Sewa International - Chennai flood relief update- Day 1

My trend with experiencing the selfless service of RSS volunteers continued ......... 

On Thursday - Dec 17, I arrived in Chennai as a Sewa International volunteer. 

One of the main goal was to experience first hand the  relief activity being undertaken by the local Sewa volunteers who are working tirelessly in helping those affected by  Chennai Floods , and in that process also try to do my 0.0001%. 

 At the outset, I would like to clarify that although there are  photo's of me  doing the volunteering work,  my contribution is minuscule as compared to the countless volunteers who have been helping, day in day out since past few weeks.

Day 1 :- Medical camp for school kids @ Perumbar Government school

• Currently the relief activity work comprises of  "distributing the relief materials", "Counseling for the impacted people", "Providing medical advice via medical camps etc".                  

                              

RSS-Sewa bharati center 

Hub of the relief activity / logistics 

• We went to the Perumbur Chennai government school. In one of the classroom,  essential stuff like medicines, cotton swabs etc were stored. 

Manivannan & me getting the stored boxes inside the school

• Doctor's from nearby government college were taking care of seeing the Kids and prescribing them any medicine, depending upon their health.

          

• We were taking in Kids in batches inside a room, where all the medicines were located. Doctors were also seated in these rooms in group of 2.

• After registering the Kid, they were then directed to the doctors who very patiently listened to their queries and helped them provide the medicine.

• Total of 429 kids were examined and helped during the 5 hour medical camp.  

Do not miss Day 2 update. Click on this link  - it was  one the most humbling experience ever

       4 seconds video of school kids thanking Sewa International 

          

               RSS- Ready for SelfLess Service

As per Hindu dharma before you can analyze  any knowledge & before accepting it as 100% true, there are four types of "pramanams (proof)" required to be fulfilled. Below are the four different types. 

• Shastram pramanam  ( given in scriptures etc)
• Aapta vakyam pramaman ( opinions, observations given by great scholars) 
• Pratyaksham pramanam (Seeing is believing, first hand knowledge)
• Anumanam pramanam (experience + guessing+estimating + analyzing)

Take/collect  as much information as possible, convert that information into knowledge , convert that knowledge into wisdom and finally convert the wisdom into Experience.The totality of these experience's is known as LIFE.

If you apply the same analogy for understanding Sangh and it's goal of SelfLess Service, I would say I have been through the first two pramanams many times (shastram - books, Aapta vakyam - meeting with karyakartas/pracharaks).

However IMO the 3rd and 4th pramanam's (pratyaksham and anumanam) are the one's which always provides the greatest confidence.

Two days before I was scheduled to leave for India, a massive fire had broke out on Dec7th in Damu nagar slum in Kandivali area (in Mumbai city) engulfing around 2000 shanties. 

Before leaving for Bharat, I had got connected to Devendra Pai (a.k.a the Toofani guy) via Facebook and with the help of our National Sah-Karyavaha.

As I arrived at my mumbai home at 3:30 AM on Friday (Dec 11th) morning, I  came across latest post by Devendra  where he had posted photo's of volunteers (from RSS and  other organization /colleges as well) helping to prepare relief kit for the fire victims. 

RSS JanKalyan samiti organized relief camp 

Relief material being packed and inspected

After checking with Devendra regarding the relief activity,  I accompanied him to the relief camp at around 2:30 PM Friday.The relief camp was set up in the big play ground area near Damu nagar. In the middle of the area, there was a huge tent which consisted of all the different materials to be assembled in the Kit.

Swayamsevak explaining the plan to everyone while others are involved in packing relief material

A typical relief kit consisted of approximately 7-8 items which included Flour (atta) bag, Soap, Oil, Masala, Chatai (small carpet), Water etc. There were also plastic buckets with small stoves in them to be given to the impacted folks.

Swayamsevaks and other volunteers being given instructions regarding the distribution plan

We sat down inside the tent area and each one of us were assigned to help pack one material into a big plastic bag. I along with few of other swayamsevaks, got assigned the flour bag section. 

Ready to put flour bag in the relief bag

It was  heartwarming to see that everyone had came together in this hour of need. 

 The relief effort was led by RSS JanKalyan samiti but there were also volunteers from various other organizations like Rotary club, nearby society's, mandals (clubs) etc. 

This was another live example for me of the Sangh where it plays the role of that vital thread which helps to bring together all different flowers (sections of society) together so as to create a beautiful garland !!.

Everyone, from young kids to adults to  senior citizens, from purush to mahila, were helping in this mammoth effort of preparing the relief kit. Most of them had background of sangh either via RSS, Sevika samiti, ABVP or other sister organizations.

