Tribulations for the Radha Kunda Seva – November 2016 Photos and Updates (Album with photos)
What a ride this last month has been! And it’s not over yet. November started out innocently enough. We were only halfway through the holy month of Kartika, and the crowds of pilgrims were as persistent as before. Our cleaners managed to keep up with the trash and our cooks kept feeding our widows and the parikrama pilgrims… until… a number of Radha Kunda residents and visitors came down with apparent food poisoning following the Govardhana Puja festivities, though, luckily, none of our folks were afflicted. When three people died of the ailment, the Nagar Panchayat (local government) decided to place a ban on the selling or distribution of prepared food in the Radha Kunda area. Consequences for disobeying the edict were dire. Anyone caught selling or distributing cooked food was soundly beaten. And although the sickness turned out to be caused by cholera contaminated water and we only use RO filtered water for cooking, our prasadam distribution had to be halted for nearly 3 weeks.
To add insult to injury, on November 8th, in an anti-corruption bid, Prime Minister Modi announced that all large currency – 500 and 1000 rupee bills – were now rendered useless. Our manager, Abhay Charan Prabhu had just withdrawn 50,000 rupees in 500 and 1000 rupee bills. Fortunately, he was able to immediately turn around and deposit them back into the bank account. But, ATM machines would only give 2000 rupees per day instead of the 10,000 they used to impart, and banks were loath to give 4000 rupees, often giving nothing since they had run out of small change. Five hour bank lines became the new “parikrama” as everyone, including our Abhay Charan scrambled each day for every last available 100 rupee, 50 rupee, and 10 rupee bill. Several times during the month, we received 10,000 rupees from the bank in 10 rupee notes.
In terms of emotional value, 100s have become the new 1000, 50s the new 500, and 10s the new 100. And yet, their actual monetary value has remained unchanged. A 100 rupee bill is still only worth around $1.50. And so, just to make ends meet, bank lines remain the daily ritual. Besides food shops, all stores have been closed, people have been making bonfires of useless bills and police have been beating off folks who, after spending hours in lines, angrily demand small change from the bank’s empty coffers. We’ve had to elicit the help of members of our Padma Charitable Trust board who’ve dug deep into their personal bank accounts in order to collect the necessary funds to keep our service going.
Between a shortage of funds and the ban on food distribution, the widows struggled for their daily sustenance. We were able to provide them with raw ingredients to cook their own meals in their tiny ashram homes. However, cooking like this means struggling to breathe because of cooking in very confined areas with little or no ventilation using whatever scraps of wood and dried cow dung patties (gobar ulpa) they could scavenge. Even obtaining dry cow dung cooking patties was a struggle since with the money shortage, people that would normally use gas tanks to cook, reverted to the old traditional ways causing a shortage of dung patties too!
Meanwhile, the kitchen construction had to be delayed since we don’t have the cash to pay our crew. And yet, when all is said and done, at the moment we are just feeling grateful to be back to daily feeding our Radha Kunda widows again.
Thank you for being part of the team! Please browse our latest photos and join our efforts by visiting www.radharani.com. Your servants, Campakalata Devi dasi, Padma Gopi Devi dasi, Urmila Devi Dasi, and Mayapurcandra dasa.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/N0mMGg