Free the Children by Craig Kielburger

Author:Craig Kielburger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, BIO026000
Publisher: Greystone Books
Published: 2009-06-29T16:00:00+00:00

9 DELHI

If I were asked to sum up the time I spent in India in one word, I would have to say, amazing. It’s an overused word, I know. But it was just that. Amazing.

I went from sleeping on straw on a barn floor in a village without electricity or telephones to holding a press conference in a hotel with marble floors and chandeliers. I went from scribbling a few misspelled words in my diary to writing “A Joint Declaration Between the Youth of India and Canada.” I went from splashing chest-deep in muddy water behind a Jeep to having my face splashed across the front page of newspapers across Canada.

On the same day that we arrived back in Varanasi, we boarded a train for Delhi. We were extremely tired and certainly weren’t looking forward to sitting up all night. We mentioned to the conductor we were willing to pay a little extra if he could do something for us, and a couple of sleeping berths suddenly became available. We had discovered that in India lots of people expect that “little extra” for their services. It’s the way things work.

A good sleep that night revived me. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said of breakfast next morning. Every guidebook, every traveler I talked to, said the food on trains was safe. The pre-packaged, tasteless clump of vegetables I had for breakfast certainly wasn’t. It contained something that sent my temperature soaring within a few hours.

All through the trip we had been careful about what we ate. Any time we bought food straight from the market, we made sure it was well cooked. Nothing had happened. I never thought for a second it would be train food that would do me in.

By the time we reached Kailash Satyarthi’s house in Delhi, all I wanted to do was lie down. My stomach felt as though it had been tied in a knot. I winced with cramps, and rummaged though the syringes and blood-transfer kit in my medical supplies, all in vain. Nothing for an upset stomach. Something for every possible ailment known to humanity except for an upset stomach. My only relief came when I vomited. It was back to bed with two Tylenol and a vow never to eat train food again.

The next day, I felt a little better. At least I could carry on a decent conversation and was reasonably mobile. I was able to spend time with Kailash’s family, getting to know them better and hearing more stories of the past raids carried out by SACCS.

And getting to know “Tiger.” Kailash’s famed guard dog was a Great Dane, covered around its middle with a woollen sweater. He was the biggest dog I had ever seen, and gave new meaning to the word canine. He ate grains, vegetables, and milk. This canine was a vegetarian! Except when a stranger entered the house. When we first met, I came very close to having the imprint of his teeth in my hand.

The rest of the family were vegetarians as well.

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