There were also students from many nearby colleges like Dalmia, NSS and other colleges who were actively involved in helping, putting into practice the proverb that  "Youth are not Useless but  are Used less" :-). 

Being involved with Bala vishay back in USA, I could not help but take this photo with one of the youngest swayamsevak , "Yuvraj" who was actively helping to pack water bottles in the relief kit. 

Me and the real "YuvRaj" !!

It was also a humbling experience to meet swayamsevak "Ram bachan" who drives auto rickshaw for a living. He was out there helping pack the relief material, knowing well that he would be losing out on his one day of earnings. 

When I enquired what makes him do this, apart from the sangh bhaavna, he mentioned that after going up (i.e after dying), when god will ask me what I did for helping the society, I can proudly say that I helped in these kind of Sewa activities. 

He also added the losing one day earning is nothing as compared to the satisfaction one gets helping personally in such times. 
And this comes from a guy who probably depends on his day to day earning for feeding his family and who might not have a big bank balance. Respect !!

Ram bachan - A man from you can learn many things !!

At around 5 PM, the gates of the ground were opened and 10 families were called one at a time. They were given identification cards and were requested to go at the numbered booth. Each one of them were given the relief kit and other materials. 

Ten families allowed each to take the relief material

Very long queue to pick up the relief materials

I left around 6:30 PM while the countless sangh volunteers continued to work tirelessly with  selfless service goal in mind !!

How Kargil war helped me to overcome depression

While  I was in my final year of Engineering in 1999 - I had got operated for "aortic valve replacement". It was an open heart surgery which involved replacing my defective valve with mechanical valve.

Post surgery I came to know that apart from valve replacement - doctor's also had to perform emergency bypass due to some medical complications. This in turn also increased my medicines to be taken for  entire life :-(.

My mind was already going through emotions regarding why me for Aortic valve and now after knowing about the bypass - I was shattered internally.  

 

                "Defective Valve" -  Why me?. 

                "Bypass surgery " -  Why me?.

As I lay on hospital bed blaming my fate, some 2500 KM north of Mumbai, our brave soldiers were fighting fiercely &  sacrificing their lives for protecting the mother land. Yes - Kargil war had started !!.

 

I was reading / hearing countless stories of young soldiers who were getting martyred defending Bhaarat !.

Stories of how a young soldier who had just got engaged and was going to get married next year - doing the ultimate sacrifice, someone losing their father, someone their brother, husband etc all  started making a deep impact on me.

The vivid image of Captain Jayshree Gupta (who lost her husband "Major Vivek Gupta" )  saluting with all the pride but with sorrow in her eyes is still fresh in front me. (pic courtesy from internet)

 

 

 

I told myself - that I am alive and still have  good amount of life ahead of me. Just  think about all these brave soldiers who are  sacrificing  their lives without expecting anything in return and that too for strangers like me.

My mind asked me to "stop complaining" and start viewing life from positive perspective.

 

The popular song from 1986 Rajesh Khanna's movie  - "Duniya mein Kitna gam hai..mera gam kitna kam hai" summarizes it all !!!.

Watch this  90 seconds video as my tribute to our brave Indian soldiers.

 

I would like to express deep gratitude and thanks to all the  brave Soldiers (& their family members) who have given up the comforts of  life and are protecting the borders !!

Jai Hind !!!

The Monument's Men of India !

In the recently released and critically acclaimed  movie  "The Monuments Men" (pics courtesy columbia pictures) - director / actor - George Clooney (who plays Frank Stokes and is the leader of the army team put together to protect the art pieces being destructed by Nazi’s) peps up his team with this amazing dialogue -

 "Culture is a way of life.. you can wipe out an entire generation, you can burn their homes to the ground, and somehow they will still find their way back. But if you destroy their history, if you destroy their achievements then it is as if they never existed.”

Nazi's had plundered, stolen & destroyed Europe's master pieces of arts like sculptures, paintings etc. Few passionate men decide to team up and protect these master pieces. The movie is based upon this story line.

India during the Islamic invasion also suffered similar fate (albeit on a much larger scale)  when ruthless Muslim invaders raided & looted everything Hindu -  from Hindu temples to Hindu idols/sculptures  to Villages & to Institution’s of Knowledge (Nalanda university / library is reported to have burned for three months after the Islamic invadersset fire to it)

Brave Hindus (both men and women) provided an  amazing resistance and fought bravely against these heinous acts . From ordinary village folks to Kings and Queens of India had given up their life for the protection of their Culture/History.

I call these people “The Monuments (wo)Men of India” !!. 

