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That’s right! What happens when 4 out of the 10 people I approach for one-rupee-donation ask me the question – “Why are you wasting your life? Nothing can change the fate of the suicide farmers and even with your little effort there will be many more farmers’ suicides.” Honestly I wished for a second, if I had approached all these people with an offer to double their 10 lakhs into 20 lakhs in 15 days… they would welcome me with open arms, serve me a nice glass of chilled water and even coffee and whatever I wanted…
Are you surprised as to what made me to think such an atrocious thing today? The reason being, the world will readily believe a ‘con’ but will always mistrust a genuine man with a genuine cause to do the little bit for the nation… funny isn’t it? The world will always support to be cheated but will always hesitate to unite under one roof for a good cause. Only when calamity strikes (to teach us lessons of life), do we realize how important life is and without any inhibitions help each other without really caring for caste, creed, religion or social status.
Today, when I started my day at 5 pm while I was traveling in train, few readily gave their valuable contribution but one old highly educated gentleman questioned my intention and without even knowing anything about me, declared that these money would never reach the needy and that did I have the required permission to collect donation and contribution from fellow Indians. He was questioning with authority and showing other fellow passengers. However, when I told him politely that it takes months to get the required papers from the government office and that I have dedicated my life for the cause, he rubbished my answers.
His mistrust about my movement didn’t stop other fellow passengers to give away their valuable contribution much to this gentleman’s dislike. It was funny, strange, disheartening and very discouraging indeed but when others who are not well-off in life come forward with their 10 rupee note, you realize to thank such beautiful Indians from the bottom of your heart. Deep down, such people do inspire me to be much stronger to inch towards my mission. Yes, I am all set now to proceed to Vidarbha villages to meet all the families who have lost their bread winner to understand what the real problem and reasons are there behind the continuous suicide of farmers. Also, I wish to tell them about my mission and how I am doing my bit with the invaluable support of all Indians to support them in near coming months.
There was another shopkeeper in Thane (market near station), who thought I was a foreigner even when I requested him in Hindi – ‘Bhartiya Kisaan ke peedit parivaron ke liye ek rupaiya sir (One rupee for Indian suicide farmers’families)’ He started conversing in English even when his friend & partner said that I speak Hindi. He also thought that I was a Christian and presumed that I eat beef… so he was telling me endlessly about all the gau hatya (cows slaughtering) in Gujarat and all the farmers are alcoholic and that is why they die or commit suicide without any remorse or human emotions. This thing went on and on for 30 long minutes and every time I tried to give reasons about the real picture of rural India… he was not ready to agree while his friends in the shops showed some concern as humans… when I finally tried to end the on going debate about my mission… he told me – “All your effort will go in waste as nothing can save these farmers. Why are you wasting your life? They will die because they drink and are lazy to work.” I was speechless and requested him to leave me so I could move forward to another shop… he finally took out a one rupee coin and dropped in the box… I thanked him for his invaluable contribution and wondered while he cares for my life, he is not at all bothered about our poor farmers who grow food for his family and the nation… he showed no feelings at all for 200,000 farmers who committed suicide and finally his friend told him to let me go…
These two incidents shook me in a very negative manner today as I just couldn’t concentrate to continue my walk… I felt completely drained out and my emotions were shattered to see how callous some of us can be…so I returned home after mere one hour session of raising funds… yes, I know I will be meeting more often few of these kind too, but then I vowed that I will have to be stronger than ever before and from Tuesday, I will have to forget the hot sun and high temperature of the summer to keep my march on and on… the journey to achieve my mission is very long but I know all the Indians and humans will make us to achieve the unexpected.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention the little darling (an 8-year-young girl), whose mom was kind enough to just read the caption and gave her a rupee to donate from her side while I was in a shop. She came up to me with the brightest smile and dropped the coin in the box and I just couldn’t help myself saying – “Thank you so much sweetie, God bless you!” Another good thing is that the day ended in a good manner when a young student named Jai read the caption on the T-shirt and approached me and asked about the initiative. He then told that after his studies, even he plans to do a lot for our poor farmers, much to my delight. He assured that he would follow the blog… at last the end always turns out to be better than the beginning. The funds raised was little but significant in many ways.
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