AHMEDABAD, AUG 22: The urchins at the Rama Pir no Tekro slums call him ``Bread'' and women in the narrow, meandering bylanes greet him with a smile and a namaste. He is Brad Baldwin, a 24-year-old film-maker from the US who is a familiar sight in the area as he often visits Balwadi, a kindergarden meant for poor children.Baldwin has been funding this Balwadi for the past few months. He has other plans too. He plans to produce a dance and drama programme in the US next summer. Around 12 kids from the slums will perform in it. ``We plan to hold 55 shows across the US,'' he says. This, he is working out with the well-known danseuse Mallika Sarabhai.But why is this young film-maker working for slum children? What brought him to India? Well, he didn't exactly plan on doing social work but what drew him to Gujarat was Mahatma Gandhi and the Sabarmati Ashram, which is just behind the Rama Pir No Tekro.The Gandhi connection was also accidental. It all began with a brief visit to India in 1992. ``I was just 16 years old. But the trip stayed with me. It was a turning point. My creative side opened up,'' says Baldwin.After studying film and television in the University of Southern California, Baldwin once again returned to India in 1998 to teach at a school near Dehradun. However, the Dehradun experience was not too memorable. ``I left after two months. It was a bad experience,'' he says, without a tinge of bitterness.Most foreigners would have disliked the country after such an experience. But not Baldwin. ``I had lost a lot of weight but I told myself that I would not let myself be affected,'' he says. Baldwin went to Mumbai to get a closer look at Bollywood.There, on October 2, birth anniversary of Gandhiji and Baldwin was in a restaurant with a friend. ``There was a heavy storm. I was trapped in the restaurant. At that time, I was carrying a few books on Gandhi I had bought from Delhi. I started looking at his photographs,'' he says. And this experience influenced him.The next year in October, Baldwin once again returned to India and came to Gujarat. ``I went to Porbandar, toured some 30 villages around it, and also visited Ahmedabad,'' he says. After this tour, Baldwin was inspired to make a film dealing with the themes of re-birth and past life. ``The setting of the film is contemporary Gujarat. The movie has three central characters,'' he says, adding, however, that, he is yet to finalise the title of the movie. ``It will have just a touch of Gandhianism,'' he adds.Baldwin kept shuttling between the US and Ahmedabad. During one of these trips, he met Jayesh Patel who runs Manav Sadhna, an NGO in the Sabarmati Ashram. The NGO runs several Balwadis in the Ramapir No Tekro slums. Patel and others helped Baldwin with his work. In turn, Baldwin sponsors a Balwadi in the same area. He collects funds from his home town Curpeper in Virginia.
