New Life...

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Don't get confused by the title. I am not going to talk about my life here and no MBA stuff. But yeah, I might try to explore another side of the life here. New life is a small charitable organization started by a working couple and which is now engaged in helping old age people and children who are underprivileged. I was really moved to see that how far a person can go when they want to do someone and how unequitable the life is. It's normal human tendency to compare yourself with someone who is privileged then you, you crave for all those beautiful things in your life which you don't have. This give rise to a complaining tendency. We complain to our parents, we even complain to god that why you made us like this. Well, I also had my fair share of complains in my life. Now, it's like we never look at those who are worse off than us. We tend to ignore the hardships of life and always try to look on the brighter and better face of it. So I personally feel that individuals like me need to stay close to the kind of work that the New life people are doing in the remote villages.

Our batch size (only 27) do not allow us to have a large group of volunteers for social service initiatives. And given that most of us are not comfortable with the Tamil language, it makes this task even more complex. Anyways, initially when my friend proposed me the idea of going to this village Eraiyur, located in Sriperumbudur about 50 kilometers from my place in Chennai, I reacted that I can go but what's the point in going to a place to talk to people when you can't speak their language. He also was having this thing in mind but then we decided that we should go atleast to see how the place is. Now, after spending some 6 hours with those 100 lovely people I can really say that smile is an universal language. They ask you something, just smile. the message immediately gets conveyed that this someone is your friend. For children there is no language like Tamil or English. They can read your faces, they can even look into your eyes and can see through your heart. It's simple, you smile and if they smile back, communication is complete. Now you both are on the same wavelength as you are talking the same language. For old age people it's enough that you talk to them. It's right that they need food and care but the one thing that they all crave for is personal attention. They just want somebody to play audience, somebody who can patiently listen to their small stories is their best friend. I can remember that carpenter father who worked hard to buy the best education possible for his two sons but after 30 years of love and affection, the return he got from his sons was an old age home. I can still see the tears in his eyes when he was like looking into our eyes and talking to us (he didn't knew that we had language problem and one of our friends had actually to translate the whole story).

That was the lesson for the day. Smile has got immense power. It is the way through someone's heart. Now, another experience was to meet this couple Mr. A.A. Swamy, (President) & Mrs. G.Lalitha, (Founder Trustee) and heard the whole story behind New life society. Warren buffet donated most of his wealth towards charity and I believe that it will go a long way in improving the living conditions of the millions of people around the globe. But, that kind of thing is like you read in news, discuss about it and then forget it. People like Mrs. Lalitha and Swamy are no lesser mortals than those who donate millions of dollar in charity. They started this society on their ancestral land which is now a shelter for 110 people.

The question which is now troubling me most is that what was their moral fiber? How can they think about providing selfless service to those people whom they never have met, not even they are related to them in anysense? How come a person who is seen as a liability by his own family is accepted here and treated as a part of the extended family? What kind of mindset these people have when they adopt children who have lost their parents and pledge to make them a responsible citizen? I kept thinking about these questions for most of the time when I was there with those energetic kids.

For me, it's more or less two years of education and then taking up some respectable job, have a family, have kids and life goes on. I Will think about donating only when I make enough for me and my family. That's it. Simple man with simple dreams. I guess it's the same for majority of us. But yeah person like Lalitha and Swamy makes you think that there is another side of life, which is more human and less mechanical. There is this side of life where you not only think about you and yours but also about others and theirs. Where the whole meaning of life lies in putting up a smile on faces of those who are little underprivilged than you. I salute to this human spirit. God surely exist and it exists in the mortal form itself...