With Nanu ma, who cooked a feast for us. Felt like being fed by our grandmother. In the slums where Manav Sadhna works, magic cooks. Nanu ma is 75. When her husband passed away 11 years back, she decided to gift her land to Manav Sadhna. Jayesh and Viren-bhai refused to accept the gift, as they felt it would be needed by her relatives (she didn't have any children). She then got legal documents on government bond paper, where all her relatives certified that they were willingly supportive of her donation. Jayesh-bhai and Viren-bhai told her to keep the land in her name but have used her space now to start a street school for the children in the slums. The children love to interact with her and she loves them very much.
 
She has supported their journeys so much that every time one of them gets married, they come to her for an important ritual which is usually reserved for their mothers (putting a sacred mark on their forehead). She fondly remembered Laura from Be The Cause, who stayed with her for a few nights without any shared language between them, other than love.
    
Until a few years back, she used to make clay piggy banks for the kids, and sell it to parents for Rs. 3 (5 cents). Parents would use this to inclucate saving habits with children, who would be give a few coins to put in every day. Once full, it would be broken and be spent for the children. 

Gaurav Parnami, who visited her, was so fascinated that he started collecting coins in this everyday. Once full, he gifted it to her. Her response, "I will not break it as it is a sign of his love. After my death, the Manav Sadhna family can use it for their work." 

We sat in stillness for a while. When we opened our eyes, hers were still closed. After a while, she slowly drifted back in. We asked her what she had prayed for. She said, with perfect stillness, "the good of the universe."

Below are the children of the area. I have always been amazed at how full of smiles the kids are, and how ready they are to get their pictures taken. They all came running to be a part of it.
   And here's service-hero Suresh Parmar, holding toilet pots with plants in Safai Vidyalaya (Cleanliness School) in Ahmedabad. What a cool way to honor the toilet!
 
And finally, here's a mind-blowing quote from Gandhi that was a great highlight in the museum at Gandhi ashram.

   
"If I die of a lingering illness, may even by as much as a boil or pimple, it will be your duty to proclaim to the world, even at the risk of making people angry with you, that I was not the man of God that I claimed to be. If you do that it will give my spirit peace. Note down this also that if someone were to end my life by putting a bullet through me - as someone tried to do with a bomb the other day - and I met his bullet without a groan, and breathed my last taking God's name, then alone would I have made good my claim."