A Lesson in Selflessness
Some Incidents just change your life.
With the Lockdown imposed and people hoarding goods like never before, I couldn’t think of a better time to share a small incident which changed my life.
In the Summer of 2016, many parts of India faced severe drought. One of the worst hit states in India was Maharashtra. The urban side was better prepared for this, having overhead water tankers, bore wells already set up. However, the rural parts suffered the worst. There were villages which were dry. The government was able to supply water only once a week. And without proper storage facilities, the maximum that every household in every village could store water, was only for up to 2 days – that being the best case scenario.
And here we were, sitting in Pune, without much to worry, since we had all the storage facilities. This was also the time when I was volunteering with an NGO based out of Pune. One day, while talking to a fellow worker of the NGO, he told us that the drought situation has worsened and that it might get out of control. Even the government, with its best efforts wasn’t being able to supply enough water to the villages. Listening to this, one of the volunteers sprung up saying that instead of us sitting in a position of privilege, and criticizing the government for not doing enough, we must do something. And there it was, our next project idea.
We started off by listing down the worst hit areas and narrowed down to the Satara District. Within Satara, there were various villages and we did not know what the real situation was at the grass-root level. So, we decided that we must definitely pay a visit and see the situation first hand and then start our work. We got in touch with a local NGO and asked them if they could help us, for which they happily agreed. Within the next 3 days, we travelled to Satara to visit a few villages and see the situation in person.
Since we had got in touch with the Local NGO, they had already identified 3 villages that were severely affected, and had also informed their Panchayat about us visiting, so that we could get all the information required from them. When we left from Pune, we were equipped with some food to have on our way and water, since the journey was quite a bit. But due to the heat, before we could even reach the first village, all the water that we were carrying was already consumed.
Within 3 hours, we reached the first village, called Randullabad. A name, which I think I can never forget. As soon as we entered the village, the water tanker was right there, with a small well and a stream of water next to it. However, all of this was dry. The water in the well was so shallow that it would hardly be enough for the entire village even for 2 days. This left us in a state of shock. Back in our home town, we knew people don’t think twice before using a shower for bathing, and here, these people didn’t even have water to drink. Deeply saddened, we went and met the Panchayat.
What happened next was something by which I was seriously taken aback. They made us sit in a room in a school, which was also one of the biggest classrooms in the school. And then they served us Water. Bottled, seal packed water. Each one of us were given a 500ml bottle. And mind you, we were six of us.
That day, none of us even opened a single bottle. We were thirsty. But not as thirsty as them. That day I really understood what it is like to be selfless. No book, no teacher or no person could teach me, what a group of villagers taught me.
We eventually visited all the three villages, and finally selected Randullabad. Not because of their hospitality, but because they were the worst affected village. We managed to raise funds to provide them with water every alternate day through water tankers for a whole month. And on the day it rained, putting an end to the drought, the Sarpanch himself called me up and told me that we should now stop the supply of water tankers, and that we should find some other village in some other district which we could help.
This incident has been very instrumental in changing me as a person and helps me make a lot of decisions. Today, if I feel like certain actions within my control could help somebody, I do it regardless of what anyone says. Believe it or not, it has always resulted in something better happening to me.