Project 365 - Tell Me Your Dream - Week 2
Starting this first of January, I started a project to collect and
share dreams. Dreams of common people, the ones we meet on the streets
everyday and never usually talk to. Or dreams of people who are just
like us. Anyone's dream.
One dream, each day!
My hope is that I will meet and understand many more people, their lives, empathize with them and in the process make some new friends.
Omkar
5th January 2015
"I want to have a car, a big big car. I don't know how to drive as yet, but I can learn. I have no clue how this will happen though. On more practical terms, I would like to have my own 'raddi' shop, as that is the only thing I know."
Omkar is only 15 years old, but he has grown beyond his age. His parents died a couple of years back and he had to move-in with his uncle. With this move, he had to leave school as he was expected to help out his uncle in the shop. Now he spends all of his time at the shop, looking at the big cars passing by. I am sure he dreams of more, but wasn't willing to share. I think I will meet him again.
6th January 2015
"I moved out of my village 40 years back with my wife, an year after I got married. I visit every year but now I dream of going back there and settling down with my wife, after all my kids get married. I think it would take about ten more years for it to happen. However, I would still be dependent on my sons for money to survive, as I can't work in the fields anymore."
Gorappa Chogule moved to Pune from his village Akkalkot due to draught. He has two acres of land, but it was impossible to grow anything. In Pune he worked as a daily wage labourer for years till his hernia operation a year back. Now he only sells fruits and vegetables. He has four kids and three of them are already married.
Suman
7th January 2015
"I dream of having my own home. I have been living alone in a rented house for years now, but now it's time to have one which I can call my own. The house should have two rooms and a toilet. I will color my home nicely, perhaps with orange hues. Most things in my current rented house are new, but I will arrange them nicely and neatly in the new house."
Suman Ananda Mane moved alone to Pune after her husband died of excessive alcohol consumption when she was just twenty years of age. And since then she has been living alone, just by herself. Her in-laws arrow dead too, and she has no kids; her brother visits her sometimes. Suman makes a living by working as a maid in six different homes - cleaning, cooking and washing clothes.
Baburao
8th January 2015
"I have two sons aged 24 and 25 years, and both are educated till 8th std. For the last two years I have been trying to find brides for them, but not able to find at all. There are just no girls left in my community now, everyone has only boys. Those few with girls want educated guys who do proper jobs. My dream is to get them married soon so that I can be at peace ."
Baburao comes from a family of shoesmiths and is uneducated himself as well. He is a native from a village near Latur and moved to Pune only eight years back in search of a better job. He first moved alone and worked as a daily wage labourer for months before calling his wife and four kids to Pune. He fears he will have to move back to his village in a year or two due to rising cost of living in the city, the houses are becoming unaffordable. The colony where he lives in a rented house has been bought by a builder, and soon they will have to move out. Housing for people his class is getting rarer by the day.
Raja Yadav
9th January 2015
"My dream is to build a house for myself and my mother in our village. My father was a village goon and died in an accident right after I was born, and since then my mother has been living with my maternal grandmother. However after my grandmother dies, my uncles will not let us stay there and we will have to move out. So I need a house as soon as possible."
Raja Yadav lived a very protected life at home, playing Cricket most of the time and not doing much for studies. He is 22 but yet to appear for his std 12th exams and it didn't seem to be a priority. He moved from Satna (Madhya Pradesh) to Pune only a few months back as his friends from village were already here and currently works as a security guard. He earns little and actually needs more money from his village every month to sustain the expensive city life.
However, his dream is a huge challenge. His father was one of the three brothers and now the elder one has three sons, and the youngest one had one son. When the ancestral land and home gets divided, he will get a third but the other brothers will get much smaller parts and this irks them already. And it's a very likely scenario that he will be killed for this reason if he goes near his father's village. His plan is to take some males from his mother's family and go with the sarpanch for division. The other brothers are also goons, like his father was, so his plan can also fail.