As part of my recent India trip in June 2014, We  visited Somnath Temple. This Jyotirling temple can probably go down in history as the ONLY religious place which has been attacked & destroyed the maximum times (17 times by Mahmud Ghazni alone). 

(View of Somnath temple from Sagar Darshan where we stayed)

Per the book written by their own Islamic historian (Habibu-s Siyar by Khondamir)  during one such raid at Somnath - "Fifty thousand infidels (non Islamic - i.e Hindus) were killed round about the temple who were trying to defend the temple".

One such act of bravery is the amazing fight put up by Hamir Gohil  who gave up his life in 14^th century defending the Somnath temple from the attack of Muzaffar Shah. On the path leading to the temple complex, you would find a huge statue of Hamir Gohil, who attained martyrdom while defending the Somnath temple. 

In current scenario the challenge is of different kind. In my view Hindu’s (those who are not aware & unfortunately there are many) need to first start knowing about the real history of India, pass on the Hindu values/culture to their next generation thereby creating a proud Hindu Generation - Next !!

It would be great if all these  heroic events are taught in our school history classes as every Indian has the right to know the "correct" history of India.

Lastly please take out time and tell stories of these real heroes to our kids, grand kids during bed time instead of handing them over an iPad / tablet.

P.S –

1) I came to know about Hamir Gohil via an excellent Gujrati movie called “Veer Hamir” , which prompted me to plan my visit to Somnath. Would love if it is made in Hindi as well (Dr ChandraPrakash Dwivedi comes to my mind :-) ). 

2) In order to portray these real heroes of India - my cousin Pratik Parmar helped me to create the above photo which you see at the top of this post. As there are many unknown people who gave up their life - we have denoted it by the "unknown person with question mark". Photo Courtesy - Mahee Productions and Hindu Jagruti.

Bharat Mata ki Jay !!

My first RTI (Right to Information) application.

Since the time RTI act had been introduced, I always had a plan to try out the RTI act. However like those 10 good things which we always plan to do (like doing some good work, doing social service, learning Samskrit etc etc), filing of RTI was getting delayed and delayed.

Then a blog post by one of my favorite blogger - "Shantanu" jolted me and inspired me to file RTI via RTINation.com (http://satyameva-jayate.org/)
 
So finally in September 2012, I  filed two RTI application - 

1) First RTI to get information from Mumbai government regarding validity of the event where - "Shivkar Talpade" flew the first airplane (yes the first) in 1895 in Mumbai chowpatty even before the Wright brothers.  TOI article here - http://m.timesofindia.com/articleshow/msid-890055,curpg-1.cms . 

2) Second RTI is about an Indus civilization archaeological site in Haryana. As per one report this site is now in ruins and government is not taking proper care of it. I have filed an RTI asking the information regarding the total money allocated and how it has been spent for the past 15 years.

I got the updates for my second RTI about Rakhigiri in less than two months. Attached is the information which I received from ASI. Need to follow up on the first RTI about Shivkar Talpade. Will post updates over here.

I would suggest folks reading this blog post to file RTI applications. Its very simple. You can file it sitting anywhere in the world (as long as you hold Indian passport) by visiting http://www.rtination.com/.  

Bharat Mata ki Jay !

Expenditure details received from ASI

Pilgrimage to Shaheed and Swarajya Islands (a.k.a - Andaman & Nicobar Islands)

It was a typical lunch session in my office along with my 3 indian co-workers. One person had just returned from a trip to Hawaii and was sharing his experience about how beautiful Hawaii is and that each and every person should visit Hawaii. Apparently the two other co-workers had also been to Hawaii, with me only the one not done the “must do” karma of visiting Hawaii.


Now all my 3 co-workers started vexing me that I should also go and visit Hawaii and I am missing out on so many things. Usually I am not a person who comes under peer pressure but to be honest, this time the peer pressure was intense. 

That day, after coming back home, My wife and I were discussing about our upcoming trip to Bharat in Jan / Feb 2012 and were thinking of some place to go for vacation in Bharat. I maintain a “places to visit google spreadsheet”, which I opened up and was going through the list.

My eyeballs stopped at the entry where it read “ Kaala Paani” a.k.a Andamans / Port Blair. The entry of Andamans had made to my list due to the cellular jail. It was one of my dream to go and visit the cellular jail and do my part and offer Shradhanjaali to not only Savarkar,Barindra ghose; but to all those  countless forgotten freedom fighters who had went through the horrific ordeal of getting a life sentence known as Kaala Paani – so that our Country could be Free !!!

