गाना | gaana | song

• Saddened to hear that a fire occured in Dilli Haat market around 3 hours after this post was initially shared on the evening of 30th April, which culminated in the loss of around 30 stalls but thankfully no casualties. The Delhi Fire Service deployed 14 fire engines, sadly many store owners have lost their stock, handicrafts and, in some cases, life savings.

Another day in the life of SCEH and remarkably always different. Witnessing Dr Umang’s team treating hundreds of patients in the Outpatient Department during the day is still a feat to behold. I catch snippets of their stories – a man requesting a glass eye to reconcile his appearance – through my limited grasp of Hindi. Three trainees are now working on patient stories and taking their photographs as part of our project. Two teams of trainees are now painting cards, they have suggested combining them into one large piece which can be framed. These sessions are now two hours long. I thought that in this post there will be a break from the monochromatic photography and I would instead share some glimpses into these sessions:

Gol gappa jokes aside, there really was an earthquake on 17th February, magnitude 4.0. We weren’t prepared and a couple of things needed fixing. Thankfully these guys had hard-hats:

Trips to Chandni Chowk for art supplies have recently switched to Dilli Haat – a colourful hub of activity showcasing arts & crafts, textiles, food and more – as a number of the SCEH staff mentioned they had never been before. Established in 1994, once you’ve completed the car park mission, Dilli Haat resembles an inner city with winding streets and beautiful things balanced on tables, which would still appear exotic even to someone who has travelled to every corner of every country. The market’s footfall is well-regulated but people will still bump into each other purely due to having been ensnared by some trinket at the back of a stall calling their name.

The modest amount of advocacy for SCEH that I am able to do has reached a personal connection – the daughter of the pandit-ji who married Naveena & I has an eye power of 11 and needs a surgery – they have a meeting scheduled with Dr Umang.