"If not now, then when? If not you, then who?"
There has been a pleasantly refreshing trend developing in my small circle of friends, close acquiaintances. It is about catering to the deepest urge we all have to provide service. Poverty, illiteracy, helplessness are not new concepts to me, having spent my formative years in India, yet, each time I go there, I am saddled with these emotions that I don't know what to do. It is in this context that when I hear of yet another person leaving the "land of opportunity" for the shores of India that I gain strength.
Each one of us walks to our own drummer's beat. This mantra of tolerance, acceptance is what guides many of us when we encounter something distinctly different from our thinking. Whether you're running through the ragged terrain of India - NSEW - in search of those honest NGOs or if you're doing a pad-yatra to find that inner-peace, it's all good. Point is, you're doing it. I need to be in India long enough that I no longer would feel like a visitor. Immersed in a project that serves for the sake of serving. That brings that inner urja to the dark lives of many desperate souls.
Professionally too there are friends who have moved back. To eventually go to school, or to pick up that different job or to relocate to the desi branch staying within the same company. The reasons are varied - mostly though, it's family. In my case, the family has decided to make the compromise and live out the remainder of their lives where I have a carreer, hope to build another family.
Then there are those who have never left desh and are struggling daily to create a change. Two such prominent individuals that I had never heard of are profiled in the upcoming PBS documentary - New Heroes. They are Kailash Satyarthi and Inderjit Khurana. Kailash has made it his mission to eradicate child labor in India. He started his work in 1989 and till date his ferocious group of volunteers have freed over 40,000 bonded labors. Inderjit Khurana's soul was tugged by a different emotion. She saw the children working on train stations and at chai-pani stalls and realized that they needed education, not jobs. Her Ruchica School of Social Service provides train platform schools. If the children cannot go to school, take the school to them. There are now over 40 platform school in operation under her wise tutelage. To the brave Heroes of the modern world, my Salaam.
To learn more about Kailash Satyarthi and Inderjit Khurana, please check out PBS documentary: http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes.
Each one of us walks to our own drummer's beat. This mantra of tolerance, acceptance is what guides many of us when we encounter something distinctly different from our thinking. Whether you're running through the ragged terrain of India - NSEW - in search of those honest NGOs or if you're doing a pad-yatra to find that inner-peace, it's all good. Point is, you're doing it. I need to be in India long enough that I no longer would feel like a visitor. Immersed in a project that serves for the sake of serving. That brings that inner urja to the dark lives of many desperate souls.
Professionally too there are friends who have moved back. To eventually go to school, or to pick up that different job or to relocate to the desi branch staying within the same company. The reasons are varied - mostly though, it's family. In my case, the family has decided to make the compromise and live out the remainder of their lives where I have a carreer, hope to build another family.
Then there are those who have never left desh and are struggling daily to create a change. Two such prominent individuals that I had never heard of are profiled in the upcoming PBS documentary - New Heroes. They are Kailash Satyarthi and Inderjit Khurana. Kailash has made it his mission to eradicate child labor in India. He started his work in 1989 and till date his ferocious group of volunteers have freed over 40,000 bonded labors. Inderjit Khurana's soul was tugged by a different emotion. She saw the children working on train stations and at chai-pani stalls and realized that they needed education, not jobs. Her Ruchica School of Social Service provides train platform schools. If the children cannot go to school, take the school to them. There are now over 40 platform school in operation under her wise tutelage. To the brave Heroes of the modern world, my Salaam.
To learn more about Kailash Satyarthi and Inderjit Khurana, please check out PBS documentary: http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes.
posted by yash | 5:09 PM
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