They call me the weirdo coz I think weird, they call me the maniac coz I act weird and they call me insane coz I execute things insanely when it comes to any event or any social outburst. Don’t know the real reason but it happens at times that what I feel can’t be put in words but I normally initialize it and take it to completion rather than speaking it up. It is difficult to say why I love working the weird way, not for I am stubborn and I don’t adapt to anyone’s way in and around me but I always like to keep it different from expected. Same thing happened few weeks back to me. Been too lonely in an overcrowded Mumbai city, I thought of taking a break for myself.
It was 10th
May, 2014, Saturday and I was sitting in a CCD and chilling myself with a
tropical iceberg (my favourite drink in CCD). Suddenly I noticed a watchman
sitting outside the CCD near an ATM sweating profusely. It didn’t take more
than few second and without giving a thought, I quickly bought him a bottle of
coke. It was a strange look on his face. To me it was like, “What the hell did
just happen?” All he could ask me is, “Yeh kis liye?” (What is this for). It
was a simple answer for me saying, “For the awesome work you do by sitting here
and guarding that ATM.” He was reluctant in the start but as he knew my motive,
he smiled like I did a priceless job for him, thanked me as I was walking away,
raised a toast looking towards me and quickly gulped in 4-5 sips of the drink.
A simple thought went in my mind then was, if this can be done for one then why
we can’t do it for many.
Next
weekend I happen to meet my friends in Mumbai whom I met from a Pune based NGO called
SNEH Foundation which I headed in Mumbai. I just shared this thought of
providing cold drink to the watchmen and extend it to the cops, sweepers and
other such men on the streets. The group was quick to reply with thumbs up and
the event was on cards. It was the first of its kind of event for us in Mumbai
and things looked bleak with only 6 people including me with a lot of logistics
and funds to ask out for. But they say, when you are in Mumbai and you are
doing something good, all that you need to do is ask out people let it be
Facebook, Twitter or whichever mode of communication you would prefer, they
stand up for any calamity or good cause. Same was my case when I asked for
volunteers. It was 50 from 6 people in absolutely no time and I never knew
which was more important – people management or inventory management. Because
in this city, if you ask out people on a weekend for any social cause, they
never say a no (this is a good hint for people who are singles and you have got
the day when to ask out who you like). But it all went on track and as planned
– Operation Pyaas was the name of the event and with funds gather for 450+ packets
and inventory in place, we were all set to rock 2 locations in Mumbai – Central
: Thane to Mulund and Western : Borivali to Bandra on the 24th of
May 2014.
But as
destiny has always shown that no matter what you plan, there are hurdles to
anything good or bad you do in life. So was it on the night before the event.
The person who was supposed to supply us with the Chaas (buttermilk) packets
had to back out because of some personal reasons. Luckily for us by God’s grace
we found a backup soon and the packets where back in play. We were supposed to
rock the field the next day when our friend who was in charge of carrying the
crates fell ill with fever. We were in tantrums and I am talking about a person
who was having one of the cars which was the lead in the event. Things looked
blurred but trust me it was not for too long. The people I was working with
then would have been unknown to me coz of which their real power was not known
to me till this stage. 2 bikes and 1 car was set to cover the lost ground and
it was all back to normal within few minutes of the debacle and we were on
track to our event. 200 chaas packets on the central side and 252 on the
westerns side, it was a day to watch out for.
Don’t know
why but I was still scared, still never knew what kind of responses I would
have got from the cops, from the street cleaners, from the watchmen. Would they
ignore us? Would they scold us for disturbing them in their work? Would they
actually drive us away? Or would they really show hatred because of the
misconception of defaming them by someway of publicity? Or would they just feel
it’s a publicity stunt and feel worse than before? Tons of questions were
bothering my head but I preferred to keep quiet. I had the responsibility of
this event and I really never wanted any of the people working with me to face
any kind of trouble. Finally made up my mind, “Whatever things your lads are
charged on by the cops, own the responsibility of it.” So after making up my
disastrous mind of getting in jail for some reason we did set off. Trust me,
this thought didn’t take a split second to change. We were charged heavily,
much heavier than charge of something to be in jail for, we were charged with
extreme goodwill and respect. Yes, those words of English seem hard when it
comes to cops in Mumbai but trust me they aren’t a myth. Let it be thanking us,
let it be greeting us, let it be hugging us, giving selfies, asking us for
lunch and giving us tea by themselves, the people who we served in the day were
more hospital than what a 7-star hotel could have been that too for free and it
was all for we rendered them some respect by giving them the chaas packets. The
icing to the cake of feelings was when we saw the priceless smiles on all their
faces and in some cases tears of happiness. The message conveyed by all mostly
was summed up by this dialogue, "Peheli baar kisiko kehete hue suna ki hum
kaam karte hai. Peheli baar kisiko uss kaam ke liye hume thank you bolte hue
suna. Aap humare liye bhagwan jaise ho." (1st time heard someone saying
that we work. 1st time someone said thank you for our work. You are like God to
us.)
It was
heart pounding to see the extent to which they respected us, smiled at us. Even
these are ‘humans’ and they deserve some respect, some pampering which you and
me deserve every single second on your life. It takes a herculean effort to get
out in this taunting heat even for 10 minutes, most of us don’t step out till
the sun is down on its boiling capacity so their effort is not only worth
appreciating but equally commendable. This event was just some respect that we
could probably show to their work. Most importantly what I could get from this
event was – Cops do work, they are humans and they have emotions, they do cry
and have a soft side as well, it is not easy been a cop, it’s extremely
difficult to work when whole life you are been only abused and defamed for the
work you do and much more to count on. This applies to every single person who
we helped in the midst of the event. It was about spreading a smile and we
managed to spread smiles on the faces of 250+ unknown people in one single day.
But this doesn’t
end here. It will go on. Go on till atleast SNEH or me are in existence. Don’t know
much about me coz its more upto God but I may say that SNEH will exist for
eternity, some things for my grandsons/granddaughters to cherish when they do
know who their grandfather did some day in his life. This is just the start of
a new beginning in Mumbai. I left my city 4 years back when I had full belief
that I would return and now I believe that WE can together make this big in
Mumbai. The mayhem will continue and we would keep serving the society in the
best way we could. It’s my word that SNEH will have its mark in Mumbai in the
education sector before this post completes one year, this event marks the
beginning of that year. Moving ahead in Vashi on 31st of May, we
wish to make this operation bigger and better.
Finally to
end up on my own self then I would firstly take the privilege to thank each and
every single person who helped us in making this drive big. People came ahead
and helped us, most importantly they gave a person like me a chance to do
something for this society. Trust me, till date I never could do any serious
good to the society, the ones I did was all courtesy of someone who helped me
to do it. This event was the same in which again it was the rest of the group
who did the work and I was a bird-watcher. But I still hope to keep putting in
my ant sized efforts to try and make this opportunity as big as possible.
Thanks to everyone involved in this event, thanks to SNEH and its members, you
make my life meaningful by that.
“Once a SNEHi always a SNEHi…”
Regards,
Abhijeet Prabhu (Gladi).
[P.S. - Link for Pics :
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152463071883126.1073741835.646003125&type=1&l=9331674fc1 ]
[P.S. - Link for Pics :
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152463071883126.1073741835.646003125&type=1&l=9331674fc1 ]
