Republic Day Cafe Mohalla with Radha Kant Saxena

For Republic Day, Cafe Mohalla welcomed many new members to listen to Radha Kant Saxena, the  retired Director General of Rajasthan Police prisons and current Vice President of the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties. Mr. Saxena is a tireless advocate for reform of the criminal justice system, and he generously shared many of his personal experiences and views with the group to raise awareness of this important issue.

In keeping with the holiday, he centered his talk around the constitution's rights and duties towards Indian citizens. He spoke about the frequent corruption of justice seen throughout the nation today, and shared some personal stories highlighting this issue, as well as corruption in politics as a whole.

Mr. Saxena's session was also highly inspirational, as he described his faith in today's youth to tackle this problem and move the country forward on this issue. The Right To Information Act, among other tools, is essential in bringing government officials to respect their duties towards normal citizens. Perhaps most importantly, as Mr. Saxena said in reference to making progress on any social issue, "In each of us there is a Mother Teresa, it is just up to us to have the courage to live our life in that way."

Afterward, we had a question-and-answer session, and a discussion led by Meenakshi and Richa of how to bring these values into our everyday lives. Volunteers shared their own stories, with Aditi speaking about her experience working on education, and Siddhant sharing on how his views of reservations changed when he saw the other side of the story. Saurab spoke about he and other students from MNIT started an NGO called Utthan that works to educate physically and mentally challenged children.

Lastly, there was an informal chat with a group of Global Exchange Volunteers from the UK and India who are working in a village in Tiloniya, Urmul, near Jaipur, and a session explaining Cafe Mohalla and PJI to all new members. Afterward, we shared snacks and played a game of frisbee. Jaiveer announced his new action project,"Pukar--The Unheard Voices", which will document how the lives of people have been changed since the Jaipur bomb blasts of 2008. Anyone interested in being a part of this project can contact Jaiveer or attend the first meeting on Feb. 2nd at 1 pm.

In all, the Republic Day Cafe was a huge success. Bhaumik, Sunil, and Meenu worked to organize all the activities, and over 50 people were in attendance.