Live_For_The_Nation

 An elderly man seeking educational sponsorship for his three granddaughters; a mother requesting help to secure her daughter’s admission in a nearby school; an older woman searching for additional work as a cook; and a middle-aged woman struggling to find a stable job to sustain her family. While their situations may appear different, they share a painful common reality—the sole earning member of each of their families passed away due to complications arising from excessive alcohol consumption. During one of my community visits to an urban slum in Pune, I witnessed another alarming incident. A man had misbehaved with his wife the previous evening while intoxicated. When I visited their home the following morning, he was filled with remorse. He broke down and said, “Sir, pata nahin kya ho jaata hai peeke” (I don’t know what happens to me when I am drunk). This moment reflected a deeper truth—alcohol not only harms individuals but also destabilizes entire families. During th...

It was a pleasant evening in Pune, and I was heading to a friend’s place on my bike. Just a few meters from my home, someone asked me to stop. He was an elderly man, probably in his early seventies, with a calm, innocent face and a warm smile. He was holding a small packet in his hand. I stopped and asked him what he needed. He politely asked if I could give him a lift to the nearest ATM, which was about 500 meters away. I agreed instantly, not knowing that this short ride would leave a lifelong impact on me. As we started riding, I noticed he was wearing a security agency uniform. Curious, I asked him about it. He told me he worked as a security guard at the ATM. I was surprised—he didn’t really fit the picture of a typical security guard. He looked frail and old, and it seemed difficult for him to even walk a few hundred meters. We reached the ATM quickly, but our conversation continued for a while. Just to be sure, I gently asked him again if he really worked there, and he con...

If I help somebody, should I consider this an obligation, a favor, or a responsibility? One day, I went to a processing center of an NGO which collects and utilizes old clothes and turn them into useful products. It was a great initiative but there was always a sense of discomfort among the employees of the processing center because of the kind of stuff donated by people. There were torn-out clothes, underwear with stains, totally useless electronic equipment, utensils in the worst condition, etc. They told me that this is the daily site at the processing center because people do not think twice before putting any object in donation boxes. When we plan any gift for our loved ones, we ensure that it is worthy, neat, and nicely gift-wrapped. It makes us feel good that the receiver will enjoy the gift and cherish the relationship forever. Why do we not feel the same level of compassion for the beneficiaries to whom we are donating something? In Mahabharat, Karna supported Kauravas but...

It was December 2015, and I was returning from my office. I was coming by a shared auto and dropped by a metro station at cyber city, Gurugram. From there, I decided to walk to my room as it was nearby. It was around 10 PM and I got late due to some pending work at the office. As I walked a few meters, I saw a young man lying on the road, he was badly drunk, unconscious, and partly wet may be due to vomiting. A lot of people were passing by, but no one was bothered to check his well-being. Many times, I also see beggars in a similar state who do it intentionally to get some money, but this guy was different. He was well dressed, wearing branded clothes, and shoes, and I was able to assume that he was an employee in some nearby private firm. In the cyber city, Gurgaon resides many private firms and maybe he was working in one of the firms. So, looking into his attire, I thought that this may not be a normal case and I should enquire. I went closer to him and tried to push him to bring h...

It was a cold shivering morning of 18 th  Jan 22 in the northern Indian city of western Uttar Pradesh Meerut. Weather was very harsh and covid cases were surging in all parts of India. Most of the tech people like me were working from home and were comfortably placed inside 4 walls of their warm rooms. The sun was playing hide and seek and getting the clothes soaked in Sun was one of the most critical tasks. The cold weather was making everybody reluctant to travel by two-wheelers and car was the most appropriate mode of transport. If somebody asks me to go and bring some stuff from the market, the person seems to be the cruelest person on earth. But my better half asked me to bring some stuff from the market and I decided to take the best mode of transport, which is also energy saving, I decided to walk to the shop. In between, I saw a person on an old model Luna carrying a lot of items loaded all over his vehicle. He had so many items on the vehicle that I could only see his face...

One day when I was walking through a marginalized community in Pune, I saw one lady asking his son to wash his hands and mentioning as “kal wo bhaiya kya keh rahe the ki khana khane se pehle haath jaroor dhone hain”. She was referring to what I told during an awareness session to always wash hands before eating. I was not aware how many people will follow those instructions and neither I was worried about it. But glad that it created an impact and changed the perception of few people. In today’s world, numbers are very important. Everything is represented in numbers and data. With the advent of data analytics technique and tools, the love for numbers have increased exponentially. The success of any initiative, idea or thought is determined mainly by the tangible benefits. For e.g., scheme X of the government has directly impacted Y number of people or company’s profit has increased by 10% quarter to quarter. Tangible results are crucial for government agencies as they need to showc...