I remember the Mulvi coming home to bring wedding invitations for a Muslim wedding in the village, giving me some grains of rice in my hands and inviting us to come. I remember Ramadhan, Idul –Fitre, Phagwa, Dewali all celebrated in one school. We never saw a difference between Muslims and Indians because the European Principal Mr. Jan Bakker made sure he blended our lives and cultures in such a unique way that we will not define ourselves by ethnicity or religion. And of course as a little girl a 17 year old Muslim boy was so much in love with me and was he cute… He would serenade me after school and ride his bicycle next to me singing the most beautiful love songs of Lata, Mohammed Ravi, Rajesh Khanna, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Raj Kapoor, Amitab Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, Mumtaz, Sharmila Tagore, Hema Malini, Raj Kapoor, Mahendra Kapoor, Dev Anand and Shashi Kapoor. I remember that some of these idols visited Suriname. By the way, I just love to hear the boys singing to me.

What I didn’t know is that my life would change, because we had to move from the rural area to the city where of course I had to deal with the culture shock from things being just different. I spent four years of my life in a Hindu Religious High School, where I was taught and raised in Hindu traditions, language and culture and also was very exposed to the worldviews. I actually learnt to read and write Hindi, not knowing it also led me through transformation of worldview that required me to immerse myself in the culture and traditions, learn all the prayers, attend the teachings of the pandit and become wise. I need to brush up when I come to see you and Asish and all the others in India. I studied Hindu religion for 4 years and have developed a very deep appreciation for it.

Then my life took another drastic turn in 1997 when I met wonderful African friends who got me so curious and intrigued in Africa that I ended up in the University and spent three years taking courses in African Foreign Policy, History, Political Economy, Health Care and Post Colonial Realities. In between, I also had some exposure to economic development of Latin America. I became too greedy for knowledge that I would not want to spend my life going out with friends, but just cram in as much as I can. I also did one year of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases. I was so intrigued by it that I would sit at the feet of elder African Professors and read as much as I can from their Books shelves. I studied the various African traditional worldviews, how they perceive health and well being, Preventative Health such as vaccinations, Western Medicine, and Western Methodologies of Birth Control and HIV/AIDS prevention. I studied the cyclical time concept and more for the past 10 years and believe you me, what I learnt in Primary School, High School and University started to come together creating a very unique body of knowledge. Knowing Africa from a theoretical perspective wasn’t enough for me…I had to head for the grassroots to meet our rural people with Kente or Kitenge wrapped around my body with my head tied. This has been my university from 2002 where I study people’s worldviews and learnt what I would’ve never known in a formal institution of Higher Learning.

Didi Asima, I had to go to the origins and source of knowledge from my teens to present to corroborate my position on issues in the world, positions that I many times find myself standing alone on, persist and persuade through scholarly arguments of a qualitative analysis, country or entity policies, logic and relentless rebuttals until I sway an entire international conference to come my way.  I’m also learning that the richness of epistemology also ties my past into my present activities to give this validity.

Asima, was this an accident or a coincident?

We have to learn to clearly articulate our positions, make sure it is grounded in epistemology, research and logic.  Epistemology is the theory of knowledge and the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, in particular its foundations, scope, and validity.

Then we have to look at the interdisciplinary relationships to that knowledge and its relevancy to our argument.

So when the question is asked “how should the GF coordinate programs supported by several partners”, you understand now where the root cause is that impedes effective collaboration between several partners…simplified communication in a language that CBOs and all other stakeholders can relate to across the board.

Some of us can only relate to the practical aspects of collaboration based on the pitfalls we have observed between multiple stakeholders, the processes and flawed structures that allow for corruption and other vices to gain root. This is appreciated; however, for those of us endowed with epistemology, we should take our discussion to the source of the problem, the nature of that knowledge and build the foundations of our argument on it so that it can stand. We also should take a critical look at the scope and breadth of this knowledge and its interrelationships to other disciplines and then justify our arguments.

Now you understand where my journey has taken me and why I adopted India as a country and Africa as a continent because of the shared commonalities in Illiteracy and the scourge of HIV/AIDS. 

I also am able to differentiate the worldview of poverty in India versus Africa and I am still growing.

By the way do you like Parrots? If India has parrots I want to come and get a few of the talkers to take to the Aviary I intend to build in Kenya.

In closing, I deeply appreciate all submissions read during this specific discussion on “How should the GF coordinate programs supported by several partners” and have enjoyed all the submissions especially Robson’s, Satyam, Sawsan, Maria, Thamer, Ashish, Jane and Collins. Didi Asima, you are such an inspiration to me and I thank you for your kind words. I'm very humble by it and not deserving of it. Our other friends have been so quiet and they know who they are. I love the family concept and we should encourage each other and I would like to see your cute face.