, kidnappers and even police stations where the crimes were reported. He was able to marshal facts to present a cogent narrative. (2)
@SwarajyaMag kindly agreed to publish my piece in 2015. I remember how happy Tapan Da was. He thanked me profusely for giving international visibility to the radical ideology that was devastating Bengal. (3) swarajyamag.com/politics/benga…
Read 8 tweets
23 Jun
I learned that in ancient times Hindus followed a kind of lockdown called Chaaturmaasya. It was during an auspicious period of 4 months starting frm Ashadha Shukla Dashami to Kartika Shukla Purnima which basically includes entire monsoon season (1) Photo: sathish_artisanz/Pixabay
During this time people did not travel and mostly stayed indoors. Sannyasis who generally travelled otherwise would spend these four months of Chaaturmaasya in one place. Of course, that would be a blessing for people who got to listen to some amazing spiritual discourses. (2)
Certain kinds of food were prohibited in this period (like milk, spinach etc) while other kinds of food were recommended. I am quite sure there were scientific, environmental or humane reasons for most of them. Many people gave up some favourite food as a way of penance. (3)
Read 8 tweets

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