Shashikant
10th January 2015
"I don't have a dream, I never do. I think when I don't dream, I get things that I need. Right now I need a car, but I don't dream about it and so I think I will get the car."
Originally from Bijapur district in Karnataka, Shashikant used to make Ganpati with his hands using mud. It was a family tradition. He worked in it till he was 20 years. Then he moved to Pune for job after 12th, and his first job was that of a welder in a factory. He joined a govt. stitching class later in an area where his brother lived. At this time he also got married. Then he did a diploma in fashion designing for two years. He started his career as a tailor with whom he worked for ten years. For the last many years he has his own shop and he employs two other tailors.
Dr Rashmi
11th January 2015
"I have this dream from my childhood, and I still dream about it. My father had to move out of his ancestral village decades ago due to lack of education facilities and unfortunately things have not improved there even now. I want to go back to the village and work on making it completely self-sustainable - everything that the village consumes or needs should come from the village itself. We have our ancestral house there and I would love to restore it back to its original glory.'
Dr Rashmi is an absolutely phenomenal woman. Years ago when she was working at an ICU, a case changed the course of her life and made her take up challenges that most others won't even consider. A young girl of five was burnt with kerosine by her own father and admitted with serious burns. She still survived and was on path to slow recovery when the family demanded that the girl be taken off ventilator support. As a doctor she was torn between choices, but was forced to do as the family demanded. She took off her off the ventilator support and saw her gasping for air and slowly die. She realized that behavior change was needed more than anything else to make an impact. She resigned the next day and moved to Public Health.
After her masters she worked in diverse areas like HIV, Trainings of front-line Healthcare workers and so on. Now she works in the domain of Maternal and Child care and helps save lives every single day.
Read more on how to collaborate here.
P.s.the project will run throughout the year on my Instagram account and I will share a weekly round-up at the end of each week.
One dream, each day!
My hope is that I will meet and understand many more people, their lives, empathize with them and in the process make some new friends.
Omkar
5th January 2015
 |
| Omkar |
"I want to have a car, a big big car. I don't know how to drive as yet, but I can learn. I have no clue how this will happen though. On more practical terms, I would like to have my own 'raddi' shop, as that is the only thing I know."
Omkar is only 15 years old, but he has grown beyond his age. His parents died a couple of years back and he had to move-in with his uncle. With this move, he had to leave school as he was expected to help out his uncle in the shop. Now he spends all of his time at the shop, looking at the big cars passing by. I am sure he dreams of more, but wasn't willing to share. I think I will meet him again.
Gorappa
6th January 2015
 |
| Gorappa |
"I moved out of my village 40 years back with my wife, an year after I got married. I visit every year but now I dream of going back there and settling down with my wife, after all my kids get married. I think it would take about ten more years for it to happen. However, I would still be dependent on my sons for money to survive, as I can't work in the fields anymore."
Gorappa Chogule moved to Pune from his village Akkalkot due to draught. He has two acres of land, but it was impossible to grow anything. In Pune he worked as a daily wage labourer for years till his hernia operation a year back. Now he only sells fruits and vegetables. He has four kids and three of them are already married.
Suman
7th January 2015
 |
| Suman |
"I dream of having my own home. I have been living alone in a rented house for years now, but now it's time to have one which I can call my own. The house should have two rooms and a toilet. I will color my home nicely, perhaps with orange hues. Most things in my current rented house are new, but I will arrange them nicely and neatly in the new house."
Suman Ananda Mane moved alone to Pune after her husband died of excessive alcohol consumption when she was just twenty years of age. And since then she has been living alone, just by herself. Her in-laws arrow dead too, and she has no kids; her brother visits her sometimes. Suman makes a living by working as a maid in six different homes - cleaning, cooking and washing clothes.
