**From & To Satish **( New Pictures Pl see pg 163) - Page 37

Hi satish and everyone....

In Manila more than 10000 Filipino families live in the town cemetery. In Manila, where housing and hope are in short supply,some people have come up with a novel alternative to their housing woes.

The Philippines capital is crowded and chaotic. It's a city of stark contrasts,
where the rich live very well, many in gleaming high rises
with stunning views of Manila Bay.

But the vast majority of the 11 million people living here are poor.
As much as one-third of the population lives below the poverty line,
often squatting in shantytowns, unable to afford anything better.

Manila's North Cemetery offers a respite for some, a place to rest,
not just for the dead €" but for about 10,000 living, breathing souls
who call the cemetery home.

The cemetery, covering more than 100 acres with a main street
lined with shade trees and bright pink bougainvillea. The street
is kept tidy by city workers who come often to sweep and cart away the trash.
It's vastly different from some of the dirty, crime-infested slums
nearby, though electricity and clean water are a problem here, too.
So is learning to live with the dead in close proximity,
sometimes in the same crypt.

Clare Ventura, a 28-year-old vendor and mother of three, has lived in
the cemetery all her life.

"I've had to teach myself to like living here € because we can't
afford to rent a place outside," she says. "And also
this is where I have a chance to earn a little bit.
You get used to it, and it's a lot safer here than most places outside."

Many families like Ventura's came as caretakers, hired by prominent
families to clean the mausoleums and protect them from vandals.

But as Manila's population grew, so did the cemetery's. There are now
basketball hoops, fast-food stalls and mini-markets tucked in
among the crypts and tombs. Groups send volunteers to teach
the children. And there are less-welcome visitors, too.

Boyet Zapata, 42, grew up here and helps maintain tombs for several families.
He says spirits from the other side sometimes inhabit his coworkers'
bodies. Those spirits are of the newly dead, pleading for
God's forgiveness, he says.

Roque Rapon, 60, has lived here since 1960, tending the tomb of
former president Manuel Roxas.

"I used to be afraid at the beginning, especially at night,"
Rapon says. "But I learned to live with it. Now, I'm more afraid
of the living than the dead because some of the new people are drug addicts
and criminals who try to break into the tombs and steal gold or
jewelry from the dead."

This used to be a nice place to live, he says, a sentiment echoed
by 31-year-old Christopher Fernandez, who seems embarrassed by
several men gambling atop a nearby tomb.

"I wish these newcomers would go away," Fernandez says.
"They're giving us a bad name. They play cards or sleep
on the tombs. They walk around without their shirts on.
They have no respect for the dead. They have no sense of shame."

Some of them have no other place to go, other live in the mausoleums
of their ancestors.

STRENGTH

what is strength and how can it be measured.lets look at the dictionary and see what it says for the word.

1. The state, property, or quality of being strong.
2. The power to resist attack; impregnability.
3. The power to resist strain or stress; durability.
4. The ability to maintain a moral or intellectual position firmly.
5. Capacity or potential for effective action.

The reason i am writing this is due to a conversation i had in the gym sometime back.the word strength stuck in my mind and the more i thought of it the more passionate i became about finding something strong.but i did not have to look far for i found it in mani and aarti.

Well mani is my gym buddy and i bump into him more often in the beach during my walks than in the gym.his daughter is about 8 years old and has a major obesity problem hence i see mani more in the beach walking than in the gym working out.although i have been working out in the same gym from 1998 and know lot of members closely we leave our friendship at the gym and have rarely pursued it out of it like hooking up for dinner or visiting each others family for tea or such.but when in the gym some of us get into real conversations and sometimes arguments which rarely descend into anything ugly.

after not seeing mani at the gym for a long time i met him at the beach and jokingly ribbed him about bunking gum.mani smilingly said that off late it had not been possible for him to come to the gym since all his time is devoted to his daughter.i said why should you be the only one to look after kid,why can't your wife help out a bit.to which mani replied that it had been about 2 years since she died due to jaundice and some other complications.he said the main reason was that his wife was very obese and her heart had become weak and he worried that his daughter might become obese if he didnt look after her diet and exercise.absorbing all this i asked him what about your parents,why don't they help out to which he said both of them are pretty old and diabetics.so mani gets the breakfast done,packs his daughter off to school in the school-bus,then it is off to work.and the poor man had being doing this for nearly three years.

my respect for him grew grew ten-fold and now whenever possible i spend time with them in the beach during my morning walks.

everyday i see fathers of various shapes standing in bus stops waiting to go to office,everyday i see mothers waiting in the ration shops,stores buying stuff for them and i realise now what strength is.there is this lady who drops milk to our flats and i see her everyday at about 5.00 a.m and then later at about 8.00.a.m i see her working as a servant in the next blocks.so many times when i pass her she smiles pleasantly and i smile back and i am glad i did and will keep doing so for if by my smile i can brighten her day then my life will be so much better.

well i humbly salute all you mothers and fathers.i know what real strength and it is not the strong diamond,stainless steel or rock but the mind and soul of a parent.it is the strong beating heart of a parent who tirelessly works,slogs and wears out in pursuit of happiness for their child.

love satish

Stifling a grin i turn the shower off and back to reality.memories are so beautiful and sometimes the only balm in trying and crying times.hold onto them.hold on dearly to those school excursions,hold on to that eating hot mollaga bajjis on a rainy day,hold onto that cotton candy at the circus and fair.there are lot of things people and life can take away from you but not the memories.when in midst of a scene during shooting i remember the first time i climbed the stage during my 9th std to play the role of a english general in some freedom fighter play.i was so nervous that i would fumble that i kept going to the loo every 10 minutes but when i was pushed onto the stage by parvati my tamil teacher everything fell into place.what a voyage it has been.

"I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude."

"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

"If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."