But  I would have never thought that what awaited me at Andamans would be an eye opening experience to many forgotten chapters of Indian freedom struggle – some of them which preceded even the Cellular Jail construction times !!!

After doing much research online – finally I booked my flight and hotel to Port Blair. During the entire booking process and even after that I was thinking whether I am taking the right decision and how safe it would, how it would be etc etc (Similar questions I have received from others  when I tell them that I had visited Andamans).

However with the firm resolve of not letting go of this opportunity (Jan / Feb was supposed to be the best season to visit Andamans) plus having enough leaves to take –  We decided to take the plunge !!.

Cellular Jail / Kaala Paani :-

·      The first place we visited in Andamans was obviously the Cellular jail.Just as you enter the gate, on the left and right side inside there is an exhibition hall having all the details (photos etc)  about the inmates of Cellular jail.

·      The central tower (from where all the wings were connected) had more details about from various places of Bharat from where Freedom fighters were deported.

·      After paying homage to various known and unknown freedom fighters, we visited - Savarkar’s cell :- per the information given to me – Britishers were very smart and did not have a record of which inmate was kept where, rather they were given numbers.However thanks to Savarkar’s book about his kaala paani experience, gov was able to pin point the location of his cell.

·      Finally in the evening we attended mesmerizing  “Audio and visual show about the Kaala Paani” in the open ground of the Jail. I must say that it is an amazing and well made show which bought the entire Kaala Paani saga in front of our eyes. 

·      We were  getting disturbed from fellow Indians who were talking on their mobile phones even when the show was going on. My wife was very angry that when would we learn to respect our freedom fighters / History;or atleast  not disturb others.

I would not go into more details about cellular jail - as I have made a special photo slide show about Andaman experience which shows more details of Cellular jail in a visual format.Refer to the end of this blog for the video.

Viper Island:-

After visiting the most sought after tourist spot  (for me a pilgrimage) called as “Cellular Jail”, next day We boarded a boat tour to three islands –  Viper Island; Ross Island and North Bay (Coral island). The company which operated the tour was “Pearl Tours” and we were fortunate to have an amazing guide with us whose name was “Mani”. 

North Bay island is an amazing island which has excellent crystal clear blue water, where we did our snorkeling. I could not believe my eyes while doing the snorkeling and watching the corals and fishes beneath.


Ross Island was used the Britishers capital and has many old structures, bakery etc.

However I would like cover here the third island – Viper Island – which is one of the forgotten chapters on our history.
 
“Viper Island was a Hell on Earth, where thousands of our famous Freedom Fighter of 1857, War of Independence and the later Freedom struggle that continued in different regions of India were sent to Andamans to be incarcerated in the Viper Island Jail. The convicts were rebels, mutineers, zamindars, maulvis, prince, and maharajas, all were put to the hardest of task.”
 

Unfortunately – it seems as per the current government plans – they are planning to open a luxurious hotel in Viper Island and endangering the sanctity of a place like “Viper Island” where countless freedom fighter spend their sentence and were hanged.


For more details about Viper Island and the protest against this project – please visit http://andamanchronicle.com/content/view/6060/27/


At Viper Island, after climbing a small hill, we came to a structure which had a wooden plank on the top. Our guide explained that this was the place where the freedom fighters were hanged by the britishers before cellular jail was built.


Mani was bang on target and was emotional when while explaining he said “Today you / your kids might be knowing lot of things, computers; games, iphone, ipad etc but how many of you know about great freedom fighters who were hanged at this very place so that our beloved country could become Free, How many of you know about Viper Island ??"

Mani had become so emotional while narrating the story that I am sure it gave everyone present – goose pimples. I managed to capture some part of it on my video camera.
 
His emotional speech – of 1 minute is must see below :-

 


Aberdeen War Memorial:-

This memorial again opened up a new chapter of Indian history which I was not aware of and would have probably never learnt it had I not visited Andamans.
Aberdeen War Memorial is a 3 meter High structure and it is built to commemorate the Battle of Aberdeen, which was fought in the year 1859 in-between the Andamanese aborigines (vanvasi's)  and the intruders to the island – Britishers !! 