Baburao
8th January 2015
 |
| Baburao |
"I have two sons aged 24 and 25 years, and both are educated till 8th std. For the last two years I have been trying to find brides for them, but not able to find at all. There are just no girls left in my community now, everyone has only boys. Those few with girls want educated guys who do proper jobs. My dream is to get them married soon so that I can be at peace ."
Baburao comes from a family of shoesmiths and is uneducated himself as well. He is a native from a village near Latur and moved to Pune only eight years back in search of a better job. He first moved alone and worked as a daily wage labourer for months before calling his wife and four kids to Pune. He fears he will have to move back to his village in a year or two due to rising cost of living in the city, the houses are becoming unaffordable. The colony where he lives in a rented house has been bought by a builder, and soon they will have to move out. Housing for people his class is getting rarer by the day.
Raja Yadav
9th January 2015
 |
| Raja |
"My dream is to build a house for myself and my mother in our village. My father was a village goon and died in an accident right after I was born, and since then my mother has been living with my maternal grandmother. However after my grandmother dies, my uncles will not let us stay there and we will have to move out. So I need a house as soon as possible."
Raja Yadav lived a very protected life at home, playing Cricket most of the time and not doing much for studies. He is 22 but yet to appear for his std 12th exams and it didn't seem to be a priority. He moved from Satna (Madhya Pradesh) to Pune only a few months back as his friends from village were already here and currently works as a security guard. He earns little and actually needs more money from his village every month to sustain the expensive city life.
However, his dream is a huge challenge. His father was one of the three brothers and now the elder one has three sons, and the youngest one had one son. When the ancestral land and home gets divided, he will get a third but the other brothers will get much smaller parts and this irks them already. And it's a very likely scenario that he will be killed for this reason if he goes near his father's village. His plan is to take some males from his mother's family and go with the sarpanch for division. The other brothers are also goons, like his father was, so his plan can also fail.
Shashikant
10th January 2015
 |
| Shashikant |
"I don't have a dream, I never do. I think when I don't dream, I get things that I need. Right now I need a car, but I don't dream about it and so I think I will get the car."
Originally from Bijapur district in Karnataka, Shashikant used to make Ganpati with his hands using mud. It was a family tradition. He worked in it till he was 20 years. Then he moved to Pune for job after 12th, and his first job was that of a welder in a factory. He joined a govt. stitching class later in an area where his brother lived. At this time he also got married. Then he did a diploma in fashion designing for two years. He started his career as a tailor with whom he worked for ten years. For the last many years he has his own shop and he employs two other tailors.
Dr Rashmi
11th January 2015
 |
| Dr Rashmi |
"I have this dream from my childhood, and I still dream about it. My father had to move out of his ancestral village decades ago due to lack of education facilities and unfortunately things have not improved there even now. I want to go back to the village and work on making it completely self-sustainable - everything that the village consumes or needs should come from the village itself. We have our ancestral house there and I would love to restore it back to its original glory.'
Dr Rashmi is an absolutely phenomenal woman. Years ago when she was working at an ICU, a case changed the course of her life and made her take up challenges that most others won't even consider. A young girl of five was burnt with kerosine by her own father and admitted with serious burns. She still survived and was on path to slow recovery when the family demanded that the girl be taken off ventilator support. As a doctor she was torn between choices, but was forced to do as the family demanded. She took off her off the ventilator support and saw her gasping for air and slowly die. She realized that behavior change was needed more than anything else to make an impact. She resigned the next day and moved to Public Health.
After her masters she worked in diverse areas like HIV, Trainings of front-line Healthcare workers and so on. Now she works in the domain of Maternal and Child care and helps save lives every single day.
Let's collaborate
I also intend to collaborate extensively for this project by inviting invitations from India as well as anywhere in the world. You don't need to be on Instagram to participate, all you need is a story and a dream. It would be just about anyone, it could also be you.
Read more on how to collaborate here.
P.s.the project will run throughout the year on my Instagram account and I will share a weekly round-up at the end of each week.
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