Quoting from an article written by Pierre E - who is a retired Professor from Denmark -
(http://www.pierreevald.dk/misc_files/andaman.htm)

"This 'battle of Aberdeen' May 1859 was probably the worst case of genocide in the British colonial history of tribal encounters, a veritable slaughter causing a sudden decline in the number of young male Great Andamanese and thus threatening the genes and future survival of the tribe. The deaths of the young Great Andamanese resulted in a decline of population as they constituted the core of the reproductive age group. The consequence was a long lasting impact on the entire population, who could never make up the loss"

The Andaman Government setup a statue for these Brave Soldiers in the Sea Shore of Marina Park as a memorial as it brings the spark of first freedom movement in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
 

Havelock Island / Radhanagar Beach:-

This is heaven on earth and in my opinion beats any other beach. No wonder it was selected as the best Beach of Asia (not me – its Time magazine saying - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/asia/0,9263,501041122,00.html )

I have put up another slide show which has photos of all these places. Refer to the end of this blog for the video link.
 
  
Balidan vedi:-

This was the most shocker of all. It was 30th January 2012 and as per my usual habit; I picked up the local newspaper and was going through the pages. Being a Martyr’s day, the local news paper had carried an article about a memorial located in Homfreygunj in Andamans  – known as “Balidan Vedi”.

On finding more about this memorial; it boiled my blood and made me aware of another unknown chapter in the Indian Freedom struggle.
 
Balidan vedi memorial hardly figures in any of the Travel brochures of Andamans. When I requested my tourist taxi driver to take me over here as well, he was frustrated and said that “its very far” …this and that..basically was trying to avoid.

However I had made my resolve to visit this place and pay my homage to the great heroes. I then struck a deal with him and asked him to remove two places from his list of places remaining to take me around and instead take me to Balidan Vedi memorial at Homfreygunj.


Here is a short story about Balidan Vedi - The Japanese occupation of the Andaman Islands occurred in 1942 during World War II. Japanese committed many atrocities on the local population over there in Andamans.Japanese were killing rampantly.

They were also particularly suspicious of everyone who was non Japanese thinking that they were spying for the British. 

During one such tragic event, the Japanese took 44 Indian members of Indian Independence League on a hill and on charge of spying – shot all the 44 people on 30^th January 1944.
 
They were buried at the same place resembling a mass grave.These 44 people were from all various regions of Bharat and were fighting to free Mother India from the clutches of Bharat but unfortunately they were not able to escape the dreaded clutches of the Japanese forces. 

For more details – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_the_Andaman_Islands

Hoisting the Tiranga  for the first time at Port Blair by none other than Netaji SubhasChandra Bose:-


I came to know that Andamans was the first Indian territory to be freed from British Rule by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and he hoisted the National Tri-color for the first time on the Indian Soil @ Andamans !!! Or should we call – Shaheed and Swarajya Dweep – as renamed by Netaji !!!

http://zillion2ndinnings.blogspot.com/2009/12/netaji-gave-first-freedom-to-india-in.html

Last but not the least,  as I had became a swayamsevak from USA (before coming to USA – I had never visited any R.S.S  shakha anywhere in Bharat), I always wanted to visit a shakha in Bharat. My dream was fulfilled and I attended my first ever R.S.S shakha of Bharat in Andamans.

I  also visited few Seva (service) projects conducted by R.S.S which consisted of  helping the poor and needy kids with education etc. I was amazed and inspired by the sevika’s who were helping in the Seva activity.

I was also fortunate to attend the talk by Dr Purabi Roy (who is an acclaimed researcher) which was organized by the local Vivekananda Kendra at Port Blair, Andamans. Dr Purabi Roy after almost 10 years of research  has come out with a book on Netaji called "The search for Netaji - new findings". I also bought one copy of the book. The most startling revelation (from many) she made was below -

"INA had so much wealth. It was around Rs. 72,000 Crores leave apart donations in the form of gold. Where has the money vanished, she asked relating to her revelations. My findings also indicate that Lord Mount Batten, a year before India’s independence had requested Jawaharlal Nehru to discuss on the wealth of INA and they had decided it. Nehru had proceeded to Singapore soon after the request sent by Lord Mount Batten. When Anna Hazare is fighting against corruption in the independent India that ways back to 1947, I am surprised no one talks about corruption in the pre-independent era, Purabi commented.”

For more details – please visit -  http://andamanchronicle.com/content/view/5293/27/

Comparing with Hawaii, where we could have only done Scuba diving, snorkeling, beach etc, We were  NOT ONLY able to do all that (scuba, snorkeling etc) in Andamans but were also able to experience a great and important part of our History by visiting the memorials and Cellular Jail. And did I tell you that all this at only 30% of cost of 3 person Hawaii trip ?.

At the end of our trip, it felt like I have come back with lot of energy, inspiration and with a resolve in me to ensure that my each and every action / step is for the benefit of my nation, my country and my Dharma !!

Please view this slide show which gives an overview of the entire historical perspective of the islands in a nutshell - must watch !!

And this slide show is about all the various places to visit from tourism perspective -